Some account of the first use of sulphuric ether by inhalation in surgical practice.

  • Hayward, George, 1791-1863.
Date:
[1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the first use of sulphuric ether by inhalation in surgical practice. 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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    which was used that day for the first time, it was found that the air did not enter into the receiver which held the ether without breathing very forcibly, more so than the patient was able to do. So that in fact she got no air into her lungs after she had exhausted that contained in the vessel from which she inhaled the vapor. This is an accident so easily guarded against, that it will not probably happen again. The unpleasant symptoms in this case passed off in a few moments, and the patient did well. If it should hereafter appear that no other ill effects than those that have been already noticed will be likely to occur from the inhalation of the ether, it will be impossible to overrate the value of the discovery of its applicability to the purposes of the healing art. The mere power that it possesses of rendering surgical operations painless, puts it above all price ; but this is by no means its only advantage. It disarms the operative part of our calling of the terror with which it is uniformly regarded by pa- tients ; it enables the surgeon to operate with more safety, ease and rapidity; it prevents, in great measure, the shock which the nervous system experiences from severe and protracted operations, and which not unfrerjuently destroys the chance of recovery ; and in addition to these, it will enable surgeons sometimes to operate under circumstances and in situations where it could not have been done, if the patient had been in the ordinary state. In my short experience with the ether, I have already had an opportunity of witnessing its benefits in each of these different ways. Its power of producing insensibility has been seen in most of the cases in which I have tried it. I have operated on patients whose sufferings have been mitigated, and whose lives will no doubt be prolonged by the operation, who would not have submitted to it under ordinary circumstances ; and it will be readily believed, that a surgeon will operate with more coolness when he is con- fident that he is giving no pain, and he certainly can do it more safely, and with greater rapidity, when the patient is entirely at rest. There is reason to believe that the young woman before spoken of, whose limb was removed at the Hospital after she had inhaled the ether, would have sunk from the combined influence of her previous debility and the shock of the operation, if she had retained the ordinary decree of sensibility. But there are still other advantages. We sometimes meet with cases where the parts are so morbidly sensitive, or where they are so peculiarly situated, that an operation could not be performed in the usual condition