Nitrous oxide; its properties, method of administration and effects.

  • Guilford, Simeon Hayden, 1841-1919.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nitrous oxide; its properties, method of administration and effects. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    titioners. After the administration of ether to an unmarried woman for the extraction of teeth, he was accused by her of criminal assault. Undoubt- edly innocent, he was nevertheless convicted of the crime upon the unsupported testimony of the woman herself, and sentenced to ten years’ impris- onment, though, fortunately, afterward pardoned. Strange to say, a physical examination of her per- son at the time or before the trial was not made, and thus one of the best evidences of guilt seemed to have been entirely overlooked. Fortunately, with our present increased knowledge of the action of amesthetic agents, and of the peculiarities attend- ing their administration, a similar verdict under similar circumstances could scarcely be reached at the present day. The dentist who confines himself to the use of nitrous oxide, and avoids the more powerful agents, is not likely to be accused of criminal assault, as the duration of the amesthetic influence is too short to admit of such a result. It will not exempt him, however, from the possible charge of attempted lib- erties, and to avoid this, as well as charges of any other character, it becomes his duty to protect him- self by always having a third person present when he administers an anaesthetic to a female. Legal complications may follow accidents of any nature occurring at the dentist’s hands. Those of a minor character, such as luxation of the inferior maxilla, injury to the soft tissues, or the lodgment