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.
586/664 page 566
![RESUSCITATION SINCE the last quarter of the eighteenth century some form of artificial respiration has been the sheet anchor of resuscitative measures. Early methods included mouth to mouth insufflation ; pumping a stream of air or oxygen into the lungs either through the mouth, with or without intubation, or through a tracheotomy wound ; and manual compression of the chest and abdomen. Of the supplementary measures the most common have been attempts to revive the patient by irritating the body in various simple ways, as for instance, by friction of the limbs and trunk ; by passing electric currents through the body and by the applica- tion of extremes of temperature ; by percussion ; by stimulants given by mouth ; and by bringing pungent vapours under the nostrils or introducing them into the rectum by fumigation. These measures, intended primarily for the resuscitation of the drowned, the suffocated, and the newborn,1 were adopted by surgeons during 1847 and 1848 for use in cases of respiratory and circulatory arrest supervening on anaesthesia.2 An account of the first fifty recorded deaths from chloroform anaesthesia, collected from many parts of the world, was given by John Snow in his book On chloroform and other anaesthetics.z In almost all these cases an attempt was made at resuscitation by well-known methods. The first of these cases was that of fifteen-year-old Hannah Greener (cf. pp. 195-7). Very little was done for her. Snow quoted the account of events given by the administrator of the anaesthetic, Meggison : ' I 'was proceeding to apply more [chloroform] to the hand- kerchief, when her lips, which had been previously of a good 1 It may be mentioned here that John Snow's first published paper dealt with ' a double air-pump for supporting artificial respiration ' in still-born children. {Lond. med. Gaz-, 1841-2, i, 222-7 ; Snow, J. 1858. On chloroform and other anaesthetics. London, x.) 2 Cf., e.g., the suggestion made by Plouviez in a note on the insufflation of air into the lungs as a means of dealing with the asphyxia which sometimes results from the inhalation of ether or of chloroform. (C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 1848, 26, 106 (extract).) - Snow, J. 1858. On chloroform and other anaesthetics. London. 123-99.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20457200_0594.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
