Report [of] the Committee on military affairs and the militia : to whom was referred the petition of Dr. William T.G. Morton, asking compensation for the discovery and gift to his country and mankind of the application of ethereal vapor as a safe and practical anesthesia, or pain subduing agent.

United States. Congress :1863). Senate.

Date:: [1863]

Credit: Report [of] the Committee on military affairs and the militia : to whom was referred the petition of Dr. William T.G. Morton, asking compensation for the discovery and gift to his country and mankind of the application of ethereal vapor as a safe and practical anesthesia, or pain subduing agent. 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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$it causes irritation about the epiglottis, a sensation of fullness in the head, and a successiou of effects analogous to those caused by the protoxide of nitrogen, and persons peculiarly susceptible of the action of the one are also powerfully affected by the other. If the air be too strongly impregnated with ether, stupe- faction ensues. In one case this state continued, with occasional periods of in- termission, for more than thirty hours; for many days the pulse was so much lowered that considerable fears were entertained for the safety of the patient. In another case, an apoplectic condition, which continued for some hours, was produced. Another book, Hooper's Medical Dictionary, under the head of Ether, says: Applied externally, it is of service in headache, toothache, and other painful affections. * * * * If it be prevented from evaporating by covering the place to which it is applied closely with the hand, it proves a powerful stimulent and rubefacient, and excites a sensation of burning heat, as is the case with solutions of camphor in alcohol or turpentine. In this way it is frequently \ised for re- moving pains in the head or teeth. Dr. Morton applied this prescription to the diseased tooth of his patient freely and often, keeping it sealed up in the hollow tooth. On introducing the instrument in the cavity of the tooth in search of the sensitive portion of the bone, he found the patient experienced no pain what- ever, but to his surprise the surrounding parts were benumbed. The thought flashed across him, if one part can thus be brought under the influence of ether, why not the whole system? He was in a situation well calculated to workout this problem. At this period he was attending the lectures of the Massachusetts Medical College. It was formerly the annual custom, both in this country and in Europe, when the lecture on ether and gases was delivered by professors in many of the colleges, to put a little ether into a bladder and offer the students their choice to inhale ether or nitrous oxide. This offer was accompanied with a statement that the nitrous oxide, when carried to the same extent, was safe, and the other dangerous. During Dr. Morton's attendance upon the lectures of the Medical College, nitrous oxide and ether were both lectured upon, and the effect of nitrous oxide exhibited before the class, he taking part in the exhibi- tions. Instances are on record of students falliug flat upon the floor during in- sensibility, produced by the inhalation of ether at these exhibitions. Mr. Metcalf, to whose testimony we shall presently refer, communicated to Dr. Morton an account of bis administering ether to a person, for the purpose of producing ex- hilaration, who became exceedingly wild, and in his struggles severely injured his head, and yet who, after the subsidence of the wild state, knew nothing of his injury until his attention was called to it. These facts, taken in connexion with the observation Dr. Morton had made of the effects of ether sealed up in his patient's tooth, was calculated to arrest attention. They presented creden- tials which had a right to be examined. Ether had a right to be tried, candidly and fairly t-sted, unless it could be shown that its previous bad character for- feited all claim to further consideration. What, then, was its previous charac- ter? What is the a priori evidence respecting the danger of ether on the one hand, or its narcotic power on the the other ? And first, the danger rests mainly upon the evidence of a few cases; the gentleman in Brande's Journal, the druo-- fist's maid servant, and the young man of the Midland Medical and Surgical ournal ; to which may be added the experiments of Oifila upon dogs, and Brodie upon Guinea pigs. He therefore engaged earnestly and diligently in the study of its properties, more especially the effect produced by its inhalation. The current knowledge on the subject was not in all things encouraging. It had, doubtless, many times had the effect of producing total insensibility, from which the subjects recovered without injury, but in some cases it had caused death ; caution was therefore necessary in its use, and success uncertain. The student in pursuit of scientific discovery leaves but few traces until he reaches the point where success is no$