A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, Title Page

A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, Title Page

Ether

Childbirth

Anesthesia, Obstetrical

The title page from A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, by Walter Channing, MD.

Dr. Channing was Professor of Midwifery and Medical Jurisprudence and Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Medical College. In 1832, he became a founder and chief physician of the Boston Lying-in Hospital, the first maternity hospital in New England—and an antecedent of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Channing was the first in the US to publish on the subject of anesthesia in childbirth. In this, his most influential work, Channing presented a statistical analysis of 581 cases of the use of ether and chloroform for the mitigation of pain during delivery. His positive evidence and advocacy reassured the public, and a heretofore unconvinced medical profession, that anesthesia was safe for mother and child.

Channing, Walter, 1786-1876

Boston, W.D. Ticknor and company

1848

Access to the original work depicted requires advance notice. Contact Public Services at chm@hms.harvard.edu for additional information

A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, by Walter Channing, MD

text

Excerpt, one page.

English

text

Rare books RG732.C36, Harvard Medical Library collection, Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library, Harvard University