Wooden statue showing a stomach operation, Cameroon, 1925-1935
A surgeon is performing an operation on the stomach of his African patient while his assistant gives an anaesthetic through a face mask. Liquid drops of either ether or chloroform were dropped on the mask and the vapours inhaled. This statue was given to Dr Simpson, the Medical Officer at Bameda, Cameroon, who is the surgeon depicted by the statue.
Object number:
A656670
Related Themes and Topics
Glossary:
Glossary: statue
A sculpture in the round representing human or animal figures or small figure groups; a statuette is a smaller sculpture.
Glossary: face mask
No description.
Glossary: anaesthetic
An agent that causes insensitivity to pain. Applied to either the whole body (general anaesthetic) or a particular area or region (local anaesthetic).
Glossary: chloroform
A liquid formerly used as a general anaesthetic although no longer used for this purpose as it causes liver damage and affects the heart rate. It is now used in low concentration to treat flatulence.
Glossary: ether
A volatile liquid (resulting from the action of sulphuric acid upon alcohol) formerly used as an anaesthetic. Ether was usually inhaled.