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
There remain twenty-two cases in which the fatal symptoms came on during
the course of the operation. In twenty of these cases the symptoms are
described with more or less detail. I made some remarks respecting cases
No. 1 and No. 2, in the place where they are related. In case No. 3, as
in these cases, the patient appeared not quite insensible, and showed
signs of pain during the operation, when “in a moment his pulse, which
was full and natural, sank.” In case No. 5 the patient was probably dead
when the incisions on the finger were commenced; the extreme suddenness
of the death, and the absence of bleeding, show that death occurred in
the way of syncope. The convulsive movements which just preceded death
are worthy of note in connection with the other cases, in which death
occurred immediately after the commencement of inhalation. Some remarks
were appended to case No. 8. In case No. 10 paralysis of the heart is
indicated by the absence of bleeding from the arteries, and the absence
of pulse, whilst the breathing still continued for a short time. I made
some remarks respecting case No. 12 when it was related. The patient
seemed to die by embarrassed respiration, but whether that was caused by
the action of the chloroform on the brain is doubtful. In case No. 13
the patient died in a moment. In No. 16 the face turned pale, and the
pulse and breathing ceased soon after the chloroform was discontinued,
showing the effect of the vapour which was present in the lungs at the
moment when the inhalation was left off.
In Case 18 the livid countenance and sudden stopping of the pulse prove
cardiac syncope. In Case 19 the blood which was gushing out suddenly
stopped, and the patient expired. The congested state of the lungs and
the blood in the right cavities of the heart prove that the syncope of
which he expired was not the ordinary anæmic syncope from hæmorrhage; it
was therefore cardiac syncope from the chloroform.
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