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Morbidity and Mortality in Obsteterics as Influenced by Anesthesia

Montreal, Canada

Abstract

IT IS NOT our intention to dwell on the history of anesthesia. Only, it is worthy of mention that not long after the discovery of nitrous oxid, Humphrey Davy, the first superintendent of the Pneumatic Institute of Clifton, England, while working on the then known gases, noticed that the inhalation of nitrous oxid relieved pain. His friend Southey, the poet, used to visit the laboratory frequently and inhaled some. So impressed was he that the following eulogy came from his pen to his brother, "Oh Tom! Such a gas has Davy discovered! Oh Tom! I have had some, if makes me strong, and so happy! So gloriously happy! Oh excellent gas bag! Tom, I am sure the air of heaven must be this wonder working gas of delight." The anesthetist of today often hears this paraphrased, especially by the parturient women. This was written in 1798 and yet it was not until forty-six years later that this elastic fluid was used as an anesthetic, and then chiefly in dentistry for another twenty-four years, until Joseph Clover, surgeon and anesthetist, adopted nitrous oxid for general use in 1868.

Anesthesia & Analgesia® is published for the International Anesthesia Research Society® by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins with the assistance of Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press®. Copyright 2006 by the International Anesthesia Research Society. Online ISSN: 1526-7598   Print ISSN: 0003-2999