Anaesthetics.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 3, 28 September 1907, Page 4

Anaesthetics.

DOCTOR'S REMARKABLE STATE-' MENT. • A vivid description of the various stages through which a patient who dies under ah anaesthetic passes before life is extimct was given befora the British Association by Dr. Augustus D. Waller, president of the physiological section. Considering that chloroform had been in uso for sixty years, ho is reported as saying, and that tho uniform experience of physiologists was' that it was a dangerous drug aa ordinarily used, it was astonishing that its administration should not rest upon a moro scientific basis. AVOIDABLE DEATH CONSIDERED NORMAL. Deaths which could not havo occur- j red if tho principles laid down by . Show and Paul Bert had been properly appreciated and actod upon were still regarded by tho medical profession and tho public as the normal inciidents of medical practice, and attributed to any but the truo cause—an overdose of chloroform.. "When a patient is anaesthetised by chloroform in the usual manner," Dr. Waller proceeded, "the inhaled vapour, moro or less diluted in air, diffuses tlnoughout the entire body by the circulating blood. "Tho lymph bath that surrounds and permeates all the tissues and cells of the body becomo a weak solution , of chloroform in water, and gradually., within that weak chloroform atmosphere the most ' unstable parts fall under the immobilising effect of the anaesthetic, first f.he organ of conscious sensation. and movement—the surface grey matter, of tho brain—then' the organ of uncouscious reactions the interior grey matter of the spinii bulb and cord. FROM LIFE TO DEATH. "Tho order in which the effects'"unfold themselves are (after a brief stage of excitement) first • a suppression of sensation and voluntary movement, then a suppression of reflex and automatic movements, inclusivo of the movements of respiration. "Finally—and if this finally is roached the immobilisation, can. no longer be recovered from—tho heart stops beating. Tho patient is Bead." From life to death, Dr. Waller stated, there wero three finger-posts dividing the' journey into three stages. If when the conjunctiva, or the point where the lids of tho eye join the globo, are touched the -eye winks trio anaesthetic is light, if the oyo does not wink tho anaesthesia is deep and-the first finger-post is passed. ' ' The second finger-post is the arrest of respiration, and. the third and last finger-post the arrest of the heart's beat. "Arrest of the pulse signifies an almost hopeless state. The time of. grace between arrest of respiration and arrest of the pulso from which recovery is almost hopeless is very brief indeed—hardly more than a minute. .' "Stoppago of respiration means danger, stoppago of the pulse means death."