Anaesthesia for Reptiles

Abstract

THIS paper describes the administration of anaesthetics to certain Australian snakes and lizards. Since the literature is almost silent upon the subject, the writers are led to report their limited experience, both for the information of others and as an amusing byway of anaesthesia. The National Museum of Victoria is assembling a representative display of casts in latex of Australian reptiles. These casts must be prepared from living specimens, because those prepared from dead ones are not satisfactory. Further, if the reptiles die, the artist who colors the casts cannot reproduce the normally iridescent hues of life. The Museum's original technique was to place in the reptile's box a swab heavily charged with ether. In about an hour, when the creature had become inert, it was removed and eveloped in plaster-of-Paris. Venomous snakes survived this process more often than not; non-venomous snakes and lizards succumbed without exception. Many choice specimens were thus lost and, with them, the opportunity of coloring their casts from life. The Museum therefore decided to enlist the aid of an anaesthetist. The latter consulted the Departments of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University and searched the literature of anaesthetics for the past decade; he found, however, scarcely any practical data. Experimentation had therefore to be carried out from the beginning. This paper gives its results.