Evening journal., 1916-08-18
NEW YORK Gives
UP TWILIGHT SLEEP
Long Island College Hospital
Only One 10 Advocate
the Treatment
GREAT MENACE IS
SEEN IN METHOD

NEW YORK. Aug. 1S.-Action Of
Johns Hopkins Hospital. Baltimore. in
disapproving twilight sleep after
tests extending over a lengthy period,
on the ground that the menace to the
life Of the child is too great TO warrant
its use, follows by more than year
similar action on the part OF the ma
jority of New York hospitals, where
maternity cases are received.
AS early as April, 1915, the twilight
sleep treatment in childbirth wasaban-
doned at the Polytechnic Medical School
and Hospital. Il also was abandoned
about the same time at the City Hos
pital on Blackwell's Island
Yesterday It was said az the Jewish
Maternity Hospital on East Broadway,
at the sloane Hospital for Women on
Fifty-ninth street. Lebanon Hospital IN
the Bronx and the Lying-in Hospital,
on Seventeenth street that the twi-
light sleep method no longer is used
by them.
At Gouverneur Hospital IL was said
the twilight sleep method now Is USED
only in specially selected cases, ana
that not more than one OF two treat
ments a month are given in the ma
tefnity ward
i'sed In Brooklyn Hospital.
AT the Long island College Hospi-
tai in Brooklyn. however the lwl-
light sleep method is held In as high
regard as it ever was snce II was
put into practice there.
1--WE use the twilight sleep method
whenever the patients want IT, one
OF the obstetricians at the hospltal
said Yesterday. "and almost always
with success" Il was declared by
the hospital officials that the action
OF Johns Hopkins Hospital in disap-
nrovine the method would have no
effect on its use at the Long Island
College Hospital and that the hospital
had no intention OF giving II up now
after the satisfactory results which
had been obtained.
Or. A. J. Rooney. OF No. 1874 Henry
street. attending obstetrician ana
cynecologist of the Jewish Maternity
and Lebanon hospitals, almost a year
ago declared that the twilight sleep
method is practically a dead issue
now.
Or. Roney has written a paper on
The subject Of twilight sleep, based on
the large number of cases in the hos
pifals OF this city and almost 2,OOV
cases elsewhere in this country which
he has studied. The paper. which was
published In the American Journal o.
OF Obstetrics. sets forth DIR. Rongy
reasons for opposing the general us'
OF the twilight sleep method.
Like walking In Sleep.
"The treatment was accepted VIII
too much enthusiasm at FIRST" Dr
Rongy says There was great mis-
conception on the part OF the public
regarding this treatment. People
thought that il was painless or al
most painless. This is not so; there
Is as much pain as in ordinary child
birth. The only difference is that the
patient does not remember having the
sensation OF pain. The finer cells Of
the brain do not register the impress
sion. and when the mother comes T.
she thinks she has not suffered. The
strain is just as great with as with
out twilight sleep. In fact twilight
sleep is exactly like a man walking
in his sleep. He walks at night anc
knows nothing about il in the morn
ing. and in fact will deny il, but never
the less he has used his legs to walk.