Etherton cottage, and the discoverer of etherization / By Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale.
- Sarah Josepha Hale
- Date:
- [1853]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Etherton cottage, and the discoverer of etherization / By Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale. 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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![that even the apparatus for inhaling it was described in some treatises ; but, in most eases, it was described as in- haled from a saturated sponge or handkerchief. Having pome of the ether left which Dr. Jackson had sent me, I inhaled it from u handkerchief; but there was not enough to produce a greater effect than exhilaration, followed by headache. While investigating this subject, I was taken quite ill, and, it being the middle of summer, I was advised by my physician to go into the country. I took with me from Dr. Jackson's library, and obtained in other ways, several books treating on this and other subjects. I spent two months at the residence of my father-in-law, in Connecti- cut. While thore, I procured ether from the druggist's, and made experiments upon birds and other auimals, en- deavoring to get them under the effect of inhalation from it. These experiments produced no satisfactory result, and they being known among my friends, I was mortified and vexed, and bottled up the subjects, where they remain to this day. In the autumn I returned to Boston, and finding that my business, owing to its interruption, required my con- plant attention, I was not able to pursue the investigation at that time. In the course of the winter (1844-5)] T>r. Hcr^cc Wells, of Hartford, Conn., a dentist, and formerly my partner, came to Boston, and desired me to aid him in procuring an opportunity to administer the nitrous oxide gas, which he said ho believed would destroy or greatly alleviate pain under surgical operations. I readily consented, and intro- duced him to Dr. George Hnyward, an eminent surgeon, who offered to permit the experiment; but, as the earliest operation was not to be performed under two or three days, we did not wait for it, but went to Dr. Warren, whom we found engaged with his cla^s. He told us that his stu- dents were preparing to inhale it that evening for sport, and offered to announce the proposal to them, and ask them to meet us at the college. In the evening, Dr. Wells and myself went to the hall, and I took my instruments. Dr. Wells administered the gas, and extracted a tooth; but the patient screamed from pain, and the spectators laughed and hissed. The meeting broke up, and we were looked upon as having made ourselves very ridiculous. I saw no- thing more of Dr. Wells; but he left my instruments at my office very early the next morning, and went directly home. In July, being again in Connecticut, I called on Dr. Wells, and we spent some time in adjusting our former partner- ship accounts. He had then given up dentistry, and was engaged in conducting an exhibition of birds, which he said insured him better health. I went with him to the office of Dr. Biggs, where I spoke of the gas, and asked them to give some to me; but Dr. Wells gave me to under- stand that he had abandoned the experiment, thinking it could have no practical value., Not thus did Dr. Morton abandon the pursuit. Once impressed with the idea, his active mind could not rest till he had fully investigated the matter. Putting his business into the hands of a salaried assistant, he gave up his own time to studying and experimenting on tbe great subject of annihilating pain under surgical operations. How his labors were crowned with success, we will again quote Irom the Paris Academy:— In the spring of 1846, Thomas R. Spear came to study •nth me, and hearing me converse upon the snbject, he naid he bad inhaled ether at the Lexington Acadcmv where he was educated, and described to me its effects. This increased my interest in the subject, and I determined, as soon as the pressure of the spring business was over, to devote myself to it. In the mean time, I tried an experi- ment upon a water spaniel, inserting his head in ajar hav- ing sulphuric ether at the bottom. This was done in the presence of two persons at my house in West Needham, where I reside during the summer months. After breath- ing the vapor for some time, the dog completely wilted down in my hands. I then removed the jar. In about three minutes he aroused, yelled loudly, and sprung some ten feet into a pond of water. Immediately after this experiment, I waited on Dr. Granville G. Hayden, a young dentist, told him my pur- pose, and made an agreement with him to come to my office and take charge of my business, that I might devote myself more exclusively to this subject. The agreement was drawn by K. II. Dana. Jr. Esq., to whose letter in tbe appendix I take the liberty to refer the Academy in this connection. As soon as Dr. Hayden became acquainted with my business, I began to devote myself to my experi- ments. I inhaled some chloric ether and morphine, tbe effect of which was drowsiness, followed by lassitude and headache. Early in August, I asked Dr. Hayden to procure me a four-ounce phial of sulphuric ether from Mr. Burnett, a druggist much relied upon by chemists. He did so, and I tried to induce him to take it. As he declined, I took half of it into the country to try again upon my dog. Just as I had got it ready, the dog sprang and threw over tbe jar. I felt vexed, and resolved to take it myself, and did so, the next day, at my office. I inhaled from my handkerchief all the ether that was left, but was not completely lost, yet thought myself so far insensible that I believed that » tooth could have been drawn with but little pain or con- sciousness. I was unwilling to send to Burnett's again for the same article, he being a near neighbor, and his young men well acquainted with mine, lest the knowledge of my experiments should get abroad. I accordingly sent a stu- dent, William P. Leavitt, to druggists in a different part of the city. Brewers, Stevens, & Co., a firm in excellent stand- ing, with directions to get sulphuric ether. After some persuasion, I induced Spear, who bad taken it at school, to inhale it. He did so, and became so far insensible as to drop the handkerchief, and seemed very drowsy and tor- pid. As this passed off, he became excited and furious, to that be had to be held down in tbe chair; hut this subsid- ed, and, on coming to, he expressed himself delighted with hi3 sensations. Leavitt then took it, with much the same effect. I was much discouraged by these attempts. The effects produced were not such as I sought for, nor were the young men affected in the same manner that I bad been, and as I observed the dog to be, They were much more excited and less insensible. Yet I cannot help remarking, in this connection, that, had this sulphuric ether been pure and highly rectified, I should have demonstrated its effects then, instead of at the subsequent period in September. This ether has since been analyzed, as appears by the Affi- davits in tbe appendix, and found to contain a large portion of alcohol, sulphur acids, and other impurities. This experiment was'early in August; and, it being hot weather, and I being somewhat out of health, I went into the country, and abandoned the experiments until the middle of September. With the autumn and the restora- tion of health, my ambition led me to resume my experi- ments; and I mentioned to Dr. Hayden that I feared there was so much difference in the qualities of ether that in so delicate a matter, there would be great difficulty in bring- ing about any generally useful and reliable results. Thinking that a surer effect might be produced by in- baling the ether through some apparatus, I called repea*](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21021594_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
