Another class of experiments is carried on by surgeons to develop
dexterity before they attempt operations on man. Such experiments are
usually carried out on dogs. The animals are invariably under complete
anesthesia and usually they are killed by added ether at the end of the
experiment.
[Illustration: _Does this dog look unhappy? Ten years ago Buster had an
operation performed on the stomach; the results have been of aid in the
study of digestion. Buster has not suffered thereby, and she has saved
much suffering to others. She is receiving a visit from the author._]
Recently I attended the clinic of a throat specialist in the east.
I saw child after child wheeled into the amphitheatre and relieved,
usually in a few moments, of foreign bodies that they had sucked into
the windpipe and that a few years ago would in many cases have caused
death, either directly or as the result of a dangerous operation.
So dextrous is this man that his little patients do not need any
anesthetic. After his work was done I had a talk with him, and he told
me that the technic of these operations had been worked out with great
care on dogs that were always under an anesthetic. He also told me that
by the use of two dogs he had trained fifty other men to do similar
work.
[Illustration: _This is Whitey, about eight months after the complete
removal of the parathyroid glands. These glands are quite often partly
and accidentally removed during operations on the thyroid gland in
man, with alarming and sometimes fatal results. Following complete
removal of the parathyroid glands, carnivorous animals, including man,
die within from four to six days. As a result of experimental work on
this dog and other animals, three effective curative measures have
been developed, which indefinitely preserve the life of such animals
in normal health. Two persons are known to have been saved and several
others have been rendered free from symptoms as a result of this
study._]