Report of a committee of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, on the alleged dangers which accompany the inhalation of the vapor of sulphuric ether.

  • Boston Society for Medical Improvement (Mass.)
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a committee of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, on the alleged dangers which accompany the inhalation of the vapor of sulphuric ether. 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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    the suspension of etherization will transform this into the relaxa- tion of anaisthesia. Persons of intemperate habits succumb to ether slowly, and with greater reluctance and more opposition than persons unused to intoxication. The pulse should be watched by a competent person from the outset, and its failure, either in strength or frequency, lead to a more cautious use of the ether. It must, however, be remembered, that in experiments with anesthetics upon animals, the heart has been found to be the ultimum moriens ;* the respiratory movements, there- fore, should not be forgotten or neglected, but any slowness or irregularity in their performance should at once receive attention. Dr. H. J. Bigelow has drawn attention to the distinction be- tween the effects of anesthesia upon the pulse of the healthy sub- ject suddenly reduced by accident, and a similar or even stronger pulse in a person exhausted by long and grave disease. In the former case the vitality is unimpaired, and the pulse, even when hardly perceptible, rises with anaesthesia. Ether, therefore, is not to be withheld from a patient to be operated on, even in a state of collapse after severe accident, but great caution is demanded in its use with patients who are near death from chronic and ex- hausting disease, and who require operations.! The best test of complete etherization is the snoring of the pa- tient; and no operation, unless slight, should be undertaken until this symptom presents itself. The relaxation of the muscles of the extremities may occur without insensibility. The important distinction between snoring and stertor is, however, to be borne in mind. Whilst the former is caused only by the relaxation of the muscles of the palate, the latter arises from spasm of the vocal cords and partial closure of the rima glottidis, and thus becomes the immediate forerunner of the train of symptoms already refer- red to as indicative of partial asphyxia. Stertorous respiration demands, therefore, a brief suspension of inhalation; one or two inspirations of fresh air will, as already mentioned, almost instant- ly dispel the symptom. Ether may be administered to persons of all ages, from the nev- orn infant to the octogenarian. There is, however, a condi- tion prone to manifest itself with children, especially those who 1 Perrin ct Duroy, Paris, I860, p. 333.