Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Zuck.
The search for a connection between James Robinson, the dental surgeon who on 19 December 1846 administered the first general anaesthetic in England by the inhalation of the vapour of ether, and William Hooper, the pharmaceutical chemist who produced the best publicised and most widely used of the early commercial ether vaporisers, has revealed hitherto unrecognised aspects of the early history of general anaesthesia.
This apparatus was seen by one of us (DAW) in a private collection. Although it was one of the first ether inhalers to be manufactured commercially, and was described in the medical literature of the time, it is not mentioned in any of the histories of anaesthesia. Its genesis was unusual, and it presents a number of interesting features, not least being the purpose for which it was originally designed.
The identity of the artist who painted the well-known portrait of John Snow has been established. It has been discovered that the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1847.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
From time to time questions are asked about the origins and history of anaesthetic and postoperative recovery rooms. Early accounts of the use of these facilities, and their introduction into hospital planning, are reviewed.
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A technique of inducing auditory illusions was used so that 192 undergraduates heard through headphones either three asynchronous dichotic versions of the same repeating word, at each of three auditory locations (left, center, and right), or only one single repeating word, monaurally or diotically, at each location. Independent illusory changes at each location were reported. Subjects' reports of lexical illusions, but not nonlexical illusions, were fewer at the right ear for three- vs. one-signal listening. These results support the homolog activation hypothesis (Boles, 1990) in which disruption of interhemispheric communication occurs for the hemisphere least capable of processing lexical information. In the current experiment homolog activation led to loss of lexical information when received from auditory positions other than the right, when three signals are presented. Lexical illusions (Verbal Transformations) may be the result of the misapplication of lexical knowledge in an ambiguous situation, listening to a recycling word without stabilizing syntactic or semantic context.
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A long-forgotten chloroform inhaler, probably the first accurately calibrated, temperature compensatable, plenum vaporizer, is described. Its place in the dosimetric movement at the beginning of the 20th century is considered, together with a brief account of the life of its designer.
The innovatory features incorporated into A.G. Levy's regulating chloroform inhaler, and their contribution to modern vaporizer design, are examined. Levy may be credited with the important realisation that the gas mixture which leaves the vaporizing chamber is fully saturated at all flow rates; with the concept of the splitting ratio; with appreciation of the importance of the application of Reynolds' researches on laminar and turbulent flow to the design of anaesthetic apparatus; and with the provision of a facility to compensate for changes of temperature in the vaporizing chamber.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.