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

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaesthesia, or the employment of chloroform and ether in surgery, midwifery, etc / by J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. The following work comprises the substance of several essays written at different times by Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh, and pub- lished in the Medical Journals of that city, and of the verbal statements of his experience in the use of Anaesthetic Agents, made at the meetings of some of the Medical Societies of Edinburgh, and reported in their proceedings. These various papers are now for the first time collected into one volume, by the author. In pre- senting it to the public, the American publishers feel assured that they are giving the most complete history of Anaesthetic Agents, their discovery, history, mode of preparation, chemical properties, mode of administration, application and benefits resulting from their use, par- ticularly in obstetrics and surgery, which has yet appeared. The author does not confine himself to his own extensive experience, but has collected with great care the results as shown in the practice of the different public hospitals of Great Britain, Ireland, and, as far as could be obtained, of Paris, thus adducing the important evidence of medical statistics to show that the rate of mortality is actually diminished under their use, in addition to the abrogation of pain which they procure. He has also obtained the experience of several eminent private practitioners in regard to their value. The various objections, religious and otherwise, which have been urged against them are met and answered. The letter to Dr. Meigs, in answer to his objections, was received from Dr. Simpson too late to take its proper place, after the letter to Dr. Smith, (Chapter IV. Part II.,) and now forms the concluding chapter of the work.