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.

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    it speedily affected her when once she did begin. In two or three minutes’ she pushed the apparatus from her mouth, talked ex- citedly to a female relative present, but was inmniediatdly induced to recommence the inhalation; and subsequently,:according to her own statement, “ wakened out ofa dream, and unexpectedly found her child‘born.” ‘Like many others, she thought hours instead oof minutes had elapsed; from the commencement of the inhalation: to the’ period of the ‘complete.restoration of consciousness.: Making apparently an effort’ of memory, she afterwards inquired: if she had not’ once awakened out of her vanities ete, and spoken some non- sensé to‘her friend. ~~ A-eareful eollection of éauitious and accurate sientunkaills ail no doubt be required, before the inhalation of: sulphuric ether is adopted to any great extent in the. practice: of midwifery... It will be necessary to: ascertain its precise effects, both upon the:action of the uterus, and of the assistant abdominal museles ; its influence; if any, upon the child’;' whether it:gives'a tendency to hemorrhage or other complications ; ; the contra-indications peculiar tu: its use; the most certain modes of exhibiting it; the length of time it may>be employedy &c:! In’ no case have: I observeil any charm whatever to either mother or infant, follow upon its employment. » And, on the other hand, I have the strongest assurance and conviction, jas T have already, seen no ‘stall amount’ of’ maternal suffermg and agony saved by its application. ‘The cases I have detailed. sufii- ciently show its value and safety im cases of operative midwifery. And here, as in surgery, its utility is certainly not confined to the mere suspension and abrogation of conscious “pain, great as, by:it- self, sucha boon would doubtlessly be. - But in modifying and obli- terating the state of conscious’ pain, the nervous shock” otherwise liable ‘to be produced by such pain,~-particularly whenever it is extreme, and intensely waited for and endured,—is saved to the con- stitution, and thtis an’escape gained from many-evil consequences that are too apt to follow'm its train’ © Granting that experience Le have, avr ing, labour, kept patel under its: induence for est i of half an hour. In exhibiting it, the first, or exhilarating stage of its effects should be passed through as rapidly as possible, and the patient never allowed to be excited or irri- tated) by the nurse or others. oI have heard its usestrenuously denounced on the ground. that. its effects, though good and evanescent, are still of an intoxicating character. But on the same gr round, the use of opium, &e. &ec., in medicine, to relieve pain and procure sleep, should be equally reprobated and discar ded. 2 On the extent of the nervous; shock accompanying human parturition, see Dr Hamilton’s Practical Observations, p..179, &c. ; and Dr Churchill’s Chapter on Con- valesence after Labour, in his Work on ‘the, Diseases. of ‘Pregnancy ou Childbed, 240, &c: ns On what division or ae isions of the nervous system does the nervons shock operate—the cerebral, spinal, or ganglionic? If on the former, it should be kept in abeyance by due étherization. Some years ago saw Dri J. Argyll Robertson, when he was Acting Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, amputate, at the shoulder joint, an arm “sadly shattered an hour or’so before by a railway injury. The man at the time of receiving the injury, during the operation, and for séveral hours afterwards, was in_a state of insensibility from deep intoxication ; and at last’ wakened up, not knowing what had happened. His recovery was rapid and) uninterrupted. Would it have been so if his nervous system had been sufficiently alive to the double shock. of