On the Use of Anæsthetics in Midwifery (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from On the Use of Anæsthetics in MidwiferyIt is no longer insisted that the mother does not encounter danger to her health or life from the endurance of the pains, or that in operative midwifery, especially in forceps operations, anaesthesia should not be resorted to, because the sensations of the patient afi'ord us our best aid for the introduction of the instruments. We now never hear it said, at least by intelli gent men, that the use of chloroform in labor leads to the deve 10pment of puerperal mania or puerperal fever. The time for d priom' reasoning on this subject has gone by. From the many thousand cases in which anaesthesia has been induced in midwifery, it would seem that clinical experience ought to be able to rettie all questions as regards the safety of anaas thesia, the choice of the agent to be used for this purpose, the indications for its use, its effect and value in each special indi cation, and that the proper and safe mode of administration of the special anaesthetic selected should be distinctly formular ized. Yet at this day, were a young physician at the com mencement of his professional career seriously to set himself to work to get a clear idea of the principles which should govern his practice, by a careful study of all the recent standard text books, and of the papers which have been read and the discus sions which have taken place before the learned medical societies in different parts of the world, he would find such a diversity of Opinion on the part of those whom he had been accustomed to regard as authority, and such a want of every thing like settled principle as to the indications for or against the use of anaesthetics, that his mind would surely be left in doubt and confusion. Let him take up, for example, the most recent work by one of our own number, excellent as it is in most respects, he will find, after the announcement that labor is unquestionably a natural process which should be designated, in strict physiological language, a function, the question is asked whether it is right to interfere with a function, properly so called, as long as its exercise is normal and within the true record of nature. The answer given is, I think not.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.