Remarks on the superinduction of anaesthesia in natural and morbid parturition : with cases illustrative of the use and effects of chloroform in obstetric practice / By J.Y. Simpson...With an appendix.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the superinduction of anaesthesia in natural and morbid parturition : with cases illustrative of the use and effects of chloroform in obstetric practice / By J.Y. Simpson...With an appendix. 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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    perspiration. Her looks are staring and wild ; the features alter so much that they can scarcely be recognised. Her impatience rises to its maximum with loud crying and wailing, and fre- quently expressions which, even with sensible, high-principled women, border close upon insanity. Every thing denotes the violent manner in which both body and mind are affected.=> This (observes Dr. Rigby) is the moment of greatest pain, and the patient is frequently quite wild and frantic with suffering; it approaches to a species of insanity, and shows itself in the most quiet and gentle dispositions. The laws in Germany have made great allowances for any act of violence committed during these moments of frenzy, and wisely and mercifully consider that the patient at the time was laboring under a species of temporary insanity. Even the act of child murder, when satis- factorily proved to have taken place at this moment, is treated with considerable leniency. This state of mind is sometimes manifested in a slighter degree by actions and words so con- trary to the general habit and nature of the patient, as to prove that she could not have been under the proper control of her reason at the moment. It is a question how far this state of mind may arise from intense suffering, or how far the circula- tion of the brain may be affected by the pressure which is ex- erted upon the abdominal viscera.f Such is the description of the amount of pain and agony en- dured in natural parturition, given by some of our best and most esteemed authorities in obstetric literature. Is it right for the physician to interfere with these fearful suf- ferings and agonies in order to save and shield his patients from the endurance of them? Is it proper for him to exercise the skill of his art so as to moderate and remove these almost in- tolerable pains (fe.re intolcrahiles doloresV) Would it be fit and meet in him to use human means to assuage the pangs and anguish attendant upon the process of parturition in the human mother? These questions, and questions like these, I have often dur- • Lehrbuch der Geburtshulfc, p. 101. See British and Foreign Medical Re- view, vol. xix. p. 64. t System of Midwifery, p. 103.