Anæsthesia, or, The employment of chloroform and ether in surgery, midwifery, etc. / by J.Y. Simpson.

Date:
1849
    No text description is available for this image
    XV raent of Chloroform in Midwifery and Surgery, before the Medico- Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, ------ 182 PART III. ON THE NATURE AND POWERS OF VARIOUS ANAESTHETIC AGENTS. CHAPTER I. Historical researches regarding the superinduction of insensibility to Pain in Surgical Operations, - 191 CHAPTER II. Account of a new Anaesthetic Agent as a substitute for Sulphuric Ether in Surgery and Midwifery, - - 193 CHAPTER III. Anaesthetic and other therapeutic properties of Chloroform, - - 203 CHAPTER IV. Notes on the Anaesthetic effects of Chloride of Hydrocarbon, Nitrate of Ethyle, Aldehyde, and Bisulphuret of Carbon, - - - - 209 PART IV. LOCAL ANAESTHESIA. CHAPTER I. Historical notice on the production of Artificial Local Anaesthesia, - 214 CHAPTER II. On the production of Local Anaesthesia in the lower animals, - - 217 CHAPTER III. On the production of Local Anaesthesia in the human subject, - - 220 CHAPTER IV. Answer to the Objections to Anaesthesia in Midwifery, adduced by Professor Meigs of Philadelphia, 230
    No text description is available for this image
    ANAESTHESIA IN SURGERY. “ The multiplied experiments to prevent pain in surgical operations, which bear so delight- ful a testimony to the humanity of their authors, will certainly, in the course of time, be crowned with success.”—Marx' Akesios—Letter to Herman Boerhaave. CHAPTER I. MERE OPINIONS AND PRE.TUDGMENTS NOT SUFFICIENT TO SETTLE THE QUESTION OF THE PROPRIETY OR IMPROPRIETY OF ANESTHETIC AGENTS : ILLUSTRATION FROM THE HISTORY OF VACCINATION. During the latter half of the last century, 30,000 individuals were computed to die annually of smail-pox in England.* From the official returns of the Registrar-General, it appears, that in England and Wales the number that perish annually of this same disease at the present time is reduced to less than 10,000.-j- In England alone, therefore, the absolute mortality * Dr. Gregory observes, “ The total deaths by small-pox throughout England were estimated at about 45,000 annually.”—Cyclopaedia of Medicine, vol. iv. p. 402. Dr. Haygarth calculated the annual number of deaths from small-pox to amount to 38,000 in 8,000,000 of inhabitants.—See the data of his computation in his “ Sketch of a Plan to exterminate Small pox,” 1793, p. 144. In making the various computations regarding vaccination in the text, I have, in order to avoid the possibility of error, kept all the calculations considerably below the ascertained data. t During the five years from 1838 to 1842 inclusive, there died, on an average, 8893 individualsyearly of small-pox. In 1842, only 2715 died.—See Sixth Annual Report of the Registrar-General, p. 514. Formerly, 1 in about every 250 of the general population died annually of small pox ; now, only 1 in about every 1700. In England, the registration of every birth and every death is properly enforced by law. If the registration of the vaccination of each child were enforced as rigorously as the registration of its birth, much disease, and many thousand human lives would thus undoubtedly be saved annually in Great Britain. Surely it is a subject well worthy of the attention of a benevolent legislature. We see the good effects of such interference in other European states. For, whilst in England, (the native country of .Tenner,) still 1 in every 1700 inhabitants dies annually of small pox,—in Austria, 1 in 4800 dies of this disease ; in France, 1 in 11,000; and in Sweden, only 1 in 27,000. On the great extent of the number of 2
    No text description is available for this image