Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-12-29
No More Nausea from Ether?

Several months ago we described a
new method of administering ether
the introduction of the anaesthetic in
to the blood direct, on carriage of
salt solution to prevent coadulation of
the blood 1t was said in behalf of this
method that it did away with the ter
rible ordeal of ether sickness which is
dreaded more by some than is the
operation itself. 1t was said of this
plan that the percentage of deaths
from major operations have been Won
derfully decreased.
Now new method of etherizing
without nausea is being used with
splendid success in several of the lead
ing hospitals of the country. 1t is
claimed for this method that the death
risk of anaesthesia has been practical
ly eliminated. The method is described
by its inventor, Dr. James T. Gwath-
! mey, anaesthetist of the Skin and
| Cancer Hospital and st. Bartholo-
news Hospital, New York, and by DR..
Charles Baskerville, professor of chem
istry at the college of the city of New
York
In its first form this method was de-
vised by DIR. Gwathmey several years
ago and though used in 6000 cases
without single death caused by the
hn
come into general use. The Harlem
Hospital of New York, uses this meth
cd and it is also employed at Johns
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, as well
as in the new city Hospital in Cincin-
natl. 'Vapor anaesthesia" is what DR..
Gwathmey calls the method. What he
does is to force the vapor of ether or
chloroform, or mixture of both
through warmed water before letting
the patient breathe it. The warmth of
the water causes the anaesthetie, in
stead of irritating the mucous lining
of the lungs and bronchial tubes by
it's GOODNESS, to reach them at approx
imately blood heat. The water itself
absorbs the poisonous aldehydes.
which, with the irritation caused by
the chill, have caused the nausea.
The apparatus invented by DR..
Gwathmey consists of three glass bot
ties with one stopcock. One bottle
holds ether, another chloroform and
Al, a.; faxxy daOr
higher than the temperature of the
blood. With foot pump the man who
is administering the anaesthetic forces
the vapor to bubble through the water
just as smoke bubbles through the
| bowl of a hookah. Pressed against the
| patients mouth and nose is mask.
| 1t is not the old-style mask filled with
| gauze into which the anaesthetie was
poured drop by drop. Its rim is a tube
perforated with a series of holes,
| through which the vapor is pumped.
| The first thing DR.. Gwathmey does
when he begins to anaesthetiZe q pa
| tient is to pour few drops of spirits
| of orange on gauze which he lays over
| the top of the mask. He has found out
recently that the odor of this perfume
is so penetrating that a person who
| takes a few whiffs of it before the
ether -ehloroform is turned on will
| not smell the -anaesthetic at all. Thus
| the dreadful odor.. of the anaesthetic
more repugnant to many a sufferer
| than the operation itself, is eliminat-
ed; and the nurses and doctors at the
operating table. too, smell only or
| anges.
| DIR. Gwathmey having tried his
method on many patients found that
he had to use only about one-half as
much anaesthetic as heretofore. He
also stated that patients before they
| became unconscious were not excited
as they used to be, that instead of be-
ing sick when they came to their
senses they said they felt fine"-wit-
ness the case of DIR. Gwathmeys own
son. who after a mastoid operation in
which his father administered chloro-
form. called at once for ice-cream, got
il and was not nauseated for a mo.
ment.
DR.. Gwathmey was also delighted t.
observe that with his apparatus mar
COSTS could be evenly maintained
throughout an operation and that thu