Surgical experience of chloroform / by James Miller.

  • Miller, James.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical experience of chloroform / by James Miller. 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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    both sexes, will have a great dread of any instrument, how- ever simple in itself, being adjusted to the face, and buckled on there. The young will kick, yell, struggle; and in re- sisting, will help to choke themselves immaturely and fruit- lessly ; the old will sustain excitement or shock, inimical to the result desired; or may at once and firmly decline the or- deal altogether. Whereas the most timid, at any age, are little likely to be afraid or resent the presence of a handker- chief, or something like it, which is simply held before their face, and gradually approximated to the mouth and nostrils. And when in the alarmed child it is necessary to use a little compulsion, there is no instrument whatever that will follow the boisterous movements of the little head so certainly and so safely. The struggle proves a very brief one; and, like a hooked trout, the more splutter it makes at first, the sooner is it quiescent and helpless. The handkerchief, lint, or glove—arranged somewhat after the fashion of a cone, the interior of which suffices to hold mouth and nostrils comfortably—saturated with pure chloro- form, is held at the distance of a few inches, and then gradually brought nearer until mouth and nostrils are fairly included. And there it is held loosely on the face—unless rapidly changed for an increase of dose—until the desired stertor and unconsciousness have occurred; close contact and tho- rough drenching of the handkerchief or lint being avoided, otherwise the chloroform is apt to trickle down and irritate the skin. As in remedial bleeding we do not think it neces- sary to be telling off the ounces as they flow, but are regu- lated entirely as to the amount drawn by the effects produced, so we as little think of dropping, or otherwise measuring the chloroform. The object is to produce insensibility as com- pletely and as soon as we can ; and there is no saying, a priori, whether this is to be accomplished by fifty drops or five hundred. We begin with generally two or three drachms spilt on the handkerchief or lint; and we refresh that, or not, from time to time, as circumstances require. With the general instructions for application given by Dr. Simpson, I most fully concur ; more especially as to the in- B