Statements, supported by evidence, of Wm. T.G. Morton, M.D., on his claim to the discovery of the anaesthetic properties of ether : submitted to the honorable the Select Committee appointed by the Senate of the United States, 32d Congress, 2d session, January 21, 1853 / presented by Mr. Davis of Massachusetts, and referred to the Select Committee to whom had been referred the petition of sundry physicians of Boston and vicinity, in support of the claim of W.T.G. Morton, M.D., for the discovery of etherization.
- William T. G. Morton
- Date:
- 1853
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Statements, supported by evidence, of Wm. T.G. Morton, M.D., on his claim to the discovery of the anaesthetic properties of ether : submitted to the honorable the Select Committee appointed by the Senate of the United States, 32d Congress, 2d session, January 21, 1853 / presented by Mr. Davis of Massachusetts, and referred to the Select Committee to whom had been referred the petition of sundry physicians of Boston and vicinity, in support of the claim of W.T.G. Morton, M.D., for the discovery of etherization. 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.)
![Jand did when she furnished the instrument by which the small- pox may be finally exterminated. It would be unworthy our greatness, and our destiny as the nation soon to be the most powerful on the globe, to undervalue a benefaction to mankind which is the peculiar glory of science, of our age, and of our country. Your committee therefore recommend, that an appropriation be as in affections of children, when the struggles of the patient afford an obstatle and in many instances of feigned disease, as we shall see under our fourth head the services which anaesthesia may render to diagnosis are considerable. * * « By overcoming pain, it has caused many operations which used to be as rarely performed as possible, to come more in the way of the surgeon : the removal of nails, and the operation of the actual cautery, need no longer inspire horror to the operator or to the patient. With the view of removing muscular resistance its use has become general in the reduction of dislocations and the operation of the taxis. * * * The diminution of the shock to the nervous system seems to favor the healing of wounds, and altogether increases the chances of recovery. The shivering and re-active fever which often follow operations are greatly diminished by etherization; there is generally more sleep, and more complete feeling of com- fort. * * * It is not necessary to point out the occasional benefit which may be derived Irom the use of anaesthesia in the taxis, in the reduction of dislocations, and setting of fractures. In all this class of surgical operations, cases must be con- tinually occurring, proving to the surgeon the immense results which he may reap from the new discovery. * * * Anaesthesia is now used in private and in public practice, as regularly in lithotomy as in other operations. * * * Henceforth, even the tod-pit of a man-of-war, and the hospital after a Jitld of battle, will be disarmed of half their terrors. The argument in favor of the employment of ancesthesia [in midwifery] may be summed up as follow- : 1st. The removal of the pain is benlicial to the mother by preventing the nervous excitement and shock which physical pain is apt to excite, and the nervous and inflammatory reaction which, in some constructions, is apt to result. 2d. It renders many operations, requisite in complicated labors, easier of performance, and more beneficial to the patient. 3d. Statistics prove the practice of anaesthesia to be beneficial to the mothers, and nowise dangerous to the children. * * * Dr. Simpson, in 1848, communicated the results obtained in 1519 cases, and, in our opinion, established the utility of anaesthesia [in midwifery] upon incon- testable grounds. * * * Therapeutical Applications of Anesthesia.—It is now evident that the use of anaesthetic agents is capable of an extension beyond the bounds of merely ope- rative medicine. It has been transported into medicine itself; and perhaps this circumstance may attract the attention of the profession to the advantages which may accrue from the use of other remedies in the form of inhalations. When we consider the great extent of the pulmonary mucous membrane, and the facility with which vapors may be introduced through the respiration into the blood, it seems extraordinary that this mode of administering medicines has not been more exactly studied. * * * Pain exists in a vast number of diseases, where even opium is insufficient to afford relief; in such cases a field is opened to the use of anaesthetic agents. In several cases of intense facial neuralgia, benefit has been obtained from the inhalation of chloroform, when all other remedies have failed. In pains of the oowels, gastralgia, and in nervous cholics, similar results have followed Many observers have pointed out the benefit derived from doses of chloroform in the liquid form, in relieving the pain at the early stages of cholera *](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21142695_0148.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
