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
_Cerebral Disease._ Affections of the head offer no obstacle to the
administration of chloroform. I have given it to several patients who
had suffered previously from an attack of apoplexy. Some of them still
retained the paralysis resulting from their attack, but the chloroform
has not been attended or followed by ill effects in any of these cases.
The following case, in which alarming head symptoms had existed a few
hours before the inhalation of chloroform, cannot fail to be
interesting.
The 31st of October, 1854, was appointed by Mr. Fergusson to perform
lithotrity on a gentleman, seventy-eight years of age, who had a
phosphatic calculus in his bladder. He was a patient of Mr. Propert, and
Mr. Fergusson had removed a similar calculus by lithotrity, and I had
given him chloroform at each of the operations, and it was arranged that
he should have chloroform on the present occasion. Mr. Propert informed
Mr. Fergusson and me, on our arrival, that his patient had had an attack
the night before resembling apoplexy; he had been insensible, the
breathing had been stertorous, the pupils dilated, and the face very red
and congested. Mr. Propert had caused him to be cupped to fourteen
ounces, and had given him twenty grains of calomel in the course of the
night, and in the morning he was as well as usual, and remained so at
the time of our visit. We considered the case with Mr. Propert, and as
there were reasons for not postponing the operation, it was determined
that he should inhale the chloroform rather than be subjected to the
pain. The vapour acted very favourably; he recovered his consciousness a
few minutes after the operation, and expressed himself as feeling quite
well.
Mr. Fergusson crushed another calculus in this patient in March 1855,
when I again administered chloroform, and in 1856 I understood that he
was free from the complaint.
_Insanity._ Chloroform acts on insane patients just as it does on
others, that is to say, they are made insensible by it, and, when its
effects completely subside, it leaves them in the same state of mind as
before. Insane people are, however, often so suspicious that they cannot
be persuaded to inhale chloroform, and it can only be given to them by
force. When once under its influence, however, I have seen teeth
extracted, and other operations performed, which it would have been
impossible to accomplish in the same individuals without resorting to
inhalation. The use of chloroform in the treatment of mania will be
alluded to in another part of this work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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