Volume 3

Notes on the inhalation of sulphuric ether in the practice of midwifery / by J.Y. Simpson.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the inhalation of sulphuric ether in the practice of midwifery / by J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/22 (page 8)
    the’ sleep continued for some time after delivery. The woman, on oratilated herself on having made so: happy a discovery, and declared she would make use of it if she had again occasion.” ! In obstetric, as insurgical ‘practice, the degree of insensibility produced ‘by etherization, and its accompanying phenomena, differ much ‘in ‘different instances. ° In’ some, a state of total apathy and insensibility seems to be: prodticed ‘others move about and com- plaia°more’ or less loudly during’ the uterine: contractions, though afterwards, when restored to their state-of ‘common consciousness, they have no ‘recollection “of any suffering whatever; or, mdeed, of any thing thathad occurred during? the: inhalation ‘and action of the: ether: otliers again, Femain quite aware’ aird conscious of what: isSoing’ oi around them) “and- watch ‘the’ ‘récurrence of the uterine contractiotiss but feel: iridiffandtt 10) their effects;and notin ‘finyode- gree distressed? by their présetiééy and in ‘another ‘class again, the’ attendant suffering is'merély more oF less diminished and obtanided, without being perfectly ‘cancelled ‘and’arnnulled: 5 On ‘the ‘évening” of ‘the 13th inst; in’ two' cases that raplaty followed each ‘other, Iwitnessed; in the above respect, two very different conditions indaced by the tse of the ether.’ The patients (whe'each had ‘borne several children previously) were both placed under the influence of it just as the os uteri became fully opened, and‘ in ‘neither did the fall expulsion of the infant through the pelvic passages ‘require above twelve or fifteen minutes.” My first patient (the wife of a clergyman) subsequently stated, that she knew all that was said and done about her, was aware of the pains being present, but felt no distress from any of them till the super- vention of the last’ strong contraction which drove the head out of the vulva, and the feeling then seemed ‘to partake of the character of strong pressure, rather than of’ actual pain.’ Subsequently she told me, ‘she could only look back With regret’ to the apparently unnecessary suffering she had endured in the birth of her former infants. The second patient, a lady of a timid temperament, and very apprehensive. about the result of her present. confine- ment, was induced with difficulty to inhale ‘the ether ‘vapour; but ; ‘The celebrated case of’ the Countess dé St. ‘Gara is sufficiently remarkable its Celebres, tom. i. p. 142 to 266. After the Countess had ‘been nine hours in labour with her first child, the midwife in attendance exhibited to her-a potion (breuvaye), which rendered her insensible till the following morning. _When the Countess then awoke to consciousness, she found herself bathed in blood, the abdominal tumour fallen, and all the signs of recent delivery present; but the child born during her state years afterwards proved, . to the satisfaction ‘of the French law courts, that’ the Countess had been delivered of a male child during an induced lethargic condition, and that the infant had been surreptitiously conveyed away to a distance, and brought: up as the son of a poor man. The child’s claims were, after much litigation, fully acknowledged ; he was restored to his parents, and ultimately succeeded to his father's title.— What Nepentbean ‘“preuvage” could possibly produce the alleged’ effect ?