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.

    13/22 (page 7)
    A moie extensive and careful series of investigations than L have yct been able to institute, may perhaps, show that, in some consti- to see and under some circumstances: or degrees of intensity, the. contractility,. particularly i in, the earlier stages. of the labour... At the same timé,. various analogies: would lead us to.expect. that, as I have hitherto. found, the action-of the uterus would go on uninter- ruptedly,.. when the psychical. influence. of the, mind. and purely cerebral. functions. was. suspended, -as,in. the more complete states of etherization..,.At_all events, if we may judge from the.analogous. experiments of | Vollkmann, Bidder, and Kolliker, upon the, simple contractions. and. rhythmie ‘reflex actions.of the jheart,., intestines, &c., the motory aiervous. powers of | the,uterus belong: to the) gan- glionic and, to the! spinal systems, and,.are not in.any necessary dependence upon the brain, or mind.) Indeed, Ollivier and, Nasse have, published cases: of perfect paraplegia, notwithstanding. which the act, of parturition. in the human. female, proceeded. regularly in its course, and, without conscious: pain. . In the'one case (Olli- vier’s), the cord was compressed and destroyed from. the. first: to. the: fourth dorsal vertebra, bya collection; of, acephialo cysts ;! and, in the other instance (Nasse’s), complete paralysis had followed: a fracture: of the third and fourth-cervical vertebra.’ . Of, course such lesions necessarily prevented the brain exerting any influence upon the. uterus, or its contractions. Long ago, in discussing this subject, Haller adduced the antisiaan of Harvey, Smellie, Lamotte, &¢e., to prove that uterine contractions and labour may go.on with the mother, “ignara, stupida, et sopita, et immobili, et-apoplectica, et apileptica, et convulsionibus agitata,” et_ad summum. debili.”* Deneux mentions a fact still. more. in, point, because in it. the analogy..with, the operation of: .ether is still stronger, or indeed. identical... “A woman,” says. he,® “was brought to the Hotel Diew at Amiens in 4 comatose state, in con- sequence of her toking: spirituous Jighotee since the commencement aS Se Pe has described a. particular pee like some ‘of our aee forms, ne ae inhalation of sulphuric ether. See-also vol.:xvii. p. 134.—Vaporizable substances, when ‘introduced into the system in ‘this manner, probably pass undigested and unchanged into the circulation, and “seem (observes Wagner) to.make; their way into the blood through the unbroken vascular membrane [of the bronchial cells] with the same certainty and ease as when. they are injected directly into the veins’ ’ (Elements of Physiology, 1842, p. 443.) . Will this not explain both the rapidity. and intensity of their action when thus used ? ) ’ Traité dela Moelle Epiniere, p: 784. * Untersuchungen zur Physiologie, &c.— Dr Cheyne. reports a case of fatal hemorrhagic apoplexy and hemiplegia, in which, without any apparent. pains, “the uterus (observes Dr Kellie) appears, as an ‘involuntary ‘muscle, to have acted in the most perfect, manner.in expelling the foetus and secundines,” ‘the day before death. The child was born.alive... Cases of Apoplexy and Lethargy, p. 91 and.161. 2 “ During the continuance of puerperal convulsions, uterine action is.not suspended, although no signs.of pain are manifested by. the woman, if sheremain comatose.” Dr F. Ramsbotham’s. Obstetric Medicine (1844), p. 455. : 4. Elementa Physiologiz,.tom.. viii. p. 420.