SAFETY OF ANÆSTHETICS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12966, 20 November 1907, Page 6

SAFETY OF ANÆSTHETICS.

■ "It is really safer for a patienttbfos v placed under anesthetics than Jt.il for, ait ordinary person to attempt to tnjWf't'i ; ono of our crowded Ukwong|tran»."r , ' This statement was mad* recently byV ,, ' ; high official of the London Hoepitfl,.; "'. while discussing eome©beervatidiw ■»*• ," A \ by Pr. Waldo, the City coroner;; W^. reference to a death under anrcethewl '*.•'" at Guy's Hospital. The coroner caw *'-';, euch cases wero extremely important ;. the public. During the past «x' and •*' r lia-lf years ]io had hold inqueito r 0«H r t thirty-six poreons who had dwl inOnre *wjf'. Hoemtal while under anawthetie*. public probahly haro no idea with «afoty anucethetic* arc noif •dmineter-'JW; cd," commonted the London.Ho«prt*tt«F' official. "Here, on an averagr, int*%W t patients aro placed under «in*ethoti«ito<o'S' every day. In. 1904 thore were? 16,148 >rf cases, and of that number tweaty-wpMA died during the period- of but only lour of the 15,142 died-froK t,O» tho effect* of the anesthetic, sTJ»rtenn 'death undor eneethetioi' n «*- X 1 • foptible of many moanings. Here *#■*'<~ mlopt the strictest interpretation. *«f ? "v t 4 inetance, a man may bo brought in-»■•.<,„,; > has had both hie leg* cut off «f • ; cult. of a railway eocidenfc. He ansy ** | bo at the point of death when h* enter* • . our doors, end, in fact, die is put, on the operating table «nd tfl« - ' anicsthotic bag adjusted. Wβ eliould - . rogard that^as a death under an««thctice, although tho anaisthetira hw nothins whatever to do with nw-dea-th, • " , "■' v