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.
456/664 page 436
![under strict experimental conditions ; in spite of the supporting evidence of kymographic records ' reproduced by photography ' ; in spite of Lawrie's personal assurance that in all his large experience he had never seen a death from heart failure due to the direct action of chloroform ; and in spite of Lauder Brunton's conversion to Lawrie's beliefs,1 the Lancet remained to some extent sceptical. ' We thought that it would be well to supplement the work of that Commission as far as possible by a consideration of the results arrived at by clinical observations wrote the editor. ' Our investigation into the relative safety of anaesthetics as usually administered to human beings was therefore commenced as soon as the Second Hyderabad Commission's report was received.' The inquiry was directed for the Lancet by Dudley Wilmot Buxton (cf. pp. 464, 469). A carefully drawn-up series of questions was sent to individual members of the British medical profession and a more detailed questionnaire to every hospital (of over ten beds) in the United Kingdom. This latter form together with a circular letter, ' couched in the language of the country to which it was sent ', was despatched to the larger hospitals on the Continent, in the Colonies, the United States, and India. The form which members of the profession were asked to complete, ' desired information on the following points : ' What anaesthetic do you usually employ, and how ? (Apparatus ?). Average number of times a year? Do you keep an accurate register ? What class of cases (operation, midwifery, etc.)? Can you give particulars of any deaths ? Agents used ? Apparatus ? Nature of operation ? Age, sex, and peculiarities of patient ? Posture ? How long under ? Did heart or respiration stop first ? If a post-mortem, particulars ? Can you give particu- lars of any dangerous cases and means used for resuscitation ? ' Similar information was required from the hospitals at home and abroad. 1 Lauder Brunton's conversion, it seems, was not quite wholehearted, for Lawrie in 1901 wrote of him : ' Dr. Lauder Brunton proceeded [at the end of the Second Hyderabad Commission] to England to convert Europe and America, but he could not entirely divest himself of the opinion he had held and taught for so many years that one of the dangers of chloroform is death by stoppage of the heart and ' Lawrie admitted, ' the conversion of Europe and America devolved to a large extent upon me'. (Lawrie, E. 1901. Chloroform. London, n.)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20457200_0460.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
