On benumbing cold, as a preventive of pain and inflammation from surgical operations : with minute directions for its use / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James Moncrieff, 1794-1885.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On benumbing cold, as a preventive of pain and inflammation from surgical operations : with minute directions for its use / by James Arnott. 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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    healing of the wound. In the first excision which I performed under congelation—that of an encysted tumour from -the scalp, this advantage of congelation was rendered prominent by the union between the cut surfaces having taken place within twenty-four hours ; and I have elsewhere related the very speedy adhesion that took place between a piece of skin which had been entirely separated and a denuded surface. The first report of the use of benumbing cold in the Ho- pital la Charite, in Paris, by MM. Berand and Foucher (Union Medicate, No. XLIL, 1850,) mentions its employment in the opening of a large abscess, “ without the patient being sensible of pain.” M. Richet has, in the Bulletin de Thera- peutique, of the 15th of May, related fifteen operations under cold, produced by ether, some of which were of this descrip- tion ; but as the cold which is caused by the evaporation of ether or chloroform is very slight, the insensibility in some of these was not complete. Cold has been used with success to produce anaesthesia, pre- viously to operating on the eye by Mr. Critchett. (Lancet, Sept. 23.) He states, that judging from his experience in such cases, “ if the operation had been performed without local anaesthesia, there would have been severe pain at the time, ex- tensive bleeding, consequent painful distension of the globe, and a tedious recovery ” Dr. Hargrave, professor of surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, has, in the Dublin Medical Press, Sept. 27, recorded his use of it in extracting a needle imbedded in the foot of a girl. He made “ a free and deep incision ” with- out pain or haemorrhage. “ I am convinced,” he says, “ that cold will supersede the use of chloroform by inhalation in many operations, to the great satisfaction of the surgeon and comfort of the patient.” Professor Nelaton, of Paris, is spoken of in the Union