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.
589/664 page 569
![appearance of these symptoms, artificial respiration was com- menced by depressing the ribs with the hands and then allowing them to rise again until the proper apparatus was brought, when respiration was kept up by means of the trachea tube and bellows, and oxygen f1] gas introduced into the lungs by the same means. Galvanism was also applied through the heart and diaphragm, but all signs of life ceased about six or seven minutes after the commencement of inhalation. These means were persisted in until a quarter past three, but to no purpose.' In case 17, which occurred at the Seraphim Hospital, Stockholm, the patient was a man of thirty, suffering from hydrocele. About a drachm and a half of chloroform was administered to him on cotton in a cone made from a folded towel by Professor Santesson, who had previously seen James Young Simpson at work in Edinburgh. ' The patient died before the operation was begun, and within five minutes from the commencement of inhalation. During the application of various means of resuscitation, includ- ing the dropping of cold water guttatim on the epigastrium, the breathing returned . . . for the space of three or four minutes ; but the pulse and sound of the heart did not return.' In case 25, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in March 1852, the patient, a young man, was suffering from ' aneurism by anastomosis, occupying the right ear and its neighbourhood '. Induction was somewhat turbulent and lasted five or ten minutes. ' The operation was then commenced ; but no sooner had Mr. Lloyd cut the skin, than it was stated that the pulse had suddenly ceased. The chloroform was at once removed ; but in a few seconds, the patient had ceased to breathe, and no pulsation could be felt at any of the arteries or the heart. ' Artificial respiration, as well as percussion and compression of the different parts of the body, were immediately employed with energy ; . . . with the use also of galvanism, the circulation and respiration were again restored. Quickly, however, the patient fell into the same state as at first, but was again restored by the same means. ' In a few minutes the state of inanimation again returned, when the external jugular vein . . . was opened, and trache- otomy was performed, and the lungs inflated. The patient was also placed in a warm bath, at the temperature of 1040, artificial respiration being kept up all the time. All, however, was of no avail.' 1 Inflation with oxygen for resuscitation had been suggested by John Hunter. Philos. Trans., 1776, 66, 481, footnote.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20457200_0597.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
