Remarks on the comparative value of ether and chloroform, with hints upon natural and artificial teeth / by W.T.G. Morton.
- Morton, W. T. G. (William Thomas Green), 1819-1868.
- Date:
- 1850
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Remarks on the comparative value of ether and chloroform, with hints upon natural and artificial teeth / by W.T.G. Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![I should give it the preference over any other article with which I am acquainted, that is used for the purpose of producing insensibility. 2d. Of Chloroform. Chloroform is the perchlorid of formyle, the radicle of formic acid. It has been ascertained by Dumas to consist of three parts of chlorine to one of the bi-carburet of hydrogen [formyle]. It was discovered al- most simultaneously nearly twenty years since in France, Germany, and this country. It was first employed as an anaesthetic agent by Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, and he thought that it possessed various important ad- vantages over sulphuric ether. He says that it is far more portable ; more manageable and powerful ; more agreeable to inhale ; is less exciting than ether; and gives us far greater control and command over the super- induction of the anaesthetic state. If all this were true, it would no doubt be preferable to any other agent with which we are acquainted. But subsequent experience proves that it is not so. Its only advantages are that it is more agreeable to inhale than ether, and that a less quantity of it answers the purpose. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that fatal effects have followed its inhalation in seve- ral instances even when administered by the most judicious hands ; that in some cases convulsions have been produced, and in others a great disturbance of the brain causing delirium. In some persons this affection of the mind has continued for several weeks. There are other objections of a minor character. Chloroform is of an acrid, caustic nature, and if it come in contact with the skin, unless it be protected by some oily substance, severe excoriation is the conse- quence. Its administration is generally followed by vomiting and head- ache, which continues for several hours, attended by a great degree of restlessness and want of sleep. Several cases have come under my care, in which the brain and nervous system have been affected to an alarming extent; though in every instance, it was said that a small quantity only of chloroform was administered for the purpose of perform- ing some operation on the teeth. An individual in this vicinity was thrown into violent convulsions, which continued for three or four days, during all which time she was in a state of complete insensibility, from the inhalation of the vapor of a few drops of chloroform administered by a careful and judicious physi- cian. It would be easy to multiply examples of this kind ; but it is not](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21012581_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
