"L: Operations without pain at St. George's Hospital--Snow administers chloroform using ether vaporizer."

View this document as a PDF

Short descriptions of five surgical operations conducted at St. George's on 18 and 25 November (two on that day), 2 and 9 December 1847. In all instances, "chloroform was administered by Dr. Snow with his ether apparatus."

[The apparatus would have been the (Mark IV) vaporizer Snow had been using since late June or early July; it is depicted below:

When you consult the PDF, please note the reporter's description of how Snow varied the temperature of the water bath in the vaporizer, depending on the operation and the patient beginning with 25 November. The reporter may have been aware of Snow's presentation at the Westminister Medical Society on the 20th, where he displayed an uptake table for chloroform; or Snow may have made remarks on the subject to the assembled on-lookers in the operating theatre; or both.]