Medicine: Childbirth Aids

One of the most delicate and stubborn surgical problems is the relief of pain in childbirth. Injection of synthetic, cocaine-like drugs, such as novocain and procaine, into the canal of the spinal cord is objectionable because such injections act on the cord and brain, interfere with the heart. Anesthetics such as ether and nitrous oxide (laughing gas) are harmful because they cause a deficiency of oxygen in the blood streams of mother and child.

Last week in Manhattan, at the 17th Annual Congress of Anesthetists new, safe drugs for relief of labor pains were...

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