Chloroform : its action and administration ; a handbook / by Arthur Ernest Sansom.

  • Sansom, Arthur Ernest, 1839-1907
Date:
1865
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chloroform : its action and administration ; a handbook / by Arthur Ernest Sansom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/208 (page 2)
    Volta and tbe host of observers wliich followed the first idea became developed iuto a science, and the science begat the practical result, is sufficiently know^n. A process similarly gradual was observed in the case of the discovery of means for producing insensibility to pain, and of preventing the sufl'ering which surgical operations inflict. The ge'heral idea was implanted at the earliest ages and was gradually develojied ; old systems were discarded as other and better ones presented themselves—and there was a culmination in the discovery of chloroform. None the less honour to him in whose mind this result was attained. The ancients knew that, in certain states of the system, sensibility was wholly or partially destroyed; their observa- tions upon epilepsy, catalepsy, upon advanced intoxication and the effect of certain medicinal substances, taught them this. They were acquainted witli the power of medicines to relieve pain or assuage grief Thus Helen tempers with drugs the draught that she ofl'ers to Menelaus and his friend. *' To clear the cloudy front of wrinkled care. And dry the tearful sluices of despair, C'liamicd with that virtuous draught, the exalted mind All sense of woe delivers to the wind.* These agents—Nepenthes—did not annul the faculty of sensation, but they deadened it. The ancient Egyptians used many drugs for producing a state of intoxication or ecstasy; they were taken either as potions or electuanes. Of these there were various pre- parations of Indian hemp (Cannabis Indica), the juice of the poppy (AfEon,the meconium of the Greeks) and another which was used when opium was scarce—the electuarium bernavi. The effects of these preparations of Indian Hemp are thus dejjicted.t First they cause exhilaration ; the men who have swallowed them become talkative, sing love-songs, and laugh ; then they are rendered delirious, and fight and mutilate each other. This stage lasts an hour, then follows a stage of wild excitement, the characteristic of which is violent anger. Lastly is a stage of grief, during which they weep and lament; then they return to normal health. Such was the enjoyment of the Egyptians in their con\i\ial feasts. * ' Odyssey,' iv, 220.