I have already stated my belief that the Indian hemp administered, previous to surgical operations, in China, by Hoa-tho, in the beginning of the third century of our era, was exhibited by inhalation. The fumes of various narcotic plants are inhaled by eastern nations at present, for smoking in the east is an entirely different process from smoking in the west of Europe, where the fumes of tobacco are merely drawn into the mouth and then puffed out again. In Asia and some of the eastern parts of Europe, the fumes of opium, tobacco, datura, Indian hemp, or whatever else is smoked, are always inhaled into the lungs. John Baptista Porta of Naples makes the following statement in his work on Natural Magic,[24] published in 1597:— “At last shall be related a wonderful method by which any sleeping person may inhale a soporific medicine. From what we have said, any one will easily know that he is liable to suffer severely after sleep caused by medicine, and to have his suspicions aroused. “But the quintessence is extracted from a number of the above named medicines by somniferous menstrua. This is put into leaden vessels perfectly closed, lest the least aura should escape, for the medicine would vanish away. When it is used, the cover being removed, it is applied to the nostrils of the sleeping person, he draws in the most subtile power of the vapour by smellings, and so blocks up the fortress of the senses that he is plunged into the most profound sleep, and cannot be roused without the greatest effort. After the sleep, no heaviness of the head remains, nor any suspicion of trick or fraud. These things are plain to the skilful physician, but unintelligible to the wicked.” The author does not make known what the “somniferis menstruis” were, with which the “quinta essentia” were extracted. As sulphuric ether had been described more than fifty years before he published his work, it is not improbable that this was the evanescent substance which required to be so carefully closed up, and that the profound sleep was simply caused by this, as the narcotic principles dissolved in it would remain in the bottle in the form of extracts. The benefit of inhalation has been frequently attributed to medicines which were supposed to be inhaled, when it was really due to the menstruum in which the medicines were dissolved. This often happens at present when the menstruum is merely water. Baptista Porta does not say that operations were performed under the influence of the inhalation, or, in fact, that it was applied to any useful purpose whatever.