Michael Underwood (1737-1820), the most advanced writer on diseases of children in the eighteenth century, gave the first English account of apneic attacks in the newborn infant in the fourth edition of his Treatise on the Diseases of Children (1799).
He wrote:
Mr. Hey, senior surgeon to the Infirmary at Leeds, ... reports that an infant born at the full time lay moaning and languid for four or five hours, and was then seized with a fainting fit: in which it continued for half an hour. In this state Mr. Hey found it. It had ceased to breathe except now and then giving a gasp, or sob, and was as pale as a corpse. There was however a sensible pulsation of the heart though feeble and slow, but whether the circulation had been kept up all the time previous to his visit could not be ascertained. As soon as Mr. Hey had time to consider the case he directed the infant's nostrils and temples to be stimulated with the volatile alkali, and when it became capable of swallowing, a few drops of the tinctura valerian. volat. were administered in a teaspoonful of water and repeated at proper intervals; it likewise took a teaspoonsful of the ol. ricini [castor oil].
The child had three other similar attacks in the course of the day, though it had slept composedly between whiles and sucked at the breast. It had seven more fainting fits in the night, two of which were severe ones; but Mr. Hey was not called again till the next morning.
Thoughts from a senior surgeon with an interest in ethics
