On the invention of local anæsthesia by refrigeration / letter from Dr. James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James, 1794-1885.
Date:
[©1867?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the invention of local anæsthesia by refrigeration / letter from Dr. James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    3/12
    [Extracted from the Medical Times and Gazette for March ON THE INVENTION OF LOCAL ANAESTHESIA BY REFRIGERATION. Sib,—In the Timet of Thursday se'nnight a report appeared of the proceedinga at a meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, where Dr. B. Richardson read a paper On Local Anaesthesia in Surgical Operations, in which, it is stated, he narrated briefly the line of inquiry which led him to the inventiojf; and on Tuesday last an advertisement was inserted in the same newspaper respecting the presenta> tion of a testimonial to Dr. Richardson, chiefly for his suc- cessful invention of a method of producing, without danger, local insensibility to pain in operations implying that there is only one successful method, and that this is Dr. Richard- son's invention. I consider these statements to be most erroneous, and I request the opportunity from you, as editor of the journal iu which Dr. Richardson published his first paper on local anaesthesia by cold, and in which many of my ovm papers respecting it. have also appeared, of submitting the question to the Profession. As it is well known to the Profession that the discovery was made by me, many years ago, of the possibihty of freezing the animal tissues without injuring them, and that this pro- cess might be used beneficially both as an anaesthetic in opera- tions and as a remedy of disease, I need not at present do more than allude to it. What it is more necessary to elucidate IS the great difieronce which exists between the invention of the principle of any new therapeutic proceeding, and the i^ention of any other means of carrying this prmciple into effect than those which have been origmally proposed. All that Dr. Richardson can claim has relation merely to the 30th, 1867, with Annotations.] Letter from Dr. Jambs Arnott. [To the Editor of the Medical Times and Qazette.]