surgery for a much longer period. It is now only
sixty-nine years since Simpson first employed anesthetic in
obstetrics, while six years afterwards Queen Victoria gave her seal of
approval to the use of chloroform in labor cases.

Thirty years ago, in speaking of the expectant mothers, Lusk warned
us:

As the nervous organization loses in the power of resistance as
the result of higher civilization and of artificial refinement,
it becomes imperatively necessary for the physician to guard her
from the dangers of excessive and too prolonged suffering.

NITROUS OXID--"LAUGHING GAS"

Nitrous oxid, or "laughing gas," was first used in labor cases in 1880
by a Russian physician. During the last twenty-five years it has been
used off and on by numerous practitioners in connection with
confinement, but not until the last few years has this method of
relieving labor pain come into prominent notice.

While the "laughing gas" method of obstetric anesthesia did not gain
notoriety and publicity from being exploited in magazines and other
lay publications, it did get its initial boost in a very unique and
unusual manner. A gentleman who manufactured and sold a "laughing gas"
and oxygen mixing machine for the use of dentists, insisted that this
method of anesthesia should be used in the case of his daughter, who
was about to be confined. This patient was kept under this nitrous
oxid anesthetic for six hours--came out fine--no accidents or other
undesirable complications affecting either mother or child, and thus
another and safe method of reducing the sufferings of childbirth has
been fully demonstrated and confirmed, although it had previously been
known and used in labor cases to some extent.

Starting from this particular case in 1913, many obstetricians began
experimental work with "gas" in labor cases; and, at the time of this
writing, it has come to occupy a permanent place in the management of
labor, alongside of chloroform, ether, and "twilight sleep."

ANALGESIA VS. ANESTHESIA

The reader should understand the difference between analgesia and
anesthesia. Anesthesia refers to the condition in which the patient is
more or less unconscious--wholly or partially oblivious to what is
going on, and, of course, entirely insensible to all pain. Analgesia
is a term applied to the loss of pain sensation. The patient may not
be wholly or even partially unconscious--merely under the influence of
some age