Specification of Moses Poole : administering the vapour of ether to the lungs for medical or surgical purposes.

  • Poole, Moses.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Moses Poole : administering the vapour of ether to the lungs for medical or surgical purposes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Poole s Method of producing Etherisation. Five parts of alcohol, of ninety per cent., are mixed with nine parts of oil of vitriol, in a vessel of copper or iron, placed in cold water so as to cool the mixture. By elevation of the temperature and brisk ebullition the oxide of ethule is formed, and passes over in vapour. The distilled liquid may be treated 5 with an alcoholic solution of potash, to neutralise the acids which it may contain, and to render it slightly alkaline. Commercial ethers may contain sulphurous acid gas, acetic, formic, and aldehydic acids, the three latter being produced by absorption of oxygen from the air. It should then be re-distilled in a water bath, and the operation is to be arrested so soon as the ether has 10 attained a specific gravity of 0*72 at eighty degrees of Fahrenheit. The specific gravity may be still further reduced by allowing it to stand for some days over dry chloride of calcium, and then redistilling it in contact with that hygrometric substance. Its boiling point is at ninety-six degrees Fahrenheit. It has a penetrating acromatic odour, and is highly inflammable. It should 15 not change the colour of blue litmus paper. The pure vapour of ether, as thus prepared, will not support respiration, and by excluding air from the lungs, would produce complete asphyxia. Therefore the vapour should be admi¬ nistered mixed with a sufficient quantity of common air, to enable the lungs to perform their usual functions but slightly disturbed by the ethereal vapour. 20 In cases when symptoms of asphyxia may occur from accidents of improper administration, or from impurities of the ether employed, pure oxygen gas may be administered, which, acting upon the blood, immediately renders it arterial. Children are more easily affected by the vapour of ether than adults, and females more easily than males. In some cases a state of complete 25 insensibility to pain is produced after inhalation for a few seconds; in other cases inhalation during several minutes is requisite. Few, if any, persons, will fail to be rendered insensible to pain after inhalation properly conducted for a period of five minutes. Should a longer time than this be required, there will be reason to suspect idiosyncracy of constitution or something wrong in the 30 mode of administration. The physiological phenomena, and their order of appearance, exhibited by patients during the process of etherisation, are not the same in all individuals, being doubtless modified in each case by the quality of ether employed, the proportion of atmospheric air mixed with it, the degree of perfection of apparatus used, and the length of time of inhalation, as well 35 as by the peculiar constitution of the patient. The state of etherisation which is considered most favorable for the performance of surgical operations may be recognized by insensibility of the skin to pain, quiescence or relaxation of the muscles of voluntary motion, the normal performance of the vital or involuntary functions, attested by deep and regular breathing and pulsation,