Painless operations in surgery.

Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Painless operations in surgery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    THE ECLECTIC MAGAZINE OF FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. JULY, 1847. From the North British Review. PAINLESS OPERATIONS IN SURGERY. y-Cf^' 1 -<r T.> «11 1. A Treatise on the Inhalation of the Vapor of Ether, tj-c. / By J. Robinson, Sur- geon-Dentist, &c. London, 1847. 2. Notes on the Inhalation of Sulphuric Ether, in the Practice of Midwifery. By J. Y. Simpson, Professor of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, 3. The Medical Periodicals, passim. CThe following article has an interest as deep and wide as human snflFering, as a clear and entertaining description of one of the most remarkable discoveries of the age. The author's great familiarity with the subject, as well as his evident learning and experience as a surgeon, give his statements great authority; while the enthusiasm and humor which his graphic delineations evince, not only .take aw.iy all profes- sional abstruseuess, but give the article extraordinary literary attraction.—En,] At first sight, this subject may seem to lie beyond the strict range of our Journal, and to belong rather to those periodicals which treat exclusively of physic and surgery. But a moment's reflection makes it very plain how this is a matter which touches all members of the human family alike ; or, if there be any difierence, patients are more interested than practitioners—the laity more than the profession—the mass more than the medical section of mankind. No doubt, it is a boon to the surgeon to know that he can achieve what he knows to be essential for his patient's welfare, with- out, at the same time, inflicting on him an instant's pain. He will be very thankful Vol. XI. No. III. 19 to find a fellow-being placid, and calm, and motionless, under an operation which used to cause much torture, as evinced too plain- ly by writhings, and shoutings, and groans. His hand is all the steadier ; his head all the more cool and collected; his feelings are comparatively untouched; and his heart, all thankful, is incomparably at ease. But surely the boon is greater far to the victim—to the suffering portion of humanity. Injury and disease often re- quire operations of dread severity ; fearful in themselves, and still more fearful in an- ticipation. In war, the bravest hearts, who cared not for the foeman's steel, and scarce felt the wound it made, have yet shrunk back from the friendly knife which in kindness had to follow. In disease, the sternest minds, and the most possessed, have looked death steadily in the face, day by day, week by week, and month by month ; they have reasoned calmly of that which they believed to be surely carrying them onward to their grave ; and yet they have turned, trembling and appalled, from the thought of an operation which a turn of