In this showcase we see several pieces of anaesthetic equipment invented in France. (The Charrière device is missing since it is part of another exhibition in the museum of the Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris – the Paris hospital service. However, the brochure, kept in the University library is shown here.)
All the manufacturers in the major French cities (Paris, Lyon Marseille and Strasbourg created their own anaesthetic apparatus after1847. The introduction of chloroform would complete the range of devices.
As we have seen in the showcase of the origins of anaesthesia, various masks were employed. As a replacement for the mask, the ‘cornet’ was used by the French Army and Navy, notably during the Crimean War (1853-1856).
The first real French innovation appeared in 1855 with the arrival of the Raphael Dubois apparatus which permitted control of concentrations of chloroform during anaesthesia.
Dubois made a device that automatically mixed chloroform and air at predetermined concentrations so that the anaesthetist could control delivery without exceeding the lethal dose. At that time the technique was criticised because the apparatus was too cumbersome for the surgeons! It was not adopted until the 20th century.