History of modern anæsthetics : a second letter to Dr. Jacob Bigelow / by Sir J.Y. Simpson.

  • James Young Simpson
Date:
[1870], [©1870]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of modern anæsthetics : a second letter to Dr. Jacob Bigelow / by Sir J.Y. Simpson. 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.

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    A short and adequate experience of a dozen or more cases soon satisfied Dr. Horace Wells and others that teeth could in this way be extracted -without pain * however much trouble there might be in preparing and applying the gas with the imperfect means then in existence. His affida- vits of its success (see foot-note) are unchallengeable. His friend Dr. Riggs drew six teeth from one patient, at one sitting, without any suffering what- ever. During this time also he seems to have discovered the great point which we now know to be so essential in the successful exhibition of nitrous oxide—namely, that it should be breathed as pure as possible, and without any mixture of atmospheric air.t Elated with his discovery, he in a week or two proceeded to Boston, in order to lay it before the medical faculty there, and show its effects. He first made it known there—according to his own account—to Drs. Warren, Heyward, Jackson, and Morton, the last gentleman being a former pupil and partner of his own, and destined to be the future discoverer of aneesthesia by sulphuric ether.J A case of amputation was about to be performed by Dr. Heyward in the Massachusetts Hospital, but was put off for some days. After Dr. Wells had addressed Dr. Warren's class on the subject, it was proposed that the anaesthetic should be tried in a case of tooth-extraction. Accordingly, writes Dr. WeUs, a large number of students, with several physicians, met to see the operation performed—one of their number to be a patient. Unfor- tunately, he continues, for the experiment, the bag was withdrawn much too soon, and he was but partially under its influence when the tooth was extracted. He testified that he experienced some pain, but not as much as usually attends the operation. The audience pronounced it a humbug affair and an imposition, and Dr. Wells was hissed away, left Boston, and gave up, for a time, his profession with disgust and vexation. He was laughed at, conteinptously writes Dr. Charles T. Jackson, for his preten- sions, and left Boston. No one ever believed in his story {Official Documents, p. 472). According to the statement of Dr. Morton, his fiiend and former partner (who accompanied him), the spectators laughed and hissed ; the meeting broke up, and we were looked upon as having made ourselves very ridiculous (See Official Documents, p. 47). In these experiments, Dr. Wells, as I have said, used the nitrous oxide gas which in 1800 Sir Humphrey Davy had in England found capable in his o\n.\ person of * In his pamphlet, and elsewhere, Dr. Wells brings forward sworn affidavits, from different patients of the anaesthetic efl'eots of the nitrous oxide gas. Thus, for example, Mr. Burleigh states tliat, after having had an opportunity of witnessing its effects on several pereons, he him- self breatlied it, and he adds, two carious teeth were extracted from my lower jaw without the least suffering on my part, though, ordinarily, owing to the firmness with which my teeth are fixed in my jaw, I suffer extreme pain from their extraction. Dr. Wells, states Mr. Goodrich, was mo.st successful in extracting for me a large, firmly-set, bicuspid tooth, without the slightest sensation of pain. I also witnessed, soon after, a repetition of the same process by Dr. Wells upon several individuals, accompanied in every instance with perfect success, etc. t See Dr. Morton's volume of Official Documents, p. 29, etc. The less atmospheric air is ad- mitted into the lungs, with any gas or vapour, the better—the more satisfactoiy will be the result of the operation. Dr. Morton, unaware of the rules for breathing nitrous oxide, de- nounces this observation of Dr. Wells as inconsistent with fact. Tliis agent—nitious oxide gas—never, stoutly avers Dr. Morton, was, nor can it ever be of any value (Official volume, ]). 12). Dr. Morton's first chapter in this volume against nitrous oxide reads now, I fear, as only an exhibition of jealousy and ignorance ; and Professor Jackson's lett«r againi^t Dr. Wells (see p. 472 of the same volume) is still more painful .md inexcusable in its tone and t See the appendix to Dr. Morton's volume of Official Documents, pp. 11, 14, 15, etc.; and Dr. Wells's pamphlet about the history Of the discovery of the application of nitions oxide gas, p. 6, etc.