Administering Anesthesia

[NH Civil War Gal]

From the National Museum of Civil War Medicine (with permission). I think this is one of the clearest pictures I've ever seen of anesthetic use.

Confederate Surgeon John Julian Chisolm became famous for his ingenious invention of an anesthetic inhaler. At the opening of the war, he advised his fellow rebel surgeons to use this method for applying chloroform:

The best apparatus is a folded cloth in the form of a cone, in the apex of which a small piece of sponge is placed. This is first held at some distance from the nose so that the first inhalation may be well diluted with air. As the exhilarating stage is reached this cloth should be approached to the nose so that a more concentrated ether may be inhaled, which will rapidly produce the desired insensibility.

Source:
Chisholm, J. Julian, M.D., "A Manual of Military Surgery for the Use of Surgeons in the Confederate Sates," Richmond: West & Johnson, 1861, page 382.

Image credit:
Detail from "U.S. Army medical wagon behind surgeon with surgical assistant administering anesthesia," Civil War, CP 1563, OHA 75, Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine.

#AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #HistMed #Anesthesia

 

[captaindrew]

From the National Museum of Civil War Medicine (with permission). I think this is one of the clearest pictures I've ever seen of anesthetic use.

Confederate Surgeon John Julian Chisolm became famous for his ingenious invention of an anesthetic inhaler. At the opening of the war, he advised his fellow rebel surgeons to use this method for applying chloroform:

The best apparatus is a folded cloth in the form of a cone, in the apex of which a small piece of sponge is placed. This is first held at some distance from the nose so that the first inhalation may be well diluted with air. As the exhilarating stage is reached this cloth should be approached to the nose so that a more concentrated ether may be inhaled, which will rapidly produce the desired insensibility.

Source:
Chisholm, J. Julian, M.D., "A Manual of Military Surgery for the Use of Surgeons in the Confederate Sates," Richmond: West & Johnson, 1861, page 382.

Image credit:
Detail from "U.S. Army medical wagon behind surgeon with surgical assistant administering anesthesia," Civil War, CP 1563, OHA 75, Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine.

#AmericanCivilWar #CivilWar #HistMed #Anesthesia

View attachment 465974

Hold on! I got the anesthesia right here!

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

And where have YOU been buddy??? @captaindrew

 

[JOHN42768]

Hold on! I got the anesthesia right here! View attachment 465982

For Medicinal purposes only!

 

[John Winn]

When I was a kid I had to have three wisdom teeth removed and it required surgery at a hospital (yeah, it was a long time ago). I had gas of some sort and it really wasn't that different than in the CW era methinks. So I feel I can relate a bit to what those guys experienced. My experience, for those who might wonder, was not good but I suppose it was better than no anesthesia. Sometimes reality doesn't offer you a lot of choices.

 

[captaindrew]

And where have YOU been buddy??? @captaindrew

Plowing snow every other day lately, went down to Olustee last weekend. Other than that dealing with a family issue. I'll tell you about it when we get a chance to chat. Something you've dealt with lately.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

When I was a kid I had to have three wisdom teeth removed and it required surgery at a hospital (yeah, it was a long time ago). I had gas of some sort and it really wasn't that different than in the CW era methinks. So I feel I can relate a bit to what those guys experienced. My experience, for those who might wonder, was not good but I suppose it was better than no anesthesia. Sometimes reality doesn't offer you a lot of choices.

When I had my tonsils taken out, also a long time ago, I was given ether and my experience was one of feeling I was falling in a deep tunnel, dropping down toward nothing, until I woke up with a sore throat. The modern stuff is much better.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

As the exhilarating stage is reached

This I believe is the stage at which the patient was likely to start yelling and thrashing about, giving anyone who was just passing by the impression they were in terrible pain. Also have read this flailing about is what led to the myth that many surgeries were conducted without anesthesia? True?

 

[Cavalier]

I had my tonsils out in the Dr.'s office in about in 1950 or 51. I don't they would do that nowdays. In 1917 my old man had his appendix taken out on the dining room table while his mother held a kerosene lamp for the Dr.to see by. Times have certainly changed!

John

 

[John Winn]

Yeah, my experience was quite traumatic. And I remember my father relaying how he had broken his arm and it didn't heal right so he had to go to the doctor who broke it again with a hammer and then reset it. I felt some sympathy with him because of my experience, our expereinces some fifty years apart.

Just to be clear, I had gone to the dentist to get the wisdom teeth extracted but they proved very difficult to extract. But he gave it his best and I suffered for what seemed like eternity. Eventually he gave up and said I'd have to go to the hospital. So, that's what dad arranged. It was a nightmare and when they finally got me on the table - after having left me by myself in a hallway strapped down to a gurney - they just put a mask on me (with not a single word before hand) and I remember the smell and feeling like I was being smothered. Afterward I was in a lot of pain and was very sick for a whole day. When I think about it I do feel real sympathy for those subjected to nineteenth-century "care." Better to have it done than to die but not a good experience to say the least.

 

[Pollaco]

I've read that General Forrest had that "Fallen Timbers bullet" removed without the benefit of anesthesia up in Memphis a week afterwords. Was the procedure done "without anesthesia" because there was none available or is that the way Forrest (or his doctor) wanted it?

 

[Stoney Dee]

I had my tonsils out in the Dr.'s office in about in 1950 or 51. I don't they would do that nowdays. In 1917 my old man had his appendix taken out on the dining room table while his mother held a kerosene lamp for the Dr.to see by. Times have certainly changed!

John

Early in my career (1976) as a biomedical equipment technician I had to make service call at a small community hospital on a Bovie Electrosurgical Unit. The OR tech said the ESU is in that closet across the hall. Inside the closet I noticed about a dozen red cans labeled ether. I knew that ether had been phased out in the 60s but hadn't ever seen a can of it before. After repairing the Bovie, I checked with the nurse to let her know and asked about the ether. She explained that the Doctor who had founded that hospital in the 50s would visit now and then and would always check to make sure that ether was still in there. She said it's just there to keep him happy and he wasn't allowed to even go in the OR. Those cans of ether stayed there until a new hospital was built in 1982.

 

[damYankee]

My father in law was a 17 year old sailor on a LST sailing for North Africa as part of Operation Torch, on the second day his tonsils became infected and required removal, the only medical personal onboard was a dental tech, after giving him a few stiff shots of whisky they strapped him down and proceeded to cut his tonsils out without any anesthesia, he was told they were saving it for the expected wounded.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

My father in law was a 17 year old sailor on a LST sailing for North Africa as part of Operation Torch, on the second day his tonsils became infected and required removal, the only medical personal onboard was a dental tech, after giving him a few stiff shots of whisky they strapped him down and proceeded to cut his tonsils out without any anesthesia, he was told they were saving it for the expected wounded.

Sounds about right. I was six years old when mine were taken out and that was the only reason they gave me ether. If I had been older I would have been expected to hold myself still during the operation.

Even in the 1960s we had a dentist in town who had a foot pedal drill for drilling cavities. When a new dentist came to town with something called "novocaine" that he used to numb your mouth, this older dentist retired.

 

[Mk VII]

Ether has a sickly sweet smell/taste, which is horrible. Had it for teeth, in the 1960s.