On the inhalation of chloroform and ether ... [Read at the Westminister Med. Soc. Jan. 8, 1848] / By John Snow.

  • Snow, John, 1813-1858.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the inhalation of chloroform and ether ... [Read at the Westminister Med. Soc. Jan. 8, 1848] / By John Snow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    patient. The bibulous paper which absorbs and gives out the chloroform, only extends half-way up the cylinder, so that there is little or no loss by spontaneous evaporation, the air saturated with vapour being rather heavier than the air above. I consider that, on the whole, chloroform is superior to ether for adults, and that we are greatly indebted to Dr. Simp- son for the introduction of its use. For children I prefer ether to chloroform, when the choice is left to me, on account of the greater rapidity of action of these vapours on them, as I stated to the Society a month ago, although I have ad- ministered chloroform several times to young children—one of them aged only ten months—and with perfect ease, safety, and success. I consider the less powerful agent of the two, | however, sufficiently strong for very young patients, and this chloroform inhaler serves very well with the small face-piece for exhibiting it to them. Children are brought under the influence of ether, suffi- ciently for an operation, in two minutes, and I think it im- possible for the imagination to conceive any anesthetic agent more mild and efficient than ether is in its effects on children —a, less degree of narcotism than in the adult producing an immunity from pain, and the liability to excitement being absent. The ether, however, requires to be given to them with an apparatus, by which the vapour can be introduced into the air they are breathing, in the most gradual way; otherwise the pungency of the vapour, when suddenly admitted, makes them hold their breath, which is the case with chloroform also when given to children on a sponge or handkerchief. If it be desirable, as I believe it to be, that we should have an agent which can be safely and generally administered in this way to children, to women in natural labour, and for tooth-drawing, and minor operations, by persons of no special experience in the matter, it should be something muca less powerful than chloroform, and less pungent than either of these vapours. On account of its being in rapidity of action between chloroform and ether, I requested permission to give benzin