Ether
Though ether is available as a liquid, it vaporizes very easi1y at room temperature; it can therefore be either swallowed or inhaled.
The effects are quicker when it is inhaled but are otherwise much the same. This drug is manufactured by distilling alcohol and sulphuric acid together–– a discovery said to date from the thirteenth century. "A dose of a little more than [a teaspoonful]," Encyclopaedia Britannica reported back in 1911, "will produce a condition of inebriation lasting from one half to one hour, but the dose must soon be greatly increased. The aftereffects are, if anything, rather pleasant, and the habit of ether-drinking is certainly not so injurious as alcoholism." * 9
* This comparison is quoted here as a common opinion in England at the time rather than as an established medical fact.
Ether was introduced into medicine under the trade name Anodyne by Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742). Hoffmann recommended his Anodyne for pains due to kidney stones, gallstones, intestinal cramps, earache, toothache, and painful menstruation. Ether labeled as Anodyne, Dr. Nagle notes, is "still available over the counter in some countries. Genteel ladies who would never think of touching sinful whiskey have been known to treat their ills with the drops." 10 A 1761 textbook on pharmacology recommended ether as "one of the most perfect tonics, friendly to the nerves, cordial, and anodyne," directing that three to twelve drops be taken on a lump of sugar, swallowed with water. 11
Ether was also used for recreational purposes at least as early as the 1790s, when James Graham (1745-1794), described by Dr. Nagle as "a famous London quack, proprietor of the Temple of Hymen and owner of the Celestial Bed," 12 was accustomed to inhale an ounce or two several times a day, in public, "with manifest placidity and enjoyment." 13 There are accounts of ether drinking and ether sniffing at universities in both England and the United States during the nineteenth century. But the major nineteenth-century outbreak occurred in Ireland, under circumstances that carry a lesson. Dr. Nagle reports: "About 1840 a Catholic priest, Father Matthew, led a great temperance crusade through England, Scotland, and Ireland. It was one of the most successful that ever occurred; thousands took the pledge." One of them was an alcoholic physician named Kelly who practiced in Draperstown, Northern Ireland. "Aghast at the pleasure he had given up, but not wishing to break his pledge, [Dr. Kelly] cast about for a substitute. He had prescribed ether by mouth on occasion and knew of its pleasant effects. After a few personal experiments he imparted the knowledge to his friends and patients who had also taken the pledge." 14 Ether sniffing became endemic in Draperstown.
Fifteen years later, when the British government placed a stiff tax on alcoholic beverages and when the constabulary clamped down on home distilled Irish whiskey, Kelly's discovery was recalled and exploited to the hilt. Ether, which was not subject to the tax, was distilled in London and shipped to
Draperstown and other places in Northern Ireland by the ton. Ether "was preferred in some ways, and especially among the poor, to the now-expensive whiskey. The drunk was quick and cheap, and could be achieved several times a day without hangover. If arrested for drunkenness, the offender would
be sober by the time the police station was reached." 15
A surgeon visiting Draperstown in 1878 remarked that the main street smelled like his surgery, where ether was used as an anesthetic. Old ether topers, he added, could finish off a three-ounce wineglassful at a single swig, without even water for a chaser. "Everyone who discussed this particular phenomenon," Dr. Nagle notes, "admitted that there appeared to be less chronic damage than with alcohol." But hazards were also noted: chronic gastritis, deaths from overdosage, and fatal burns from smoking while drinking–– for ether is extremely flammable.
"By 1890," Dr. Nagle continues, "the pressure of temperance societies, aided by an article by the editor of the British Medical Journal, 16 and loss of tax revenue, caused a Parliamentary committee to investigate. 17 Subsequently, regulations limiting the sale of this ether were imposed." As in the case of heroin prohibition, alcohol prohibition, marijuana prohibition, and other forms of prohibition, however, ether prohibition failed. In 1910, ether drinking was still prevalent in Draperstown. It died out in the 1920s, "replaced by [alcoholic] beverages that were cheaper and more easily available."
Ether turned up again in the United States during the alcohol Prohibition era (1920-1933), when nonalcoholic "near beer" and other "soft" drinks were frequently "spiked" with ether as well as with alcohol; and ether was drunk in Germany during World War II, when alcoholic beverages were rationed, expensive, and of poor quality. 18
Ether inhalation has a similarly long and fascinating history. It was inhaled at Harvard by students during the nineteenth century, for example–– and by at least one professor, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes of the Harvard Medical School.* No doubt this college use was one of the factors that led William T. G. Morton, a dentist studying medicine at the Harvard Medical School, to ask permission to use ether as an anesthetic at the Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846 20 one of the several occasions sometimes cited as the birth of modern inhalational anesthesia.
* Dr. Holmes inhaled ether at a time when it was popularly supposed to produce mystical or "mind-expanding" experiences, much as LSD is supposed to produce such experiences today. Here is his account of what happened: "I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me an archangel for a moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words bad lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As my natural condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my desk, I wrote, in ill-shaped, straggling characters, the all-embracing truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children may smile; the wise will ponder): A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout.' " 19
Thereafter, Dr. Nagle adds, ether continued in recreational use in many countries, and was sniffed as well as drunk. "For example, ether inhalation as a substitute for ingestion of alcohol was felt to be widespread among the upper classes in England during the late 19th century. 21 Yvonne, mistress of Guy de Maupassant and a ballet dancer, said that she and her fellow dancers, and even the director of the corps de ballet, took ether for a pick-me-up when they were dancing." 22 France, Russia, Norway, and Michigan were also reputed to have ether users; and there were reports of the simultaneous sniffing and swallowing of ether.
Is ether sniffed and drunk in the United States today? Though reports are few, it seems highly likely. Ether sniffing by a child was reported in Salt Lake City in 1962. 23 Dr. Nagle states that "there are anesthetists in this country who have become addicted to anesthetic agents. Anecdotal accounts are not uncommon in professional circles. All the major agents, including ether, nitrous oxide, cyclopropane, ethyl chloride, ethylene, thiopental and balotbane
have been indicted." 24
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