A case of fracture of the os innominatum, and death in connection with the administration of sulphuric ether : communicated to the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati / by W.H. Mussey.

  • Mussey, William Heberden, 1818-1882.
Date:
[1861]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of fracture of the os innominatum, and death in connection with the administration of sulphuric ether : communicated to the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati / by W.H. Mussey. 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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    and one ounce of serum within its cavity. Fatty deposits upon the auricles of the heart; no structural disease, other than an absence of the usual redness and firmness of the tissue; blood in the right auricle; ventricles empty; lungs distended with air, and engorged with blood ; there were no pleuritic adhesions or anything unusual in structure. There was no examination of the brain. The blood through- out the body was very dark colored. In view of the case, I did not hesitate to say to the family, that there were internal injuries sufficient to have destroyed the patient's life in a short time, but that the administration of ether had appa- rently hastened the result, though I was of the opinion that the .mani- pulation with the limb without ether might have been attended with like consequences, on account of the extreme irritability of the nervous system — amounting almost to tetanus,— and the feeble powers of resistance, for which the constitutional peculiarities of the patient were accountable. This expression was fully concurred in by the physicians present. Note.— A lengthy discussion arose in the Academy, occupying two evenings of ils Be in which two members contended that the case was clearly one of death from ether. Of the remaining disputants, two thought ether possibly auxiliary, while the majority considered ether not at all responsible. I I