On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administrationSnow, John
History
On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administration
Snow, John
Anesthetics; Chloroform; Snow, John, 1813-1858
_Case 18._ I am indebted for my information respecting this case to Dr.
James Adams, of Glasgow, who was good enough to send me a copy of the
notes respecting it, from the case book of his colleague, Mr. Lyon, in
whose practice, in the Glasgow Infirmary, the case occurred, in March
1850. The patient was a boy seven or eight years old, from the
Highlands, whose health was considerably impaired by years of suffering
from calculus. Mr. Lyon says, “being laid in bed, I placed a piece of
lint, moistened with chloroform, near to his face, when, in a few
minutes, he ceased crying. I now told my clerk to take charge of the
chloroform, and introduced the sound. I thought I detected a calculus,
but could not hear the click distinctly, in consequence of the patient
moaning. One of the bystanders held his hand between my ears and the
patient’s face, when the click was at once heard. I withdrew the
instrument, and was horror-struck with the livid countenance and vacant
eye of the patient; the cardiac and radial pulses were gone, and, making
one deep gasp, he was to all appearance dead.” Artificial respiration
and other measures were employed without effect. “The external jugulars
being remarkably turgid, and the face still very livid, the right
jugular was opened, when several ounces of dark blood flowed rapidly.”
This measure, and galvanism, which was applied afterwards, were of no
avail.
_Case 19._ The subject of this case was Alexander Scott, aged
thirty-four, a police constable, who died in Guy’s Hospital in June
1850, whilst undergoing an operation for the removal of a portion of the
right hand. Mr. Cock, the operator, said that he was certain there was
no disease about the patient. He described the accident as follows:—“The
ordinary machine was used, and, as it had not the effect, witness
directed that a napkin should be folded into the shape of a cone, which
was applied with chloroform. The occupation of removing a portion of the
bone occupied one minute and a half, but before it was completed, the
blood which was gushing out, suddenly stopped, when witness directed Mr.
Lacy to feel the pulse of deceased, and they found that deceased had
expired.”[87]
The sudden stopping of the hæmorrhage shews that, in this case, as in
the others, the action of the heart was suddenly arrested. The first
attempt to cause insensibility failed in this as in some other cases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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