If complete anesthesia is needed for more than a few moments, after the child is born, ether usually replaces the chloroform, being considered more satisfactory for prolonged anesthesia, but many obstetricians prefer not to give it until after delivery because of its possible effect upon the child. [Illustration: FIG. 104.—Giving ether for obstetrical anæsthesia. Ether is poured into cone which is covered with nurse’s hand to prevent evaporation. When the beginning of a contraction is felt by hand on abdomen, the cone is placed about an inch from the patient’s face. (From photograph taken at the Maternity Hospital, Cleveland.) ] As chloroform poisoning is likely to produce degenerative changes in the liver, and eclampsia also causes a liver necrosis, chloroform is not used for an eclamptic patient. [Illustration: FIG. 105.—As pain increases and patient becomes accustomed to ether, the cone is lowered and held close to her face until pain subsides. Sufficient ether to control the next pain is then poured into cone. (From photograph taken at the Maternity Hospital, Cleveland.) ] =Ether=, also, is used widely in normal obstetrics and is almost always preferred for continuous anesthesia, because of its being safer than chloroform. Unlike chloroform, ether is sometimes given in the first stage after the pains have become severe and frequent. About a dram of ether is poured into the cone which is held just off the patient’s face (Fig. 104.) until the beginning of a contraction, at which time it is lowered and held close to her face (Fig. 105.) As the action of ether is slower than chloroform, it should be poured into the cone in advance of a pain, which the nurse anticipates by feeling the uterus begin to grow hard under the hand which she keeps upon the patient’s abdomen. If the ether is not poured into the cone until a pain begins, its anesthetic effect may be lost because of the delay in its administration. At the Cleveland Maternity Hospital, where ether is used during normal labor, the nurses are taught to give it as has just been described, with further instructions from Miss MacDonald, as follows: “A patient will vaporize about one dram of ether per pain during the early first stage, gradually vaporizing a greater amount until she will vaporize two or three drams per pain near the end of the second stage. Should the patient reach the excitement stage of ether before she is in the second stage of labor, discontinue the ether for from five to fifteen minutes, then give a lessened amount.