Circular : Morton's lethēon.

  • Morton, W. T. G. (William Thomas Green), 1819-1868.
Date:
[1846]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Circular : Morton's lethēon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    and even alarming: effects. I therefore would recommend, that it should never be employed, except under the inspection of a judicious and compe- tent person. Let me conclude by congratulating my professional brethren, on the ac- quisition of a mode of mitigating human suffering, which may become a valuable agent, in the hands of careful and well-instructed practitioners, even if it should not prove of such general application as the imagination of sanguine persons would lead them to anticipate. Boston, Dec. 3, 1846. Boston, December 7, 1846. Dear Sir ; In compliance with your request, I will briefly state my experience of the effects of the gas introduced into practice by Dr. Morton, and admin- istered for the purpose of lessening the pain of surgical operations. I have operated on four patients who had inhaled this gas ; two of these cases are noticed by Dr. H. J. Bigelow, in his article on the subject. In all of them the gas was administered by Dr. Morton. The first case was the removal of a tumor from the arm of a woman ; the second, the amputation of the limb of a girl, 20 years of age, above the knee ; the third, the removal of the breast of a lady, in private prac- tice ; and the fourth was the same operation, which I did on Saturday last, at the Hospital. In the three first cases, the patients were apparently insensible and un- conscious during the operation ; they have since repeatedly assured me that they were so ; no ill consequences followed the inhalation of the gas ; they are all now nearly, if not quite well, and their recovery has been, I think, more rapid than under ordinary circumstances; which I attribute to their having escaped the shock of the operation. The fourth patient seemed to be conscious during the operation ; answered questions and appeared to suffer ; yet she says that she did not, and was not aware of what was done, till it was nearly all over. She has thus far been very comfortable, more so, I should say, than patients usually are in the same time after this operation. I remain, very respectfully, yours, GEO. HAYWARD. R. H. Eddy, Esq. And the subjoined extracts are from a letter of Dr. Peirson, of Salem, who performed the important operations, of which he speaks, under the administration of the invention by Dr. Fish, dentist of the same city, to whom I have granted the license to use it in Essex County. Dear Sir,—The two following cases, occurring in my practice the past week, are of interest as supporting the claims to confidence of Dr. Morton's anodyne compound : — Case I.—Nov. 19th. An Irish girl, under 20 years of age, in at- tempting to step into the cars at Hamilton, while they were in motion, fell, with her arm upon the track, and had a compound, comminuted frac- ture at the elbow, from the wheel of the car. At about 9 in the evening, 1 amputated in the middle of the humerus. The operation lasted a little o