The effects of chloroform on the brain should not be carried during labour beyond what I denominate the second degree of narcotism, or that condition in which the mental functions are diminished, but not altogether suspended, except when the effect of the vapour is associated with natural sleep. The patient under the influence of chloroform to this extent, has no longer a correct consciousness of where she is, and what is occurring around her, but is capable of being aroused to give incoherent answers, if injudiciously questioned. In this state, the patient will sometimes assist the labour by bearing down voluntarily, if requested to do so, and be otherwise obedient to what is said; and by withholding the chloroform for a few minutes, she at any time becomes quite conscious. As a general rule, it is desirable not to hold any conversation whilst the patient is taking chloroform, in order that her mind may not be excited. The plan mentioned above, of giving the chloroform very gently at first, also has a tendency to prevent its causing mental excitement, the patient coming gradually under its effects. In surgical operations, excitement of the mind can nearly always be avoided by carrying the patient pretty rapidly into a state of insensibility, in which the mental functions are necessarily suspended. But in the practice of midwifery, it is not allowable to cause a state of coma or insensibility, except in certain cases of operative delivery, hereafter to be mentioned. I nearly always employ, in obstetric cases, the inhaler that I use in surgical operations. There is not the same necessity for an accurate means of regulating the proportion of vapour in the air which the patient is breathing during labour, where but a trifling amount of narcotism requires to be induced, as in surgical operations, where a deeper effect is necessary; still I find the inhaler much more convenient of application than a handkerchief, and it contains a supply of chloroform which lasts for some time, thereby saving the trouble of constantly pouring out more. When I do administer chloroform on a handkerchief during parturition, I follow the plan of putting only ten or fifteen minims of chloroform on the handkerchief at one time.