The dangers of chloroform and the safety and efficiency of ether, as an agent in securing the aviodance of pain in surgical operations : with a description of an ether inhaler and the mode of administration / by J. Morgan.

  • Morgan John, 1820-1891.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dangers of chloroform and the safety and efficiency of ether, as an agent in securing the aviodance of pain in surgical operations : with a description of an ether inhaler and the mode of administration / by J. Morgan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    In view of these facts the question arises, Will Chloro- form maintain its present popularity as an anaesthetic in surgery ? We do not believe it will; unless some method, other than we have at present, is devised to lessen the risk dependent on its use ; we cannot hut think its popularity must decline. In the face of such figures as adduced, Chloroform cannot, and ouglil not to, supersede Ether. The inconveniences attending the use of Ether are more than compensated for in the risks from Chloroform (a). Nothing can put the question in a plainer light. One death from Eiher in 23,204 cases, reduces the risk to a nominal amount. It is to be recollected that in Etherization there is not the constant and harassing danger ever present; the surgeon is freed from the anxiety that more or less accompanies him into the operating chamber, and his attention can be altogether devoted to the operative pro- cedure in which he is immediately engaged, not, as is too frequently the case, distracted by inquiries as to the con- dition of the patient, and the influence which the chloro- form is exciting. Fiiends who are intensely interested, are relieved from an additional cause of anxiety which the occasional notice of Death by Chloroform may have impressed them with, while equal, if not greater, | security of the avoidance of pain is secured, with Eight j times less danger. Facts such as these cannot fail to j become perfectly startling, and deeply to impress a patient about precipitating himself into the mysterious sleep of insensibility. With such convincing statistics from the mother coun- ry of anesthetics, where Ether is used, and from Great 1 (a) Hay's A7nerican Journal, April, 1872, p. 488.