The development of inhalation anaesthesia : with special reference to the years 1846-1900... / [Barbara M. Duncum].
- Duncum, Barbara M.
- Date:
- 1947
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The development of inhalation anaesthesia : with special reference to the years 1846-1900... / [Barbara M. Duncum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
346/664 page 326
![The new gas-ether apparatus was noticed briefly in the British Medical Journal and Sir J. Rose Cormack's opinion was quoted : ' It was unquestionably a most admirable invention, but its cost and complexity must prove fatal to its introduction into general use V Sir J. Rose Cormack was wrong. Despite this not entirely favourable review and despite the complexity of the apparatus the anaesthesia obtained by its use was found to be so easily induced and so satisfactorily maintained that a number of London hospitals, during 1875 and 1876, thought it worth while to install Clover's apparatus. Clover continued to improve upon it and by July 1876 it had taken its final form.2 ' The apparatus about to be described [see Figs. 83, 84, and 85] ', wrote Clover in July 1876, ' is, in principle, like the one shown at the Norwich Meeting in 1874, with some improvements. It has been used at St. Bartholomew's, University College, St. Mary's and the Dental Hospitals ; and I have myself placed under the influence of ether with it two thousand, three hundred cases. . . . The apparatus is made by Mayer and Meltzer of Great Portland Street, and consists of a thin bag, oval in shape and fifteen inches long ; at one end connected with the ether vessel, at the other with the facepiece. Inside the bag, there is a flexible tube, also connected with the facepiece and ether vessel. By turning the regulator . . . the patient is made to breathe, either directly into the bag, or indirectly through the tube and ether vessel. When the letter G is visible [on the dial], the way to the gas-bag is open ; when the letter E is visible, the only way to the bag is through the tube and ether vessel, so that the more the regulator is turned towards E, the more ether is given, and vice versa. The ether vessel contains a reservoir of water, to prevent the temperature of the ether becoming too low. This is to be kept full. The ether vessel is to be rather more than half filled, the precise point being marked against the glass gauge. A thermo- meter inside this gauge tells the temperature of the ether. Before using it, the vessel should be dipped into a basin of warm water, and rotated until the thermometer stands at about 68 deg. If the room be cold, and if the patient have thin cheeks and large whiskers, the temperature may be 73 deg. It is important that the face-piece should fit closely against the face. Those made by 1 Brit. med. J., 1874, lh 3^2- 2 It is frequently and, in fact, usually stated in textbooks on anaesthesia, written after 1876, that Clover first introduced his gas-ether sequence in 1876. This error is probably due to the fact that far wider publicity was given to the apparatus and to the method in that year than in previous years.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20457200_0350.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
