Anaesthetic midwifery : report on its early history and progress / By J.Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaesthetic midwifery : report on its early history and progress / By J.Y. Simpson. 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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    lady said, that she felt it like approaching insanity; and that she would rather endure the labour pains than be subjected to this again. In no case have I had reason to suppose that mother or child suffered injury. All the mothers have done well, and several of them have spontaneously remarked, that they made better and quicker recoveries than after former accouchements. In this I coincide. Two children were still-born. One, in the sixth month, died during parturition, after long-continued discharge of the liquor amnii for many weeks before the induction of labour; the other, in the eighth month, after hemorrhage from fatigue, followed by protracted labour : in this case a placental clot was found after delivery, so that the child's death was suffi- ciently accounted for. On the whole, my experience of chloroform in parturition is more favour- able than in other cases, where I have several times seen it produce alarming spasmodic and other nervous symptoms, followed by sickness. These effects, I think, are most apt to occur in subjects who have had spinal irritation, or an excitable state of the nervous system, or who use the chloroform when ex- hausted, or after abstinence from nourishing food.—Yours, &c. A. D. Anderson. The following communication was sent me in June last— By Mr Spencer, Douglas, Isle of Man. I forget how often I had used the chloroform when I last wrote you ; but, since then, I have used it frequently, with invariable success so far as it is concerned. There have been no still-born children from its use, and all the children have continued to thrive well; none as yet have had a fit from teeth- ing—this I consider a great matter. We want some powerful proof here to bring it into general use. I cannot use it in half my cases, as I would not do it without leave from the patient. I had a case of puerperal mania the other day, and did not use it in it. If I had used it, I should have been blamed. This is so small a place that every thing one does is at once known. I have often operated under its use, with no ill effect.—Yours, &c. J. H. F. Spencer. From ]Mr Ceely, Aylesbmy. I have much pleasure in communicating to you the general results of my very limited use of anaesthetic agents in midwifery. I have used both ether and chloroform in numerous operations, small and great, in public and private practice, have been several times the subject of their influence, and have re- peatedly employed them in hysteria, epilepsy, and other nervous and spasmo- dic affections; but my employment of them in midwifery has been more limited, and at present restricted chiefly to primiparous and difficult or tedious cases. 1 have used them in only six cases as yet. It has happened that most of my late obstetric cases have been so easy and so rapid as to supersede the use of chloroform. My own observations of its effects in midwifery, would induce me to itrge its use in all severe, protracted, or operative midwifery; and in any case of natural labour, with only the ordinary suffering, I would not hesitate to employ it, with the concurrence of the pa- tient or friends, if I saw no contra-indication; because I believe that, in pro- per doses, with suitable management, it is harmless and may be beneficial; but if the patient, under these circumstances, were averse, 1 should not, of course, press it. Neither do I think I should venture to employ it in natural and easy labour, where I suspected or knew that subsequent hemorrhage would arise, from flabbiness of fibre and flaccidity of the organ ; because I think the secale cormitum, during the last hour or two of such labours, has in my hands been so beneficial, and seems more appropriate. In all the cases in which I have employed ether or chloroform, the patients and their friends have been perfectly satisfied and gratified with the results, and abundantly thankful for the boon. In only one case has there been any