Anaesthesia, hospitalism, hermaphroditism, and a proposal to stamp out small-pox and other contagious diseases / Ed. by Sir W.G. Simpson, bart.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaesthesia, hospitalism, hermaphroditism, and a proposal to stamp out small-pox and other contagious diseases / Ed. by Sir W.G. Simpson, bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    repose and of consistent action. On the day when the inflammation was most troublesome I breathed three large doses of nitrous oxide. The pain always diminished after the first four or five inspirations, the thrilling came on as usual, and uneasiness was for a few minutes swallowed up in pleasure. As the former state of mind, however, returned, the state of organ returned with it; and I once imagined that the pain was more severe after the experiment than before.' Sir H. Davy recommended its employment in surgery in the following words:— As nitrous oxide in its extensive operation appears capable of destroying physical pain, it may probably be used with advantage during surgical operations in which no great effusion of blood takes place.2 Dr. Hickman also, in 1828, suggested the inhalation of carbonic acid, as a means of producing insensibility in surgical operations. There were other agents used for this purpose in more ancient times, which, although they produced their effects by inhalation of their vapours, I may describe more conveniently under the third of these divisions. 2. Anastlicsia by mechanical means.—In 1784 Dr. Moore proposed to bring about local anaesthesia of limbs during surgical operations, by compressing the nerves supplying them. He tried this method in a case in Dr. Hunter's practice, applying a tourniquet for an hour before the operation, to compress the nerves, with, however, only partial success. Malgaigne also tried the tourniquet, but with no better result, for he found that the instruments used for the com- pression of the nerves themselves produced considerable pain. This mode had been suggested, I may observe, by Ambrose Pare long before Moore's time. It was supposed at one time that compression of the carotid arteries, and consequent diminution of the supply of blood to the brain, would be successful in producing anaesthesia; and this plan was even put into practice by Valverdi, Hoffman, and others, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Morgagni mentions that this practice was followed in the dissecting-room on animals to induce anaesthesia, and he also suggests its use in the human subject. There is not the least doubt that it will induce stupor or coma, and that, moreover, with extreme rapidity. This is too frequently proved in cases of garrotting, of which an instance is on record where stupor was successfully produced, and robbery committed, between the time of the victim ringing his door-bell and the servant answering the summons. This method was again lately 1 Chemical and Philosophical Experiments, p. 464. 2 Idem, p. 566.