The misapplication of anaesthesia in childbirth, exemplified by facts / by G.T. Gream.

  • Gream, G. T. (George Thompson), 1812?-1888.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The misapplication of anaesthesia in childbirth, exemplified by facts / by G.T. Gream. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    crash. On awaking Dr.Simpson's first perception was mental. 'This is far stronger and better than ether,' said he to himself. His second was, to note that he was prostrate on the floor, and that among the friends about him there was both confusion and alarm. Hearing a noise, he turned round and saw Dr. Duncan beneath a chair, his jaw dropped, his eyes starting, his head bent half under him, quite unconscious, and snoring in a most determined and alarming manner. More noise still, and much motion, and then his eyes overtook Dr. Keith's feet and legs, making valorous efforts to overturn the supper-table, or more probably to annihilate everything that was on it; I say more probably, for frequent repetitions of inhalation have confirmed, in the case of my esteemed friend, the character for maniacal and unrestrained destructiveness always under chloroform in the transition stage. By-and-bye Dr. Simpson having regained his seat. Dr. Duncan having finished his uncomfortable and unrefreshing slumber, and Dr. Keith having come to an arrangement with the table and its contents, the sederunt was resumed, &c. Let me ask, could drunkenness from spirituous liquors be more complete ? As to the dreams that occur in the second degree of inhalation, I may mention that in a former pamphlet, after having stated that there was evidence of sexual excitement in some of those ■who had been etherized, I wrote thus:—The facts here alluded to, I do not think it right to relate in detail. It is sufficient to say, that they are unfit for publication in a pamphlet that may fall into the hands of persons not belonging to the medical pro- fession. 1 will assure those readers that they would create dis- gust unequalled by any other occurrence in life; and that the bare thought of their relatives or themselves (if females) having been subjected to such revolting influences, would make them afterwards almost shrink from the observations of the world. To this an anonymous reply was made in the Edinburgh Monthly Journal, that no such thing as these dreams had ever occurred, except in women who had just previously been indulg- ing in indecent conversation ; showing certainly that the author of this calumny upon the women of England held no great esti- mation of their virtues, at the same time that it evidenced a feeling at variance, I venture to assert, with that entertained by any one who has had the opportunity of becoming cognizant of their habits, and of knowing that The very ice of chastity is in them. But, in the same reply, these dreams were attributed to other