A practical guide to the administration of anaesthetics / by R.J. Probyn-Williams.

  • Probyn-Williams, R. J.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical guide to the administration of anaesthetics / by R.J. Probyn-Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    are made of hard wood, and some are made of wood with pads of india-rubber at their extremities. No prop should ever be placed in a patient's mouth without being attached to another by a piece of strong catgut. Children and very nervous patients are liable to displace the prop with their tongue, and if it is unattached it may be partially swallowed, and give rise to some difficulty of breathing, or an inclination to vomit. A small prop of hard wood (Fig. \ob) or vulcanite, of a much smaller size than those mentioned above, is very useful in those cases of alveolar abscess, etc., where the patient can- not open the mouth sufficiently wide for the insertion of one Fig. II.—Oral Spoon for Catching Fragments of Teeth. of the other props; and a wooden or vulcanite prop of a size even larger than the largest of the set of five mentioned above is occasionally very useful for persons who are almost eden- tulous. In order to catch teeth, or portions of teeth, that fly back from the forceps, and are thus likely to enter the larynx, a wire spoon has been invented, as shown in Figure ii. This is held by the administrator behind the part of the mouth in which the dentist is operating, care being taken that it does not interfere with the operation. Experience teaches us that the bicuspids are the teeth most likely to give trouble in this way. The above apparatus places the anaesthetist in a position to administer gas to any patient, and to treat any accident that may happen during the course of the anaesthesia.