Objections to the indiscriminate administraiton of anaesthetic agents in midwifery / [W.F. Montgomery].

  • Montgomery, W. F. (William Fetherston Haugh), 1797?-1859.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Objections to the indiscriminate administraiton of anaesthetic agents in midwifery / [W.F. Montgomery]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    medical man who declined to do what he did not believe to be right, or to promise what might not be for his patient’s good. And here let me suggest to the junior members of the pro¬ fession, that they will generally find it thus through life. The man who steadily refuses to act against the dictates of his de¬ liberate judgment and conscience, may-—nay, certainly will often incur present inconvenience, annoyance, and pecuniary loss; but, in the end, he will be richly the gainer, in the peace of mind and satisfaction arising from the consciousness of having acted honestly; and amongst his fellow-men he will have higher reputation and an honourable reward. A true philosopher has said: “ Others may be impatient, but we must possess our¬ selves, and act upon principle. The event will justify our con¬ duct ; and, though there may be temporary dislike and blame, if we do what is right, there will be permanent favour and re- putation”(a). The most extraordinary and varied efficacy has been attri¬ buted to this remedy, and effects the most totally opposite ascribed to its use. By one writer we are told that, if uterine action is exces¬ sive, chloroform will abate it; by another, that if feeble it will strengthen it, and add new vigour to each parturient effort. By one it is asserted, that it relaxes the tonicity of the ute¬ rine tissue, and thus renders the introduction of the hand more easy; and by another that it tends to control uterine haemor¬ rhage. By several it is stated, that it relaxes in a remarkable de¬ gree the perinseum and external parts, and so diminishes the chance of their being torn; while a writer in its favour,—as quoted by Dr. Simpson,—tells us that this supposed effect of it appears to him “ at least uncertain and accidental,” and that, out of twenty-five cases in which he used it, he had two in¬ stances of rupture of the perinaeum ; and another writer in the (a) Denman.