Further observations on chloroform in the practice of midwifery / [Edward William Murphy].

  • Murphy, Edward W. (Edward William), 1802-1877.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further observations on chloroform in the practice of midwifery / [Edward William Murphy]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    feeble habits. If chloroform brought the uterus into the state that we find it when it is exhausted, relaxed, difficult to excite its con¬ tractions after delivery, requiring the aid of our best directed skill to prevent hemorrhage taking place—if such were its effects, there could not be a more dangerous instrument of mischief, or one that should be more strongly condemned; but no such effect is proved to be the result of its action. The writer has carefully looked for it in every case that came under his notice, and did not find a single in¬ stance where the uterus lost its contractile power. In the whole of the fifty-six cases reported by Dr Denham, there is not one that gives evidence of such an effect. He quotes two cases where hemorrhage occurred. In one case (XIII.) of natural labour, in which the pains had nearly ceased after the administration of chloroform, it was discontinued. Soon after this, they again returned, and the child was born in two hours; the placenta soon came away; but, at the end of six hours, there was some hemorrhage, but not to any ex- tentr^ The other case (XLV.) was one of twins ; labour tedious, from inertia, the result of over-distention of the uterus. . . After being twenty hours ill, she w^as delivered of both children, while in a state of anaesthesia. An interval of an hour was allowed to elapse between the birth of the first and second child, during which she became conscious, but without a return of uterine action sufficient to expel the second child. She had a smart attack of hemorrhage after the ])lacenta came away ; her recovery, however, was good, and she went home well on the ninth day.”^ No just reasoner would attribute the hemorrhage that occurred in either of these cases to chloroform ; and, consequently, if this be admitted, the facts brought forward by Dr Denham prove, that, although chloroform may in¬ terfere with the activity of uterine contractions,” may interrupt or suspend the expulsive and contractile power of the organ,” it does not impair its energy, nor produce that loss of tone which is followed by such dangerous consequences. Why chloroform some¬ times suspends the action of the uterus, is a different question, and one that is full of interest; but, in our examination of it, we must not confound suspension of power with loss of power. Dr Channing, who is a warm advocate for etherisation, gives, with his opinions, the whole of his facts. He details 78 cases of labour that had been delivered under the influence, either of ether or chloroform; 43 of these were cases of natural labour ; 29 inhaled ether; 14, chloroform. There is only one instance (Case IX.) of suspension of pains where ether was administered, and none where chloroform was given ; on the contrary, the action of the uterus, in place of being diminished, was generally increased—in some instances, remarkably so. In case XLIH., the pains were of great severity; the os uteri dilated to the size of a dollar; chloroform was inhaled