Circular : Morton's lethēon.

  • Morton, W. T. G. (William Thomas Green), 1819-1868.
Date:
[1846]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Circular : Morton's lethēon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    1st. Uniformity of its effects, unlike any mode of intoxication by stimulants in the stomach, or respiration of nitrous-oxyde gas. My three patients were as unlike in age, temperament, and habits, as could well be imagined, yet all exhibited the same appearance of passive endurance. 2d. There was no instinctive or voluntary resistance, which is so em- barrassing to an operator. This, next to its power of preventing the per- ception of pain, is the greatest merit claimed for it. 3d. The securing the patient from the severity of the great shock which a capital operation inflicts on the sufferer. It was quite noticeable, in all the patients I have seen, that there was none of that extreme de- pression which sometimes follows a severely painful impression on the nervous system. 4th. Its effects pass off rapidly, and, as far as I know, no bad results follow. 5th. It can be repeated several times during the operation, except the mouth or jaws are the parts to be operated on. The repetition of the dose is always sought by the patients with avidity. 6th. The last and most important of its effects, is, that it either wholly annuls pain, or destroys the consciousness of it, so that it is not remem- bered ; and thus the sentiment of fear is wholly obliterated. The patient appears to have been dreaming, and in the second case said that he was in a distinct existence (i. e., distinct from his former experience), thus illustrating the theory of double consciousness. These are recommendations enough to ensure it a fair trial among the humane and enlightened members of our profession. * * * * Dr. Morton and Dr. Jackson, at least, are entitled to the hearty thanks of the profession for their discovery, and the liberal manner in which they have offered it to all the subjects of surgical operations, both in and out of the Hospital. # # * * These gentlemen are entitled to the credit of having made it, for the first time, perfectly available to the suffering, and submitted it to the test of those competent to decide on its merits, without being content to rest its pretensions on non-professional credulity or popular notoriety. A. L. Piekson. Salem, Nov. 26th, 1846. It is also gratifying for me to be able to submit the following subjoined extract upon the subject, from the address of the Hon. Edward Everett, LL.D., President of Harvard University, at the opening of the new Medical College, of Boston, Nov. 6, 1846. lam not sure that since these remarks were delivered, a discovery has not been announced, which fully realizes the predictions of the text ;—I allude to the discovery of a method of producing a state of temporary in- sensibility to pain, by the inhalation of a prepared vapor. A full account of this discovery is given in a paper, by Dr. Henry J Bigelow, in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, for 18th of November, 1846. * * I witnessed a very successful instance of the application of the pre- pared vapor, on the 18th of November ; and was informed at that time by Dr. Morton, that he had employed it in several hundred cases of dentistry. It has also been made use of with entire success at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and elsewhere in Boston, in capital operations of sur- gery. The few cases of failure may perhaps be ascribed to irregularities in the process of inhalation, or to peculiarities of temperament or constitu- tion on the part of ihe patient.