Some account of the first use of sulphuric ether by inhalation in surgical practice.

  • Hayward, George, 1791-1863.
Date:
[1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the first use of sulphuric ether by inhalation in surgical practice. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    of the system. Both of these cases have occurred to me within the last few weeks. The first of these was that of a medical friend in a neighboring town, who had suffered for several months with a disease of the side, supposed to be connected with caries of a rib. But the part was so sensitive that he could not bear the degree of examination necessary to ascertain the precise nature of the trouble. In fact, the slightest pressure there pro- duced violent and spasmodic pain. He inhaled the ether, but was brought only partially under the influence of it. He retained his consciousness entirely, but the sensibility was so much lessened that he allowed me to cut down upon the diseased rib, and remove a portion of dead bone. He suffered but little in the first part of the operation, and probably would not have suffered at all during the whole of it, if he had been willing to have inhaled the ether a little longer. About a month since, I operated on a patient for a vesico-vaginal fistula, which I am confident could not have been done had it not been for the insensibility and relaxation induced by the inhalation of the ether. The fistula was in the fundus of the bladder, and before the ether was inhaled it was found impossible to force the bladder down, so as to bring it within the reach of any instruments which would be required for the operation, and the slightest examination caused extreme suffering. After the patient had inhaled the ether three minutes, the parts became very much relaxed and entirely insensible, so that I brought the fistulous opening down to the os externum, by means of a piece of whalebone carried into the ure- thra. In this situation I pared the edges of the fistula, closed it with two stitches, removed the whalebone, introduced a large catheter into the bladder, and then returned the organ to its natural situation, without giving the patient the least pain, and without her being in the slightest degree conscious. The whole time, from the beginning of the inhalation to the completion of the operation, was twenty-one minutes, and I have never been able to do the operation before in much less than an hour. The ether was administered in this case by means of a sponge well saturated with it, which was held to the nose and mouth, and re-applied occa- sionally whenever there was any indication of returning sensibility. This I believe is the first instance in which a fistula in the bladder in this situation has been operated on, except, perhaps, by cautery ; and I am confident, though this first attempt may not be successful, that the patient can in this way be ultimately very much relieved, if not entirely cured of one of the most distressing infirmities with which human nature is afflicted.