A treatise on etherization in childbirth. Illustrated by five hundred and eighty-one cases / By Walter Channing.

  • Channing, Walter, 1786-1876.
Date:
1848
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    + We now take our leave of Dr. Channing, with hearty thanks for the valuable mass of information he has collected. If he has not settled the vexed question, he has undoubtedly given facts enough to justify, and in our opinion to demand from the profession, further trials — a continued use of anesthetic agents. That the end proposed to be gained by these means is of great importance, few will deny: few experienced obstetricians ‘will doubt, that, in not a few cases, the pain of labor and that inflicted by obstetric operations, especially turning and removal of adherent placenta, is not only a very great present evil, but that it renders convalescence uncertain and protracted. If, without great danger to life, this pain can be mitigated or controlled, great will be the benefit thereby conferred upon woman. That anesthetics will do this cannot be positively as- serted; but that they may do it, every humane mind must ardently hope and devoutly pray. FROM THE NEW JERSEY MEDICAL REPORTER, Jan. 1849. Edited by Joseph Parrish, M.D. This is a neat volume of four hundred pages. We take pleasure in introduc- ing it to our readers, as it appears to us to contain a candid statement of facts, which have been accumulated by its author from various physicians in Boston and elsewhere. The principal objection urged by those who oppose etherization in childbirth is fairly considered. The safety of the practice is established be- yond controversy. The special, physical, moral, and intellectual effects are de- tailed in the report of the several cases; and, near the close of the work, they are arranged in tabular form with considerable accuracy. The first table con- tains the returns of five hundred and sixteen cases: all these are classed under the head of natural labor. Ph ee | In all these cases, which embrace the various complications that are con- stantly occurring in obstetric practice, except such as require manual or instru- mental aid, there is not a single one reported in which the mother did not do well. The other tables show the result of experience in fifty-one cases of un- natural, complicated, and instrumental labors; embracing those which required the use of forceps and operations of craniotomy, labors complicated by convul- sions, hemorrhage both accidental and whavoidable, twins, and presentations of breech and upper extremity. The analysis of these tables gives four deaths in fifty-one labors —a result, considering the dangerous complications and the extreme hazard to which the patients are exposed, that is less than might be expected, and, it is believed, less than would have occurred had not ether been employed; thus proving not only the safety, but the absolute utility, of the agent. The physiological, moral, and religious objections which have been urged against the use of ether are also fairly considered, and, in our opinion, fairly answered. The application of this remedy of pain to ordinary diseases accompanied by spasm is taken up, and cases given. It has been used even in phthisis, to re- lieve the distressing dispnoea and anguish of the last stages. In tetanus also, and other spasmodic disordérs, in puerperal convulsions, cholera, and typhoid fever accompanied with spasms. These cases are detailed in the Appendix, which constitutes a very valuable portion of the work. The book should be in the hands of all who take an interest in the progress of etherization. FROM THE PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL EXAMINER, December, 1848, Edited by R. M. Huston, M.D. and Prof. Jefferson Medical College. Professor Channing was one of the first, if not the very first, to employ ether for the purpose of relieving the pains of childbirth : it is peculiarly appro- priate, therefore, that such a work as the present should come from him, as well as from the city to which we are indebted for our knowledge of the wonderful powers of the agent. His position, and great experience, too, with its use, im- posed this obligation upon him; and we are sure, that every member of the profession who has the opportunity of reading the work will unite with us in returning thanks to him for the labor and ability he has bestowed uponit. The abundant facts contained in the volume, if they do not establish the propriety