Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/19

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Popular Science Monthly

Vol. 90 No. 1

239 Fourth Avenue, New York City

January, 1917

$1.50 Annually

Don't Shoot the Dog — Help Him as if He Were Human

IF some cats and dogs were not dumb they would undoubtedly get up a testimonial to Dr. George W. Little to express their gratitude to him for introducing a substitute for ether-a substitute which enables them to withstand operations that are particularly hazardous when performed under ether.

Although because of lack of imagination animals do not suffer mentally as do humans when facing an operation, it is impossible to perform a serious operation with the aid of a local anesthetic. Dr. Little, therefore, set about to find some anesthetic which would render the operation painless to the animal, would not affect its heart action and would not cause it to suffer from shock. He has succeeded by adapting to his uses the gas anesthetic used by dental surgeons.

The machine which Dr. Little employs in his work in the Animal Hospital in New York city, conducted by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, consists of two cylinders, one containing nitrous oxide and the other oxygen. The cylinders are connected with two bags by tubes. One bag is filled with the gas, the other with the oxygen. The outlet of each bag passes into one tube connected with the mouthpiece that is attached to the patient's nose. The proportions of the gas employed may be regulated by means of valves.

The dog or cat in need of an operation is placed on the operating table and the mouthpiece adjusted over its nose. The nitrous oxide gas is turned on. In a short time the animal loses consciousness. It is then given a little oxygen to sustain its heart action. With use of oxygen which the surgeon administers at his discretion, the patient may remain under the anesthetic for hours.

During the operation the animal feels no pain whatever. When it comes out of the unconscious state it is able to walk to its ward in the hospital and apparently feels no ill effects at all. The new anesthetic has been particularly successful when given to old dogs which suffer from tumors. With the use of ether for such a serious operation an aged dog has very little chance for recovery.

A child's toy automobile, a part of an old wash-boiler and a small motor are the component parts of this little machine

Converting a Discarded Toy into a Real Automobile

THAT all the ingenuity in the automobile line is not confined to the workers in the big factories, where the various makes of big cars are produced, is evidenced by this picture. This boy, down in Texas, where the prevailing ambition is to own a farm so it can be mortgaged for an automobile, had the auto-bug himself. The farm and mortgage seemed too remote for his earnest longing, so he made his own car. Taking an old, battered toy automobile that some child of wealth had discarded, he attached thereto the little motor from a bicycle. The hood he improvised from part of an old wash-boiler. The steering apparatus he made himself. When the machine was complete it made the trip to town, a distance of several miles in fairly good time for its sie. It is still giving service.