On recent researches upon nitrous oxide narcosis : and their bearing upon the practical question, when and how should laughing gas be administered? : read at the Annual General Meeting of the British Dental Association at Brighton, August, 1889 / by Dudley Wilmot Buxton.

  • Buxton, Dudley Wilmot, 1855-1931.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On recent researches upon nitrous oxide narcosis : and their bearing upon the practical question, when and how should laughing gas be administered? : read at the Annual General Meeting of the British Dental Association at Brighton, August, 1889 / by Dudley Wilmot Buxton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    being smothered or choked. A text book which we find in every student’s hand describes, with charming assurance, the action of nitrous oxide as that of an asphyxiant, and recently a venerable and deeply-respected member of our profession, Dr. George Johnson, has promulgated similar views with the weight which his name must always lend to any statement. But nitrous oxide is no asphyxiant, it possesses a specific action upon the organism which differs widely from what obtains when an indifferent gas is respired, while oxygen is withheld. In the course of a prolonged research, the results of which I had the honour of communicating to the Odontological Society of Great Britain, the following facts were pretty clearly made out— Nitrous oxide does not, to any appreciable extent, split up in the organism; hence its action, if any, must depend upon itself, or upon deprivation of oxygen. We find by actual experiments that nitrous oxide produces gross changes in the organism. Thus if the skull of a mammal be trephined, and a suffi- ciently large window be made in the bone to expose an area of an inch or so across, one is able to watch the pulsation of the brain beneath the dura mater, to observe the colour of the membrane, &c. Under ordinary circumstances there exists, after trephining, a very distinct space between the bony calvarium and the dura mater, and rhythmic pulsations occur bearing a direct relation to the systole, or general ar- terial dilatation. It is a simple matter, the muscular system being paralysed by curare, to establish artificial respiration by means of a bellows worked by a water power engine, to ensure a re- spiration of any rate and depth. Of course the normal rate of respiration during sleep is selected, and by the use of a three-way valve, air can be excluded, nitrous-oxide or other gas admitted, and at expiration the tidal air removed. With this apparatus the following results were arrived at:— The brain, as soon as nitrous oxide was admitted, began to swell up, and although preserving its normal colour for a time, the hemispheres assumed a most remarkable appear- ance. Simulating a hernia cerebri they protruded into the trephine hole. The colour of the brain now changed from r