On the inhalation of chloroform : ita anæsthetic effects and practical uses / by Robert Dunn.
- Robert Dunn
- Date:
- [1851?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the inhalation of chloroform : ita anæsthetic effects and practical uses / by Robert Dunn. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![its administration.* And although the range of its action as a therapeutical agent may thus be limited, and its effects transient, present relief from pain is a real boon to the sufferer, and its modus operandi, in regard to the different nervous centres, points plainly enough to the class of medical cases in which its administration has been found to afford great, and often immediate relief. In neuralgia, by allaying the paroxys¬ mal agony it gives confidence to the mind of the patient, and relieves it of that painful foreboding and sense of depression which the recurrence of the periodic attack is so prone to excite. In spasmodic asthma, when inhaled during the fit, by subduing the spasm it affords present relief. In delirium tremens it has been found a valuable adjuvant to opium and morphia. When opium or morphia, given in full and repeated doses, has failed to procure sleep or to tranquillize the patient, its inhalation has been attended with the happiest results. The hysterical paroxysm, violent and unmanageable as we are sometimes called upon to witness it, has often by its influence been calmed down “to the * Dr. Snow, in his valuable series of papers now in the course of publication in the Medical Gazette, has not only shown that the inspired chloroform and ether are again exhaled un¬ changed from the blood, but also the important fact that there is a diminution of the amount ol carbonic acid formed in the system while it is under their influence, and, in consequence, a re¬ duction of the temperature of the body. Main¬ taining, as he does, “that the animal functions, as sensation, motion, &c., and even intellectual action, are as closely connected with certain processes of oxidation going on the body, as the light and heat of flame are connected with the oxidation of the burning materials in common combustion” he is led to infer that the specific effect, which results from the presence of chloro¬ form and ether in the blood upon the vesicular matter of the nervous centres, is due to their limiting, and eventually arresting, those com¬ binations between the oxygen of the arterial blood and the vesicular matter, which are essen¬ tial to sensation, motion, and psychical action,— in other words, to diminished oxidation in the nervous centres. It cannot be denied that the reduction in the amount of the carbonic acid formed in the system presents us with positive evidence of diminished oxidation in the tissues of the body, and that this diminished oxidation is not owing to the combination of the chloroform or ethei itself with the oxygen of the arterial blood. Dr. Snow lias adduced other proofs, besides the important and striking fact, of the elimination th<Vu nhAledJ c]lIorof°rai or ether unchanged from the blood by the lungs. Medical Ga¬ zette for April 11th, 1851. stillness of soft sleep.” Temporary re¬ lief, and at times more lasting benefit, has resulted from its use, in hysterical and puerperal mania, and especially, in the incubation of that form of men¬ tal derangement in which there exists an excited and disturbed condition of the emotional states, and where the great indications are to procure rest, quiet motorial excitement, and to calm fearful apprehensions and despondent feelings. In certain convulsive and spasmodic affections, in puerperal con¬ vulsions, chorea, and epilepsy, it has been inhaled with advantage, and even in tetanus it has been thought to be useful. Still it is chiefly if not entirely as ancillary, in such cases, to the adop¬ tion of more efficient curative measures, that we can view it in the light of a the¬ rapeutical remedy. But in all cases in which the induction of anaesthesia is a desirable procedure, we have in chloro¬ form a most valuable agent, and one which for many obvious and cogent reasons has superseded the use of ether, in surgical and obstetric practice. A distinguished fellow of this society, the late Mr. Liston, was the first in this country to test the value of anes¬ thesia in the capital operations of sur¬ gery. He hailed with enthusiasm the announcement from America, that a new light had burst upon surgery, and that on mankind a large boon had been conferred. “Mr. Liston,” says Pro¬ fessor Miller,* struck the key-note, and a pealing note it was: it sounded through¬ out the length and breadth of the land. The profession were surprised, excited, and charmed in the mass, and more especially those on the junior side of the grand climacteric. The elderly gentlemen had their preconceived and heretofore settled notions sadly jostled and disturbed; not a few grew irritable, and resented the interference; they closed their ears, shut their eyes, and folded their hands; they refused to touch or in any way to meddle with the unhallowed thing; they had quite made up their minds that pain was a necessary evil and must be endured; they scowled on the attempted innova¬ tion, and croaked that no good could come of it. On, notwithstanding, has r. ^ orhnciples of SurgeiT> by James Miller, r.K.o.jbi'](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30798383_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
