Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1880 — Deadening Pain. [ARTICLE]

Deadening Pain.

The last number of the Medical Record contains a notice of a new and curious method es deadening pain, which is of striking simplicity. It was discovered by Dr. Bonwill, a dentist of Philadelphia, in 1875. In using the method the operator merely requests the patient to breath rapidly, making about 100 respirations per minute, ending in rapid expiration. At the end of from two to five minutes an entile or partial absence of pain results for half a minute nr more,. and during that time teeth may be drawn or incisions made. The patient may be in any position, but that recommended is lying on the side, and it is generally best to throw a handkerchief over the face to prevent distraction of the patient’s attention. When the rapid breathing is first begun (he patient may feel some exhileration; following this comes a sensation of fullness in the head or dizziness. The face is at first flashed, and afterward pale or even bluish, the heart beats rather feebly and fast, bat the sense of touch is not as fteted, nor is consciousness lost. The es. tcct is produced in females more readily than in males, and in the middle-aged more easily than in the old; children can hardly be made to breathe properly. It is denied that there is any possible danger. Several minor operations, other than frequent dental ones, have been successfully made by this method, and it is claimed that in dentistry, minor surgery and obstetrics it may supplant the common anaesthetics. Dr. Hewson’s cxpla nation is that rapid breathing diminishes the oxygenation of the blood, and that the resultant excess of carbonic acid temporarily poisons the nerve centers. Dr. Bonwill gives several explanations, one being the specific effect of carbonic acid, anotber Hie diversion ot will force produced by rapid voluntary muscular action, and. third, the damming up of the blood iD the brain, due to the excessive amount of air passing through the lungs. • The Record is not satisfied with the theories, but considers it well proved that pain may be deadened by the method, which it commeods to the profession for the exact experimental determination of its precise value. “Tastes good, doesn’t it?” asked the drug clerk,as the customer drank the soda water flavored with pineapple syrup. “Yes, very good.” The drug clerk laughed sardonically, and said: “Of course. But then you don’t know what it is made of.”

“What do you mean?” “The old mun’e oat,” he said, looking cautiously around the store, “and I’ll let you into som-i of the secrets of the business if you wont give me away. The old man made that pineapple syrup out of old cheese that you could smell through a fireproof safe. Fall es skippers, tool I’ll tell you a curious thine about that cheese. The old man cut off a slice and brought it up stain here with him one night. He laid it on the ceunter; next morning it was gone. Oome to leok, the little animals in it had shoved it onto the floor, wriggled it down the stairs and putlt back exactly in its old place in the cheese. The old man said that was an extraordinary illustration of the strength of the home instient in the brute creation.” “I think I'll be a skipper myself,” said the customer, with a white face, and he skippod out of the store to the nearest barroom.