Ammonia is inferior as a stimulant to wine and brandy, which are more palatable and preferable, while as an antispasmodic it is very inferior to ether. But it is useful where the respiration flags and the breathing is obstructed by secretion accumulating in the bronchial tubes, and the complexion is becoming dusky and livid. Five grains of the carbonate dissolved in camphor water is a good mode of administering it. Small doses of oil of turpentine are sometimes more effectual than ammonia. A drachm of the confection of turpentine rubbed up in peppermint water, is perhaps the best form of giving it. * * * * * Next in value to opium in its power of alleviating the sufferings of the dying is ether. It is specially indicated in gasping or spasmodic difficulty of breathing, whether dependent on the lungs or heart; and in flatulent distention of the stomach, attended with unavailing efforts at eructation. These two conditions are often conjoined in the dying, and then the indication for ether is the strongest. According to my experience ether is most efficient when given in combination with a few drops of sulphuric acid, as in the acid infusion of roses, or better with mint water and sugar, as in the so-called “ether punch.”[63] Opium or laudanum in somewhat smaller doses than those recommended above, is often added, with great advantage to ether, when there is need of a potent antispasmodic. In the paroxysms of severe præcordial anguish and dyspnœa that characterize many deaths from organic disease of the heart and great vessels of the chest, relief must be sought in ether and opium, or from the inhalation of the nitrite of amyl. * * * * *