Memoranda relating to the discovery of surgical anesthesia, and Dr. William T.G. Morton's relation to this event / by William James Morton.

  • Morton, William J. (William James), 1846-1920.
Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoranda relating to the discovery of surgical anesthesia, and Dr. William T.G. Morton's relation to this event / by William James Morton. 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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    does the living surgeon, who is ready to resign the scalpel, grasp it, and wish again to go through his career under the new auspices. And Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes in his introductory lecture delivered before the medical class at the Harvard University, November 3, 1847, vividly said: The knife is searching for disease—the pulleys are dragging back dislocated limbs—Nature herself is working out the primal curse which doomed the tenderest of her creatures to the sharpest of her trials, but the fierce extremity of suffering has been steeped in the waters of for- getfulness, and the deepest furrow in the knotted brow of agony has been smoothed forever. Quickly the medical journals of the country were teeming with reports of surgical operations performed under the influ- ence of the new agency and the newspapers spread the news far and wide. As soon as the steamer which left Boston after the 16th of October had reached Liverpool the news rapidly spread, and testimonials from Germany, Russia, India and lands even more remote, were quickly added, bearing witness of the effi- cacy and safety of the process and the pleasure with which it had been received. On Dec. 21, the eminent surgeon Liston amputated a thigh under ether anesthesia, and expressed his surprise and delight as follows: Hurrah! Rejoice! Mesmerism and its professors have met with a heavy blow and great discouragement! An American dentist has used the inhalation of ether to destroy sensation in his operations, and the plan has succeeded in the hands of Warren, Hayward and others, in Boston. In six months no operation will be performed without this previous preparation. Rejoice! Sir Benjamin Brodie, in a letter to Dr. Chalmers struck a note of warning: I have heard of this before, he writes. The narcotic properties of inhaled ether have been long known and I have tried it on guinea- pigs, whom it first set asleep and then killed. One question is, whether it can be used with safety. The People's London Journal of Jan. 9, 1847, wrote: Good News from America! Hail, happy hour! We Have Con- quered Pain. This is, indeed, a glorious victory to announce; a victory of pure intellect. And from America comes the happy news. The London Lancet, well-known as the organ of the surgical and medical profession in Great Britain, said of the discovery: The discovery of Dr. Morton—more striking to the general than to the scientific mind —will undoubtedly be placed high among the blessings