Twilight Sleep
Dr Florence Nightingale Ward
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
Homeopathic Doctors
Defend Twilight Sleep.
Dr Florence
Nightingale Ward (1860-1919)“Twilight
sleep,” which has been dragged into the limelight, and which drew
forth expressions of disapproval at the convention of the National
Eclectic Medical Association now in progress at the civic center
Auditorium, was unanimously defended and praised by the delegates of the
California State Homeopathic Medical Society’s convention yesterday
morning, when the second session of the convention was held at Inside
Inn at the Exposition.Prominent physicians
who defended the much talked of twilight sleep were Dr. Florence N. Ward of San Francisco, Dr. P.
S. Hunt of Santa Monica and Dr. E. R. Bryant of San Francisco.HAS STUDIED REMEDY.
Dr. Ward read a paper,
said by the physicians present to be the most comprehensive of any
articles ever prepared on the use and effects of the twilight drug. Dr.
Ward has just returned from a stay of nine months in New York, where she
has been studying the merits of “twilight sleep” under the
tuteluge of Professor Schlossing of Frieburg, Germany, who has
popularized the new anaesthetic. While in New York Dr. Ward witnessed
hundreds of cases where twilight sleep was used, and states that all
cases have been highly successful when the drug was administered in the
proper manner.“DOES NOT KILL
PAIN.”
Dr E. R. BryantDr. W. F. Mundy of
Forest, Ohio, made the following statement before the Eclectic medics:“It does not
produce the insensibility to pain claimed for it. It merely induces a
loss of memory, with the bad effect that it generally renders the
patient so unmanageable as seriously to hamper labor.”Before the Homeopathic
doctors yesterday Dr. E. R. Bryant
of San Francisco said:“There is not a
single case where twilight sleep, which is composed of scopalimin and
morphine, will not be of benefit if used intelligently.”GOOD WORK, GOOD RESULTS.
Dr. Florence N. Ward’s
address in part, concerning “Twilight Sleep” is as follows:“Clinical evidence
is accumulating to show that in the Gauss method of morphine-scopalimin
amnesia (‘twilight sleep’) we have a procedure of distinctive value. As
in all techniques, requiring good judgement and painstaking work in
their execution, poor results frequently will be encountered when it is
imperfectly understood and poorly done.“The hostility to
its use and the prejudice against it have been due not only to the
unwise exploitation in the lay press, but also to the forcing upon the
profession of a method for which it is inadequately equipped.“There is no doubt
but that mitigation of the suffering of childbirth and the conservation
of nerve force for women will hold a still larger place in obstetrics as
the years go on. It is in line with the general trend of medicine for
the amelioration of the condition for all types of patients.TO EXALT ENTIRE FIELD.
“We in the
profession who deal with the needs of women must recognize it and plan
our work accordingly. By so doing, in perfecting one branch of
obstetrics we shall exalt its entire field to a much more dignified
position than it has hitherto held.“In the present
instance our best work may be accomplished by testing and bringing
forward results upon a technique that has been so accurately worked by
Gauss upon hundreds of cases. After standardizing this method
modifications and developments will still further enhance its value, and
should make obstetrics as accurant an association technique as has
already been accomplished for surgery.”The delegates to the
homeopathic convention were the guests of Dr. Guy Edmund Manning and
Mrs. Manning at a reception last evening. The third day’s session will
be held to-day at the San Francisco Hospital.
Source
:
San Francisco Examiner. 18
June 1915. 3.Copyright ©
Sylvain Cazalet 2001
