A guide to anaesthetics for the student and general practitioner.

  • Luke, Thomas D. (Thomas Davey)
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to anaesthetics for the student and general practitioner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    115/158 (page 99)
    METHODS OF PRODUCING LOCAL ANASTHESIA. THERE are two distinct methods of producing local anzesthesia (or more correctly analgesia) generally employed. I. The local application or injection of drugs. I]. The application of intense cold, usually produced by evaporation, to the part which it is desired to render anzesthetic. I. The Local Injection of Drugs. CocAINE HyDROCHLORATE is most commonly used for this purpose. It is simply a salt of the alkaloid Cocaine, C,,H,,NO,, which was first obtained in 1860 by Gaedeke from the leaves of Erythroxylon Coca. It was first used for surgical purposes in 1884 by Koller of Vienna, and since then has been of priceless value, particularly in ophthalmic surgery. It was until recently extremely expensive, but greater facility in its production, &c., has brought down the cost to some- thing like $d. per grain. Cocaine is soluble in water to only a slight degree, 1 in 700; in alcohol 1 in 20; freely in chloroform, ether, and in many volatile and fixed oils. Cocaine Hydrochlorate is freely soluble in water, spirit, and glycerine. Fungi are apt to grow in the solutions, and, to prevent