Another View: The Private Collector

Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, 2018

This World War 1 ether/chloroform vaporiser-inhaler was designed by and made for Captain Anstruther John Corfe by Private Eric Aspinall McMurdie, both of the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station (ACCS), Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC). It has a plaque attached labelled 25 May 1918. It is a perfect example of the ingenuity forced by the realities of war, and is one of the unique pieces in the Harry Daly Museum at the Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) headquarters in Sydney, Australia. While serving in Blendecques, France, Private McMurdie ingeniously fashioned this vaporiser from discarded items he found on the battlefield. These included Horlick's Malted Milk bottles, on which he etched measurements for ether and chloroform, and a spent brass artillery shell, which made the heating component of the inhaler. The 2nd ACCS triaged and operated on thousands of troops, and this inhaler is a reflection of the skills and innovative expertise of the staff of the 2nd ACC...

Critical Care Clinics, 2009

International Congress Series, 2002

Surgery, 2008

''To historicize science, technology, and medicine is to find the human meanings of technical projects in their origins and in their development.'' 1 J. V. Pickstone SEVENTY YEARS AGO, a huge step toward keeping whole organs alive in vitro was taken in the building of the so-called heart perfusion apparatus by the experimental surgeon and biologist Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) and the well-known aviator and machine builder Charles Lindbergh (1902-1972). This machine mimicked the function of the heart and lungs and allowed research on whole live organs outside the human body. Their first results were published in Science on June 21, 1935. 2 The apparatus stirred the interest of both researchers and the general public, but did not catch on. The present paper offers some insights into the contexts in which the apparatus was developed and the reasons for its decline, despite its scientific, medical, and public appeal. I contend that its rise and fall was the outcome of three interconnected developments: personal, institutional, and broad historical. These 3 levels of contextualization may provide the human meaning(s) of technical projects; the history of the Carrel-Lindbergh apparatus exemplifies how they might intertwine.

Acta Anaesthesiologica Taiwanica, 2010

Despite the stringent guidelines laid down by the American Society of Anesthesiologists for equipment checks, there are occasional reports of problems related to the equipment used to administer anesthesia. In this article, we discuss two important, albeit rare, problems associated with breathing equipment that have been reported in the literature. The rarity of these problems in itself may hinder early diagnosis because anesthesiologists do not usually consider these problems to be the cause of an ongoing patient morbidity. The first problem discussed here is the presence of a foreign body within the breathing system used to administer anesthesia. The second problem discussed is a kink in the breathing circuits that can precipitate lifethreatening problems if it is not detected early enough.

Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine, 2007

The start of the 19th century saw the enthusiasm of the previous one for mouth-to-mouth ventilation (MMV) dissipated. To inflate the lungs of the asphyxiated, the Royal Humane Society in the United Kingdom had recommended bellows since 1782. Principal determinants for change were aesthetic distaste for mouth-to-mouth contact and the perceived danger of using expired air, although MMV survived in the practice of some midwives. Following the 1826-9 investigations of Jean-Jacques Leroy d'Etiolles then François Magendie, all positive pressure ventilation methods were generally abandoned, after 1829 in France, and 1832 in the UK; but not chest compressions. During the next quarter century, rescuers lost understanding of the primary need for "artificial respiration", apart from researchers such as John Snow and John Erichsen, until Marshall Hall's "Ready Method" heralded the second half-century's various methods of negative pressure ventilation. Some of tho...

International Congress Series, 2002

Anesthesia & Analgesia, 2013

T he development of anesthesia in the 1840s and the ensuing controversy over priority and patents generated considerable correspondence that was published in newspapers, periodicals, and books. With the passage of time and extensive discussion of the controversies, it is unusual to find previously unpublished correspondence on the subject of anesthesia by any of the key participants.

Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association, 1991

Science Museum Group journal, 2023

Unveiled at the conclusion of a meeting of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1861,[1] 'Dr Nelson's Improved Inhaler' was one of the most important milestones in the genesis of reliable treatment of respiratory ailments in the modern era. Affordable and suitable for self-medication, the Dr Nelson's Inhaler offered simple and reliable relief for patients with respiratory and pulmonary ailments. Conspicuous for its modesty and simplicity, it was one of the most widely produced, reproduced, and used inhalation devices in the final third of the nineteenth century. By reconstructing the 'biography' of the Nelson Inhaler, this article will attempt to sketch a network of medical and commercial interests and expertise in London which aligned in the 1860s to help establish inhalation as a popular, inexpensive, and trusted form of medical therapy for pulmonary ailments. This article will look at what connects physicians, apothecaries, and patients in the era: the medicines and technologies that were prescribed, made, bought, and which caused wellness, side-effects, and even death. This approach allows us to develop a narrative of respiratory illness as it was experienced by practitioners and patients alike.