The influence of anaesthesia on the surgery of the nineteenth century / by J. Collins Warren.
- Date:
- [1897?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The influence of anaesthesia on the surgery of the nineteenth century / by J. Collins Warren. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![wildly onward to its own destruction, with science lagging far behind, Lister came to the rescue, and scientific equilibrium was again restored. Gentlemen : The old Massachusetts General Hospital stands as it did in 1846, with its sightly Bulfinch dome and granite columns. From a scientific standpoint it seems an antiquated structure in comparison with the modern pavilion wards, labora- tories, and operating-theatres which surround it, but it will never be torn down. It will always remain one of the con- spicuous landmarks of this wonderful century—as a shrine of surgery sacred to that moment when the fiercest extremity of suffering was steeped in the waters of forgetfulness, and the deepest furrow in the knotted brow of agony was smoothed away forever. [Note.—The illustration represents the operating-theatre of the Massachusetts General Hospital in the winter of 1847. The sponge used here is known as the first sponge with which ether was given. This method was adopted in February, 1847, by Dr. J. Mason Warren. The surgeons whose portraits appear in this picture are, on the patient's left, Dr. John C. Warren, Dr. Samuel Parkman; on the patient's right, Dr. J. Mason Warren and Dr. Townsend. The etherizer is probably Dr. Heywood. The daguerrotype from which the photogravure is taken has been in the possession of the writer's family since that time.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2191431x_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
