The conservative attitude of American physicians toward the use of scopolamin and morphin during labor has been chiefly due to the lack of uniformity in the results obtained in the various German clinics, for in that country the method was devised and has been steadily improved. In a number of obstetric cases recorded by Schneiderlein,1 anesthesia obtained by this means proved fatal in one instance, and subsequently the use of these drugs for the purpose of obtaining complete anesthesia has not been advocated. A smaller dosage, as Steinbuchel2 found, would induce seminarcosis which was safe for the mother. While in this state the patient may be sensitive to pain but is unable to remember that she suffered, or in fact, to remember anything which occurred during the course of labor. This method of treatment, therefore, does not produce anesthesia, but seminarcosis and amnesia.
Steinbuchel's technic, however, did not