[Report in regard to the discovery of anaesthesia].

  • United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Anaesthesia.
Date:
[1854]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report in regard to the discovery of anaesthesia]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Further recognition of Dr. Morion's discovery by Dr. Wells. .It shows, a]so, that he thought Dr. Morton's discovery as well as his own, a humbug, though he does not say so. He was ap- prised that Dr. Morton was about to apply for a patent, and he did not believe he would get one. He advised him to sell licen- ses while his application was pending, and make as much money out of it as he could while the excitement lasted—very like the advice which he gave to Dr. Cooley as to the use he should make of the nitrous oxyd. He was evidently impressed with the belief that the success of Dr. Morton's anassthetic agent depended, also, to some extent, on the mental preparation of the patients. Dr. JVells and friends lose all confidence in Nitrous Oxyd, But I am prepared to show, beyond all cavil, that neither Dr. Wells nor Dr. Riggs, nor Dr. Marcy, had any confidence in nitrous oxyd as an ana;sthetic agent. They did not believe it to be efficient, and at the same time, safe. They had used it only in dental ope- rations prior to the discovery of Dr. Morton, and they were satis- fied, that in those operations, it ought not to be used. The Hon. James Dixon, an intelligent man—a member of Con- gress, and the friend and advocate of Dr. Wells, thus testifies: Q,ues. Did you ever have a conversation with Dr. Wells in regard to the use of nitrous oxyd, in which he discouraged its use by you in having teeth extracted; if so, state fully the conversa- tion ? Ans. I had repeated conversations with Riggs and Wells. Think both said that for so slight an operation as pulling teeth they would not advise its use, but that in severe surgical opera- tions, as amputation, it should be used, but in slight operations it was not best to run the risk of using the gas. Mr. Dixon was a man whose life and health were of value, it would not do, therefore, to overdose him with nitrous oxyd, lest it should superinduce asphyxia. He was an intelligent man, who could not by previous mental discipline be induced to feel no pain, or pretend that he felt none, under the influence of a moderate and safe inhalation; those gentlemen, therefore, both advised him, and I have no doubt honestly and well, that in slight operations as pulling of teeth, it was not best to run the risk of using the gas, and there was not much probability of his calling on them to administer it in a severe surgical operation, but if he had so called, I have no doubt they would both, as hon- estly, and more decisively, have advised him against its use. Indeed, in some few cases, in slight operations, and on probably peculiar constitutions, the operation of the gas appears to have been successful and innocent. But we have here the distinct avowal of both Drs. Wells and Riggs, that they did not consider it generally so, but thought its eflects ought not to be hazarded