Report of a committee of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, on the alleged dangers which accompany the inhalation of the vapor of sulphuric ether.

  • Boston Society for Medical Improvement (Mass.)
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a committee of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, on the alleged dangers which accompany the inhalation of the vapor of sulphuric ether. 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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    moreover, never show themselves in cases of inhalation for slight and trivial operations where the primary effects of ether have been just as well marked as in the severer operations after which they were alone noticed. Of the six cases in which death occurred in less than 24 hours, three, viz., Nos. 3, 8 and 12, have been al- most universally set aside as inconclusive; two, Nos. 15 and 21, are manifestly unattributable to the ether. Of the sixth, No. 40, the details are very meagre, but that the death had any connection with the anaesthetic, is at least improbable. In the remaining seven- teen cases where death was immediate, or nearly so, the connec- tion between the result and the inhalation is either problematical or else manifestly absurd and unfounded, except in four instances, viz., cases 1, 25, 34 and 39, where it was due to asphyxia, brought about by wholly avoidable causes. The administration of an anesthetic in articulo mortis, as, for example, in an operation for strangulated hernia, may sometimes merge the sleep which it produces into the sleep of death, with- out the termination of the case being hastened by, or attributa- ble to, the inhalation. Patients die from croup during an attempt to save life by tracheotomy, and may equalljr succumb to tetanus or delirium tremens during the inhalation of ether or chloroform. Cases 23, 27, 28 and 30, must be considered as instances belong- ing to such a category. Every one of the seven cases where no mention is made of the period after which death took place, admits strong doubt of the connection between the result and its cause, oi else is insufficient in evidence to produce conviction. The remaining cases of the table not yet accounted for, viz., os. 16, 19, 20, 24 and 29, are no better able to stand the test of examination. Hie character and circumstances of the operation m tue hrst threg certainly absolve the ether. In the 4th (No. 24), ti™? °* t|1G lnjury as sllown by the autopsy and the condi- the unapat,ct at the time of inhalation-it being such as in c or o ,n 0rT °f U,0Se PreSent w°W P«mlt the use etherized^ ’■ T'™ ^ ^ tllat he »e™r was fairly count fb, tJp? i ?™e othor cause lho anaesthetic to ne- ed with the rc CS ' ’rll° Ostoryof.andthc statements connect bcin, reUod „„Tg <*’• ^ that from Thn t i an lnstancc of death from ether. a ements, ol any author, however distinguished in posi-