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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    knee, by Dr. Hayward, for disease of this joint. Being made to inhale, the preparation, after protesting her inability to do so from the pungency of tbe vapor, sbe became insensible in about five minutes. The last cir- cumstance she was able to recall was the adjustment of the mouth-piece of the apparatus, after which she was unconscious until she heard some remark at the time of securing the vessels—one of the last steps of the operation. Of the incision she knew nothing, and was unable to say, upon my asking her, whether or not the limb had been removed. She refused to answer several questions during the operation, and was evident- ly • ■■ompletely insensible to pain or other external influences. This opera- tion was followed by another, consisting of the removal of a part of the lower jaw, by Dr. Warren. The patient was insensible to the pain of the first incision, though she recovered her consciousness in the course of a few minutes. The character of the lethargic state, which follows this inhalation, is peculiar. The patient loses his individuality and awrakes after a certain period, either entirely unconscious of what has taken place, or retaining only a faint recollection of it. Severe pain is sometimes remembered as being of a dull character; sometimes the operation is supposed by the patient to be performed upon somebody else. Certain patients, whose teeth have been extracted, remember the application of the extracting in- struments ; yet none have been conscious of any real pain. * * * * The duration of the insensibility is another important element in the process. When the apparatus is withdrawn at the moment of uncon- sciousness, it continues, upon the average, two or three minutes, and the patient then recovers completely or incompletely, without subsequent ill effects. In this sudden cessation of the symptoms, this vapor in the air tubes differs in its effects from the narcotics or stimulants in the stomach, and, as far as the evidence of a few experiments of Dr. Morton goes, from the ethereal solution of opium when breathed. Lassitude, headache and other symptoms lasted for several hours, when this agent was employed. But if the respiration of the vapor be prolonged much beyond the first period, the symptoms are more permanent in their character. In one of the first cases, that of a young boy, the inhalation was continued during the greater part of ten minutes, and the subsequent narcotism and drowsi- ness lasted more than an hour. * * * * It is probable that the vapor of the new preparation ceases early to act upon the system, from the facility with which it is exhaled. The process is obviously adapted to operations which are brief in their duration, whatever be their severity. Of these, the two most striking arc, perhaps, amputations and the extraction of teeth. In protracted dissec- tions, the pain of the first incision alone is of sufficient importance to in- duce its use ; and it may hereafter prove safe to administer it for a length of time, and to produce a narcotism of an hour's duration. It is not un- likely to be applicable in cases requiring a suspension of muscular action ; such as the reduction of dislocations or of strangulated hernia; and finally it may be employed in the alleviation of functional pain, of muscular spasm, as in cramp and colic, and as a sedative or narcotic. The application of the process to the performance of surgical opera- tions, is, it will be conceded, new. * * * * It is natural to inquire with whom this invention originated. Without entering into details, I learn that the patent bears the name of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a distinguished chemist, and of Dr. Morton, a skilful dentist, of this city, as inventors—and has been issued to the latter gentleman as proprietor. # # # *