The administration of nitrous oxide and oxygen for dental operations / by Frederick W. Hewitt.

  • Hewitt, Frederic W. (Frederic William), Sir, 1857-1916.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The administration of nitrous oxide and oxygen for dental operations / by Frederick W. Hewitt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    thesia may be induced than if the face-piece be removed during the inaudible breathing. Taken as a class, women are better subjects than men. They are more tolerant of con- siderable proportions of oxygen, they are more susceptible to the mixture, and, by reason of their being less muscular, they are less prone to inconvenient rigidity and movement. Middle- aged women are almost invariably good sub- jects. I have, for example, notes of several cases in which 60-90 seconds' anaesthesia resulted after an ordinary inhalation of the mixed gases. Old persons of both sexes are always very favourably affected by the mixture. I have anaesthetised, by its means, several patients over 80 years of age. One of these, a gentle- man of 88, had an intermittent heart: the administration was conducted until the con- junctiva became insensitive, and an excellent anaesthesia was obtained. The absence of that temporary respiratory embarrassment which is so often induced by nitrous oxide free from oxygen, and which, in the case of elderly persons with rigid chests, cannot be regarded as free from risks, is a very distinct gain. General Condition.—The better the patient's state of health the more aneesthetic will he require, and vice versa. The proportions of