Local anaesthesia : notes on its artificial production by chloroform, &c., in the lower animals and in man / By J.Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1848]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Local anaesthesia : notes on its artificial production by chloroform, &c., in the lower animals and in man / By J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    2/44
    measures can generally be traced to the last case of the disease that they have seen. It is hoped that the above remarks may tend to prevent this abuse of observation, by pointing out the real value of the ogga rrjs e/jcrreipicis. [To be continued.] LOCAL ANAESTHESIA; NOTES ON ITS ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION BY CHLOROFORM, &C., IN THE LOWER ANIMALS AND IN MAN. By J. Y. Simpson, M.D. F.R.S.E. Professor of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh. A pew months ago I published some remarks, with the object of proving that the artificial production of a state of general anaesthesia before the perfor¬ mance of surgical operations, was not altogether an idea of modern times.* I shewed that Pliny, Apuleius, and other early writers, aver that such a state of general anaesthesia can be pro¬ duced by using mandragore ; and that, in the 13th century, Theodoric had published a receipt for producing it, by the inhalation of vapours arising from the watery extracts of various narcotic herbs. In our own days, this receipt of Tlieodoric’s, or one apparently analogous to it, has been apparently found quite sufficient for the purpose, by Dauriol. The ancients seem also to have en¬ tertained the idea of the possibility of producing a state of local and limited anmsthesia in any part to be operated upon. Dioscorides, who repeatedly mentions the production of general anaesthesia by mandragore, states it, as a matter of report, that local anaesthesia in a part was capable of being pro¬ duced by the application of the Mem¬ phian stone. “The Memphis stone,” says he, “is found in Egypt, near Memphis, of the size of a calculus, fatty, and of different colours. They say that this, when bruised and spread over parts that are to be cut or caute¬ rized, without danger so obtunds then- sensibility that they do not feel pain.”t (Hoc tradunt trito et illito partes quee mend® vel secandae sunt citra pericu- lum ita obstupescere, ut non sentiant cruciatum.) * Monthly Journal of Medical Science, vol. 1847-8, p. 451. t Dale’s Discoridis Opera, lib. v. cap. 158. Whilst we may entirely doubt that local anaesthesia w'as capable of being produced by such an apocryphal appli¬ cation as the above, the passage is curious, as evidence that the idea of obtunding a single part of the body against the pain of an operation was not unknown or unthought of in for¬ mer times. Nay, many old authorities believed, that against the fire ordeal any part of the body could be so pro¬ tected and defended, by previous appli¬ cations, that the human hand, for in¬ stance, should not feel the contact of the red-hot iron. The writings of Eusebe Salverte and Beckmann contain ample notices on this disputed ques¬ tion. Upwards of half a century ago, Dr. Moore ingeniously proposed to effect a local amesthesia of any limb that was to be operated upon by the surgeon, by previously compressing, with tourniquets and pads, the nervous trunks going to that limb ; and he has left us one interesting account of a case of amputation at St. George’s Hospital, in which the plan was tried, seemingly with partial success, by John Hunter. The possible production of local anaesthesia by this or other means is certainly an object well w'orthy of study and attainment. Surgeons everywhere seem to be more and more acknowledg¬ ing the facility, certainty, and safety, with which the state of general anaes¬ thesia can be produced at will, before operating; as well as the moral and professional necessity of saving their patients from all unrequisite pain. But if we could by any means induce a local anmsthesia w’ithout that tempo¬ rary absence of consciousness which is found in the state of general anaesthe¬ sia, many would regard it as a still greater improvement in this branch of practice. If a patient, for instance, could have his hand so obtunded that he could see, and yet not feel, the perfor¬ mance of amputation upon his own fingers, the practice of anaesthesia in surgery would in all likelihood advance, and progress still more rapidly than ever it has done. In the following remarks it is my object to state the results of a number of experiments w'hich I have performed (l), upon the lower animals* and (2) * Through the kindness of Professor Balfour I have had various opportunities of trying the effect of chloroform vapour upon the sensitive plant (Mimosa Pudica). When the vapour was