Scopolamine-Morphine Anaesthesia. And a Psychological Study of "Twilight Sleep" Made by the Giessen Method by Elisabeth Ross SHAW. FIRST EDITION. SIGNED BY BERTHA VAN HOOSEN.

VAN HOOSEN, Bertha

Published by Chicago: The House of Manz, 1915.

About this Item

Frontispiece [tipped-in photo of first baby born with scopolamine anesthesia], 216 pp; 15 plates. Original cloth. Top & bottom of spine, and of rear joint, rubbed. Corners of covers worn. Two large tears in last leaf of the text, which is Bibliography, pp. 215-216 (see photo). Upper corner of 111/112 folded-over. Rear flyleaf removed. Good. First Edition. SIGNED BY BERTHA VAN HOOSEN: "To Miss Ellen Gilbert, with best wishes from/ Bertha Van Hoosen" (see photo). Chapter VIII Elisabeth Ross SHAW: "The Mental Effects of Twilight Sleep. Preliminary Report, with Suggested Technique for Research" (pp. 103-184). Bibliography pp. 185-216. "Van Hoosen emerged as the most avid advocate of twilight sleep in the Midwest. She received her M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School and worked at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston before setting up practice in Chicago in 1892. Her enthusiasm for the method came from two sources: her strong commitment to the best in obstetrical care and her equally strong commitment to women's rights. Through her use of scopolamine in surgery and obstetrics, she became convinced that twilight sleep offered women a 'return of more physiological births' at the same time that it increased the efficiency of physicians, giving them 'complete control of everything.' She guided many other physicians to the twilight sleep method. In terms of safety and comfort, she could not imagine a better method of birthing. . . . Dr. Van Hoosen had successfully performed surgery on 2,000 patients with the help of scopolamine by 1908 and began using the drug routinely in deliveries in 1914. She concluded after 100 consecutive cases that scopolamine, properly administered, 'solves the problems of child-bearing' and is safe for mother and child" (Judith Leavitt, "Birthing and Anesthesia: The Debate over Twilight Sleep"). Bertha van Hoosen's autobiography "Petticoat Surgeon" (1947) has an extensive discussion of her views on, and use of, scopolamine in both surgery and in obstetrics. There is a good Wikipedia article on "Twilight Sleep". Margarete Sandelowski, Pain, Pleasure, and American Childbirth: from the Twilight Sleep to the Read Method, pp.3 26 (see p. 9 for specific reference to Bertha van Hoosen). Sim, Heritage of Anesthesia, p 165.

Seller Inventory # 16874

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Scopolamine-Morphine Anaesthesia. And a Psychological Study of "Twilight Sleep" Made by the Giessen Method by Elisabeth Ross SHAW. FIRST EDITION. SIGNED BY BERTHA VAN HOOSEN.
• Publisher: Chicago: The House of Manz, 1915.
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)