Volume 3

Notes on the inhalation of sulphuric ether in the practice of midwifery / by J.Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the inhalation of sulphuric ether in the practice of midwifery / by J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/22 (page 5)
    into the Royal Maternity Hospital, in strong labour, early on the morning of the 3d February. It was‘her'second confinement. At her first accouchement (seven years before), she had beeit délivered by instruments, in Ireland, and had‘been informed by the attendant practitioner, that artificial delivery would be similarly required ‘at her future labours. T saw her’ between ten and eleven o’clock’ a.m. The os uteri was well dilated; the membranes ruptured, and the pains extremely ‘strong ‘and frequent 3 ‘but the large head’of the child seeméd not to enter fully’ into thé’ brim) and was little affected’ by the ‘powerful uterine contractions under’ which the patient was suffering. By three o’clock her pulse ‘had risen'to above 125 béats'a minuté, and it appeared tothe medical officers present, ‘that’ it would ‘be improper to allow the: ‘ineffectiial and exhausting eftorts of the patient to be! longer continued. She was then,’ at my re- quest; brought under the influence ofether.- Dr Moir, with ‘vreat shall, applied the long forceps upon the head ‘of the chiles’ He sub- sequently was obliged to use strong traction during the pains that followed, and becoming temporarily. fatigued” w ith’ his effort ts, “I supplied ‘his place. After ‘the head fully ‘passed ‘the brim, the . forceps were laid aside, and one or two uterine contractions finished the delivery. ‘The child was large and ‘strong, and cried vigorously soon after it was expelled. During the whole of this severe opera- tion the patient appeared quiet and passive. The cries of her _ child speedily roused her from her etherized state, and she subse- 4juently assured Dr Moir that she had felt comparatively little or no pain during the whole operation and delivery. On the evening of the 12th February, I saw another forceps case with my friend, Dr Graham Weir. The patient was advanced in life, and it was her first ‘confinement. The waters had escaped early, and the anterior lip of the uterus had’sutsequently become forced down’ in ‘a very swelled and cedematous state before the head of the infant. After this obstruction was overcome, the child’s head speedily descended upon the floor of the pelvis; “but it was there impeded im its further progress by the narrow transverse diameter of the outlet. Under the compression of the converging tuberosities of the ischia, the bones of the fetal ‘cranium soon began to overlap; but at last, no further progress bemge made, the- patient becoming éxhausted by a continuous labour of about twenty- four hours, and “the soft parts being evidently well relaxed and prepared, Dr Weir applied the short ‘forceps, and extracted a living infant. lor a-considerable time before this operation. was adopted, T exhibited the vapour of ether to the patient; under it she speedily became quite narcotized. Its action was kept up, and the pains nature would: yet be sufficient ; but ultimately, instrumental de- ° livery, was, as I have already stated, liad recourse to. ‘The mother did not fully recover from her state of etheri ization for tenor fifteen minutes after delivery, and then stated that she was quite unaware