Remarks on the superinduction of anæsthesia in natural and morbid parturition : with cases illustrative of the effects of chloroform in midwifery; and answers to alleged religious objections against the practice / by J.Y. Simpson, M.D.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the superinduction of anæsthesia in natural and morbid parturition : with cases illustrative of the effects of chloroform in midwifery; and answers to alleged religious objections against the practice / by J.Y. Simpson, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    which has been under my care. And the results, as I have already elsewhere stated, have been, indeed, most happy and gratifying. I never had the pleasure of watching over a series of more perfect or more rapid recoveries; nor have I once witnessed any disagreeable result to either mother or child. I have kept up the anaesthetic state during periods varying from a few minutes to three, four, five, and six hours. I do not remember a single patient to have taken it who has not afterwards declared her sincere gratitude for its employ- ment, and her indubitable determination to have recourse again to similar means under similar circumstances. All who happened to have formerly entertained any dread respecting the inhalation, or its effects, have afterwards looked back, both amazed at, and amused with, their previous absurd fears and groundless terrors. Most, indeed, have subsequently set out, like zealous missionaries, to persuade other friends to avail themselves of the same measure of relief in their hour of trial and travail; and a number of my most esteem- ed professional brethren in Edinburgh have adopted it with success, and results equal to my own. All of us, I most sincerely believe, are called upon to employ it by every principle of true humanity, as well as by every principle of true religion.1 Medical men may oppose for a time the superinduction of anaesthesia in parturition, but they will oppose it in vain; for certainly our patients them- selves will force the use of it upon the profession. The whole question is, even now, one merely of time. It is not—Shall the practice come to be generally adopted? but, When shall it come to be generally adopted? Of course, it will meet from various quarters with all due and determi- nate opposition. Medical men will, no doubt, earnestly argue that their established medical opinions and medical practices should not be harshly interfered with by any violent innovations of doctrine regarding the non-necessity and non-propriety of maternal suffering. They will insist 1 See Answer to the Religious Objections urged against the em- ployment of Anaesthetic Agents in Midwifery and Surgery.