Salt Lake Tribune | 1915-09-28 | Page 16 | "Twilight Sleep" to be Discussed

"TWILIGHT SLEEP" 10 BEJSCUSSEI! A condition in which a new-born babe has no desire to breathe and a state in which the infant finds respiration impossible im-possible as a result of drugs administered adminis-tered to- its mother are the only drawbacks draw-backs to the success of "twilight sleep," according to Dr. T. Mitchell Burns of Denver, who is in Salt Lake to address the annual meeting of the Utah State Medical association, which will convene at 10 o'clock this morning at the Hotel Utah. When "twilight sleep" was first Introduced Intro-duced to. the medical world, Dr. Burns was one of the first physicians to realize its prospects. In 1907 he conducted several sev-eral experiments, but gave it up until a few years later. Since that time he has administered the "conversational anesthesia" anes-thesia" on eighty-five occasions and has not had a single maternal death. Less than a year ago he visited New York and tried to induce several of the hospitals hos-pitals there to adopt its use, but failed. Shortly afterward, however, some of the hospitals adopted the method and it is now in almost common use in that city. At the Hotel Utah yesterday Dr. Burns described "twilight sleep" as "the administration ad-ministration of an injection which induces a condition which, while the patient suffers suf-fers pain at the time, she has no memory of it afterward." He also said that one of its advantages was that it afforded the patient many opportunities to sleep and thus fortify herself agairust other attacks at-tacks of pain. Dr. Burns declared that, while "twilight "twi-light sleep" would never be In general use, it would some time be In "common use." He gave as reasons why it will never become a general practice the fact that some physicians will use ether and will not use chloroform, while others will use chloroform and not ether. Dr. Burns added that he believes the obstacles can be overcome. He said that physicians are now using strychnine in order to prevent these conditions, bi;t that enough experiments had not been made to determine Its value.