Anaesthesia, or the employment of chloroform and ether in surgery, midwifery, etc. / by J.Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaesthesia, or the employment of chloroform and ether in surgery, midwifery, etc. / by J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    trated in different years, were always in nearly the same pro- portion.* Third Proposition.— The absolute number of those that re- cover, should, ccBteris paribus, be as fixed as the number of those that die from individual diseases in a given time, in a given population.—The preceding table (No. II.) shows how many died of the several affections included under it, during a suc- cession of years. If our statistics were more specific and de- tailed, we ought to be able to tell also how many recovered each year from attacks of each of these affections, as well as how many died from them ; and if we could thus count the number of recoveries as well as the number of deaths, by striking the proportion between them, we would obtain the average mortality of each disease. The deaths, for instance, from croup, amount on an average to 4325 each year. But if at the same time we knew the total average number of cases of croup that occurred every year (say, for the sake of illus- tration, that they amounted to 13,000 in all), then the mortality of the disease would amount to nearly 1 in 3; or out of every three patients attacked with croup, two would recover and one die. The Registrar's reports, however, do not furnish us with * If all liuman actions could be registered, says Quetelet, it might be sup. posed that their numbers would vary from year to year as widely as human caprice. But this is not what we in reality observe, at least for that class of actions of which we have succeeded in obtaining a registry. I shall quote but a single example; but it merits the attention of all philosophic mind-i. In every, thing which relates to crimes, the same numbers are reproduced so constantly that it becomes impossible to misapprehend it—even in respect to those crimes which seem perfectly beyond human foresight, such as murders committed in general at the close of quarrels, arising without a motive, and under other cir- cumstances to all appearance fortuitous or accidental. Nevertheless, experience proves that murders are committed annually, not only pretty nearly to the same extent, but even that the instruments employed are in the same proportions.— Treatise on Man, p. 6. The following table, abridged from Quetelet, may enforce still more the truth of his observations. Table of the Annual Total Numher of Murders, and Instruments of Murder, in France, collected from the Reports of Criminal Justice, from 1826 to 1831. Modes of Murder. Total Number of Murders, By Gun and Pistol, . . By Knife, By Stones, By Kicks and Blows, By Cudgel, Cane, &c., . By Stabs, Cuts, and Bruises By other means In )82S. In 1827, 241 56 39 20 28 23 35 40 234 64 40 20 12 23 40 30 In 1828. In 1829. In IS30. In 1831 227 60 34 21 21 31 42 18 231 61 46 21 23 24 45 1] 205 57 44 11 17 12 46 20 266 88 34 9 26 21 49 39 The difference in 1830 and 1831 from the preceding four years, were no doubt owing, in a great degree, to the Revolution of 1830, and its immediate effects.