On the Inhalation of the Vapour of Ether in Surgical Operations; Containing a Description of the Various Stages of Etherization, and a Statement of the Result of Nearly Eighty Operations in Which Ether Has Been Employed in St. George's and University Coll (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1847. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... this time she seemed to have recovered her consciousness (the nature of the operation, however, preventing her from speaking for some time). The wound healed by the first intention, and the. patient was able to walk out within a fortnight. She said that she felt nothing of the removal of the tumor, and she was much satisfied with the ether; but for which, indeed, she could not have been prevailed on to submit to the operation. Her appearance was much improved, the deformity caused by the want of the jaw being much less than that which the tumor produced. Ether contributes other benefits besides preventing the pain. It keeps patients still, who otherwise would not be. I gave it lately, for this object alone, to a child on whom Mr. George Pollock operated for cataract by drilling. The child was perfectly quiet, and the eye and eyelids were quite passive. It had been operated on before, and without the ether would have made all the resistance in its power. In the case related at page 45, Mr. Liston considers that he should have been unable to secure the bleeding vessel without the second application of the ether. The relaxing effects of ether are much greater than those of the warm-bath and emetics. In the case, No. 40 of the list subsequently to be given, Mr. Tatum reduced a dislocation of the shoulder of ten weeks' duration, in a muscular man, under the influence of ether, when it was observed, before the traction was exerted, that the muscles were completely relaxed, and the arm much more moveable than before the inhalation. Other cases of reduction of old dislocations, under the effects of ether, have been related in the medical journals, and also cases in which the surgeon was enabled, by means of it, to reduce strangulated hernia? with the taxis, where, other...