Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

1852.] External use of Chloroform. 433natural. The expression of relief is very striking. In otheruses of chlorofonn, or ether, consciousness is more or lessabolished, and we know nothing of the relief but what comesof absence of complaint. From its externa! use we learn atonce the whole story of the con)fort, the extreme pleasure whichis experienced.A^ijain. I present these cases in the hope that olhers will beinduced by their to seek for their patients' relief from othersources than those ordinarily employed, and which so ofien dolittle more than occupy a certain amount of lime in a self-limiteddisease. These cases show that we have the means ofshortening this time, nay, of giving relief at once, and thus ofanticipating recovery. I have used chloroform extei-nally butonce in acute inflammatory disease— puerperal peritonitis. Inthis case, after-pains continued until the fourth day from delivery,with retention of urine, and pain in the lower part of the abdomen,which broke sleep and produced extreme discomfort.This case was some miles from town, and I was attending inconsultation. I advised a trial of chloroform to the part, andused it as above described. Its effect was not agreeable. Theskin had been sodden with hot rum, brandy, hop-bags, &c., andhad been made so tender that unusual smaiting, tingling, andheat were at once produced, so as to make it necessary toremove the chloroform. There were recent leech-biies nearthe seat of pain, and these may have been irritated by theapplication. Should I as[ain use chloroform externally in similarcases, I would combine it with some ointment, say roseointment, in proportion of one or two drachms to the ounce ofthe ointment, and apply it on cloth, or, which would answerbetter, sheet or woven lint.Has not our subject important physiological and therapeuticrelations? The nerves, under ordinary circumstances and intheir healthful state, convey at once to the brain morbid occurrenceswhenever or wherever such happen, and thus mostimportant information is given of the state of the system, or ofa part of it. So, when the body in every part of it is in health,the nerves communicate the knowledge of this fact to the brainand mind. The result of such agency is that consciousness ofuniversal physical soundness— health—which constitutes thehighest enjoyment of life. But chloroform, as we have seenand said, abolishes pain—we do not say cures disease—and, intthis freedom from suffering, leaves it to the nerves to aid insuch living processes as are themselves tending to the recoveryof the diseased organ to health, and to aid the therapeuticpowers of medicine. The mind remains ignorant of the stateof the diseased part, so far as pain has given it knowledge of