Chloroform : how shall we ensure safety in its administration? / by Patrick Black, M.D.

  • Black, Patrick, 1813-1879.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chloroform : how shall we ensure safety in its administration? / by Patrick Black, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ON CHLOROFORM. The constant use of Chloroform in medical and surgical practice, renders it of the greatest importance, not only that the theory of its successful action should be rightly understood, but also that we should have not less distinct ideas concerning the true nature of the danger which is incidental to its administration. Without this latter knowledge,—which, it must be ob- served, is quite distinct from the former, and does not necessarily flow from it,—we shall be constantly exposed to the recurrence of those appalling accidents which have caused many, and not without some reason, to regard chloroform as a very questionable boon, which would lead others to reject it altogether, and have inspired all with the gravest anxiety lest that fatal casualty which has occurred in the hands of others of undoubted competence and ability, may at some time become unexpectedly chargeable to themselves. On the present occasion it is not my intention to enter on the consideration of the theory of Anaesthesia,—a branch of the subject on which my views are quite in accordance with those which have been ably expounded by Dr. Snov^^ and others, and are generally adopted by the profession j but to confine my remarks to the question of the exact source of danger in the administration of chloroform,—to the