Chloroform : its properties and safety in childbirth / by Edward William Murphy.

  • Murphy, Edward W. (Edward William), 1802-1877.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chloroform : its properties and safety in childbirth / by Edward William Murphy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    conscious of anything that is done. At this de- gree the eyelids may be touched without winking, the pupils are drawn upwards, there may be stertor, and if so, chloroform should be with- drawn. This state may be continued with safety during any ordinary operation, and is extremely useful if it should be severe, as in some cases of turning and perforation. A forceps operation may also require this extent of anaesthesia, but not necessarily so. In the second degree, when the reflex system begins to manifest its influence, it has been stated that occasionally the exclamations of the patient are rather exaggerated than controlled; so also when profound sopor is induced, it sometimes hap- pens that she cries out, as if suffering from pain, and yet, when consciousness returns, is not aware that she did so ; she has no recollection of pain; she will tell you she had none. I was once called to a case of difficult labour in which this occurred. It was the first child, and the woman had sufi'ered very severely for twenty-four hours. The head was arrested in the pelvis, and it was necessary to ex- tract it with the forceps. Chloroform was admi- nistered to its full extent; the woman was in a profound, but not stertorous, sleep. She lay on her side, perfectly unconscious of anything that was done. She did not notice the first efibrts at extraction; when suddenly, as the forceps was pulled, she exclaimed, Oh ! my back.^^ She did this two or three times; but as the child was being delivered, she said nothing, and seemed asleep.