Death Penalty
It is not reasonable to claim that the lateral position provides the complete answer to a problem which has cleally become one of the utmost gravity, as one who has always used open ether in forceps delivery is in complete agreement with its "supreme safety".
Abstract
that with proper methods of anaesthesia the lithotomy position could be used with impunity. It is, of course, true that spinal or local analgesia obviates the risk of aspiration of vomit, but neither method is devoid of risk (especially the former), and it is doubtful whether either is destined to become the generally accepted method. Personally, as one who has always used open ether in forceps delivery, I am in complete agreement in regard to its "supreme safety," though I would qualify this with the assumption that anaesthesia would be induced, and the patient delivered, in the lateral position. Furthermore, I would point out that with the patient in that position there it no need for " bystanders" to take evasive action, there is no need for the patient to be subjected to the misery of a stomach tube, and pretty well the whole of the paraphernalia which seem to encircle the modern anaesthetist can be dispensed with. The guiding principle surely should be to ensure that aspiration of vomit does not occur at all, for once it has occurred the situation may rapidly get out of hand, and, even if the immediate risk is successfully averted, death may supervene within a short time after recovery from the anaesthetic.1 Simple methods, if they are sound, are often the best, and surely it is not mnreasonable to claim that the lateral position provides the complete answer to a problem which has cleally become one of the utmost gravity.-I am, etc.,