Remarks on the superinduction of anaesthesia in natural and morbid parturition: with cases illustrative of the use and effects of chloroform in obstetric practice / [Sir James Young Simpson].

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the superinduction of anaesthesia in natural and morbid parturition: with cases illustrative of the use and effects of chloroform in obstetric practice / [Sir James Young Simpson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and passed without artificial assistance. On the present: oc- casion, after suffering slight pains during the whole night, labour set in with greater severity towards morning. After being in strong labour for some hours, she was seen first by _ Mr Figg, and afterwards by Dr Peddie, her ordinary medi- cal attendant. I was called to her about four o'clock P.M. The pains were then enormously powerful and straining, im- parting to the mind the dread of the uterus rupturing under their influence; but the head of the child was still alto- gether above the brim, and only an cedematous ridge of the scalp pressed through the superior and contracted pelvic opening. The passages had become heated, the mother’s pulse raised, &c., and Dr Peddie had tried two different pairs of long forceps. After I arrived he applied, with great skill, another pair of long forceps which I had with me ; but it was found impossible to move the head in the least degree forwards. The urgency and power of the uterine con- tractions, the immobility of the head upon the brim of a de- formed pelvis, and the state of the patient and of the parts, all showed the necessity of relief being obtained by artificial delivery. In her first labour I had assisted Dr Peddie in delivering her under similar circumstances by perforation of the head. But here the child’s heart was heard distinctly with the stethescope, and he at once agreed to my proposi- tion, that I should try to deliver her by turning the infant, —compressing and indenting the flexible skull of the fetus, instead of perforating it, and thus affording (as I have for some time past taught and believed) some chance of life to the child, and more chance of safety to the mother. The patient was placed under theinfluence of chloroform still more deeply than when the forceps. were used, in order, if possible, entirely to arrest the uterine contractions. I passed up my hand into the uterus, seized a knee, and easily turned the in- fant; but very great exertion and pulling was required to extract the child’s head through the distorted brim. At Jast it passed, much compressed and elongated. The child was still-born, but, by applying the usual restorative means,