A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    202/554 (page 190)
    n some cases. Nitnte of amyl should be used as a means of restoring the heart s action. Ammonia injected into a vein and digitalis giv n hypodermically may be used to stimulate the heart's action Th administration of alcohol is (as a rule) contra-indicated From experiments it has been proved that persons in sound sleep may be chloroformed without being wakened. Anaesthesia cannot be pro duced on any one partially awake, or sleeping lightly, without his knowl- edge. Chloroform should never be administered to a woman without the presence of a third party, preferably one of her own sex. It has been suggested by some authorities that a mixture of chloroform and ether acts with advantage and avoids the evils of both agents. The ''A. C. E. mixture, once much used in England, consists of ether (^ther) three parts, chloroform two parts, alcohol one part, the alcohol aiding in making a more perfect mixture and causing equal evaporation From our experience we do not think that more benefit is derived from mixed vapors than is obtained from the use of a single anaesthetic, while serious consequences have followed the use of mixtures, which would not have occurred had the surgeon confined himself either to chloroform or ether. General Surgery.—In obstetric practice the value of chloroform inhalations has been universally recognized, and we believe that no fatal cases have followed. It is not now used in all stages of labor, or carried to the same extent as it was formerly, for experience has shown that in the early stages it materially interferes with the uterine contractions. While it unquestionably annuls suffering, it frequently tends in a marked degree to diminish the force and frequency of the pains, and consequently to retard labor. In administering chloroform during the propulsive stage of labor, it should be given intermittently, using a few drops on a handkerchief as a pain comes on. During the acme of pain the patient inhales freely, and as the pain dies away the napkin should be removed, so that in the interval between the pains the effect of the drug passes off. Bearing in mind the tendency of chloro- form to produce uterine relaxation, more than ordinary precautions should always be taken against post-partum hemorrhage. (Playfair.) In Puerperal Convulsions chloroform-inhalation is frequently use- ful. Charpentier found that, in nearly seventy-five per cent, of the cases in which he employed it, it had the effect of diminishing or arresting the attacks, only one case proving fatal. In the treatment of Neuralgia, R. Bartholow has found chloroform extremely valuable, and it is most effective when used by the method of deep injections as proposed by him. This consists in injecting, in the neighborhood of the affected nerve, from five to fifteen minims of pure chloroform. Rarely does any local mischief result from these injec-