The question considered : is it justifiable to administer chloroform in surgical operations, after its having already proved suddenly fatal in upwards of fifty cases, when pain can be safely prevented, without loss of consciousness, by momentary benumbing cold? / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James (James Moncrieff), 1794-1885.
Date:
1854
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The question considered : is it justifiable to administer chloroform in surgical operations, after its having already proved suddenly fatal in upwards of fifty cases, when pain can be safely prevented, without loss of consciousness, by momentary benumbing cold? / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    surgery is, that, though often fatal, and often productive of minor bad consequences, the good it confers in giving immunity from pain, outweighs the evil; so that, upon the whole, though the discovery of etherization may not be so brilliant as was once imagined, it is, nevertheless, a gain to humanity. Even were there no other safe means of attaining the same object, this conclusion might well be contested ; but as there is another mode of preventing pain in operations, not only of perfect safety, but attended with advantages as respects the healing of the wound caused by the surgeon, which chloroform has no pretensions to, there ought not, with regard, at least, to the great majority of surgical operations, to be any hesitation on the point. After a bridge has been constructed, there can no longer be any doubt whether it is better to attempt a dangerous ford, or make a wearisome, circuitous journey. It is the purpose of this tract, after briefly stating the dangers attendant on etherization, to describe the substitute for it just adverted to; and the following narrative will serve as an introduction to the subject. On the 10th of October, 1849, John Shorter was operated ■upon in St. Thomas' Hospital for the removal of the nail of the great toe, which had grown into the flesh and caused much irritation. He was 48 years of age, and is described in the report of the case, as being apparently in perfect health. The opera¬ tion of extracting a toe-nail being a very painful one, he was made to inhale the vapour of chloroform until insensibility was produced. Immediately after the operation the danger of the patient vas perceived. “ After struggling for about a minute he became still, the skin cold, pulse scarcely perceptible, and soon ceased to be felt at the wrist, respiration became slow, and at intervals, but continued a few minutes after the cessation of the pulse.” No post mortem examination of the body was permitted. This is not the only case of the extraction of the toe-nail