The cessation of respiration under chloroform, and its restoration by a new method / by R. Milne Murray.

  • Murray, R. Milne (Robert Milne), 1855-1904.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cessation of respiration under chloroform, and its restoration by a new method / by R. Milne Murray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    CHLOROFORM, AND ITS RESTORATION BY A NEW METHOD. Notwithstanding the manifest tendency during recent years to employ, for purposes of anaesthesia, sulphuric ether instead of chloroform, it is obvious that the latter drug is with many surgeons still the favourite. So far as I can learn, Scottish surgeons, with few exceptions, employ chloroform, only turning to ether in special and comparatively rare cases. On the other hand, in England and America the case is becoming rapidly reversed, the majority of operations being performed under ether, and the ex- ceptional ones under chloroform. This recent return to the older anaesthetic is to be explained by the growing impression that in point of safety ether has the advantage, while much of the diffi- culty of its administration is being overcome by improved apparatus and better methods of exhibition. Still, in spite of an admitted degree of greater safety, the administration of ether is undoubtedly attended by more than one disadvantage, and there is a suspicion, probably well founded, that all the risks attending its use do not end with its administration; but that to the list of in- convenient results must be added not a few pulmonary and other complications which may follow, and which may reasonably be attributed to its action. Be this as it may, chloroform is possessed of many advantages, not the least of which is its easy administration and its quick action; and it will no doubt continue to be employed by many until at least some substance more satisfactory than any yet brought forward is met with. Certainly I should think that there are but few obstetricians who would be enticed from the use of chloroform by any of the advantages which may be claimed for ether in general surgery. The extreme inflammability of the vapour, and the bulky apparatus required for its satisfactory ad- ministration, are in themselves sufficient to prevent its general use B