Anæsthetics must be reckoned among the drugs that have been studied on animals: but, for the discovery of them, men experimented on themselves. The first use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in surgery was 11th December 1844, when Horace Wells, of Connecticut, had it administered to himself for the removal of a tooth. The first use of ether was made by Dr. Long, of Athens, Georgia; but he did not publish the case, or follow up the work: and the honour of the discovery of ether went to Morton, of Boston, who made repeated experiments, both on animals and on himself. The date when he first rendered himself absolutely unconscious for seven or eight minutes, is 30th September 1846; and the first operation under ether was done on 16th October, in the Massachusetts General Hospital. The first use of chloroform was 4th November 1847, that famous evening when Simpson, George Keith, and Matthews Duncan took it together. The whole history of anæsthesia is to be found in the _Practitioner_, Oct. 1896. It is sometimes said that the men who make experiments on animals ought to make them on themselves. But they do, hundreds of them, and suffer for it: Heaven knows the list is long enough--the discoverers of anæsthesia, Hunter, Garré, Koch, Klein, Moor, Haffkine, Grassi, Bochefontaine, Quesada, Sanarelli, Pettenkofer--these and hosts more, here or abroad, have done it, as part of the day's work; and some--by accidental infection, like Chabry and Villa, or by deliberate self-inoculation, like Carrion--have been killed:--