The principles and practice of surgery / by John Ashhurst ; illustrated with five hundred and thirty-three engravings on wood.
- John Ashhurst
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The principles and practice of surgery / by John Ashhurst ; illustrated with five hundred and thirty-three engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![History.—The history of the introduction of anesthesia into the prac- tice of surgery is a subject which is full of interest, and well worthy of the attention of every intelligent practitioner. The limits of this work will not, however, permit more than a very brief reference to it. Many efforts to prevent the pain of operations had been from time to time made, by the use of narcotics, eitlier in vapor or administered internally, by pressure on the nerves of the part,* by profuse preliminary bleeding, by electricity, and b}^ other methods; but the first really promising experiment in the introduction of anaesthesia dates back but about a quarter of a century, to the year 1844, when Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford, Connecticut, rendered himself unconscious by breathing nitrous oxide gas (which had previously been experimented with by Sir Humphry Davj;), and in that condition submitted to the extraction of a tooth. Dr. Wells repeated his experiment before the medical faculty and students of Harvard College, Boston, but lamenta- bly failed. In 1846, Dr. W. T. G. Morton, another dentist, a pupil and partner of Wells, began to experiment with the vapor of ether, whether independently or in consequence of hints received from Dr. Wells, has never been satisfactorily established. It is stated that Morton's first experiment was made with chloroform (under the name of chloric ether), and hence the honor of discovering both of the great anaesthetic agents of modern times has been claimed for this country. It seems proper, however, that the real credit of a discovery should be given to the man who first practically makes that discovery useful to his fellows, and hence the merit of introducing chloroform as an anaesthetic belongs, I think, as undoubtedly to Sir James Y. Simpson, as does the merit of introducing ether to Morton himself. [See upon this point Prof. Lister's essay in Holmes^ Syst. of Surgery.'] The first surgical operation (be^'ond the extraction of a tooth) done with the aid of ether, was the removal of a tumor, by Dr. John C. War- ren, at the Massachusetts General Hospital, in 1846, the anaesthetic being administered by Dr. Morton. The first case in which ether was used in this city, was, I believe, one of dislocation, at the Pennsjdvania Hospital, the opei'ator being Dr. Edward Peace. In the fall of 1847, Prof. Simpson, of Edinburgh, began to experiment with chloroform, which soon became the favorite with British and Continental surgeons, by whom it is still almost universally preferred to ether. The latter substance is, on the other hand, preferred in some parts of France, and very generally in this country. Eitlier agent has some advantages over the other, and some corre- sponding disadvantages. Chloroform is more prompt in its effects than ether, the patient is usually quieter while coming under its influence, it is less apt to cause vomiting, a smaller quantity than of ether is re- quired to produce anaesthesia, and the patient reacts more quickly when the inhalation is stopped. It, however, requires much greater care in its administration than ether, and its use is attended with much greater risk to life. The above statement gives my own estimate of the relative merits of these agents, and, I believe, corresponds pretty closely with the opinions usually entertained on the subject; it is, however, but right to say that Dr. Lente and Dr. Squibb, of New York, believe that anaes- thesia may be induced by means of ether as quickly as can safely be done by means of chloroform, and with a quantity costing less and weighing 1 Quite recently the late Dr. Aug. Waller has shown that muscular relaxation and anaesthesia may, in some cases, be effectually induced by pressure on the cer- vical portions of tlie vagi (Practitioner, December, 1870).](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21039094_0076.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
