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.
381/664 page 361
![An account of this mobile chamber was given to the British Medical Journal by a Londoner, T. R. Allinson, in the autumn of 1881 : ' Last summer I was in Paris, and had an opportunity of seeing Paul Bert's anaesthetic car at work. . . . We—the patient, doctor [this was Pean, at the Hopital Saint-Louis], and his students— went into the car ; the door, air-tight, was closed, and air forced Fig. 103.—THE 'ANAESTHETIC GAR' designed by Fontaine—a mobile, compressed air chamber serving as an operating theatre in which a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen could be administered to the patient under positive pressure, in accordance with Paul Bert's suggestion. The surgeon and his assistants were also subjected to the increased atmospheric pressure. This ' car ' travelled round among various of the Paris hospitals, during 1880. A. Double-barrelled air pump. B. Refrigerator for cooling the air. C. Iron cylinder containing 350 litres of gas and oxygen under a pressure often atmospheres. D. Reservoir bag for the anaesthetic mixture. E. Facepiece. into the car, in a few minutes my ears began to feel strange, and I was told to swallow, yawn, and blow my nose, which I did every few minutes, and so made the pressure equal on both sides of the drums of my ears. The patient laid himself down on the operat- ing-table, and the anaesthetic agent was given him. He took it very quietly, did not struggle, and was soon insensible. Whilst he was unconscious, an epithelioma was removed from his lower lip ; after the wound was sewn up, the compressed air was allowed to escape ; the patient got up from the table, walked out of the car and lay down on the grass ; he complained of no headache nor nausea, but said he felt just as usual. We also were glad to escape from the car, on account of the heat which was 12*](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20457200_0385.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
