Dr. Wells, the discoverer of anaesthesia.

Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Wells, the discoverer of anaesthesia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hundred and sixty cases, etc. He also stated that he had obtained a patent for this compound. I accordingly started for Boston to learn more of this improvement on my discov¬ ery, with which I had made him acquainted long before. While at his office, I saw the (so called) compound adminis¬ tered to a patient, it apparently had the same effect as the gas, which I had many times administered for the same pur¬ pose. Before I left for home, the gas was given to several other patients, with but partial success—at least so said the patients with whom I conversed. I then inquired about his patent, (his assumed £rights,’.) and found, to my surprise, that he had not obtained one, nor even made an application for one; this being done at a subsequent period, as the date of his specifications and patent clearly show.” Very effectually does this plain statement from Dr. Wells dispose of Dr. Morton’s “rights” to any superior “compound” he had claimed consideration for, in his letter; and here this part of the question may safely rest. And now a few words further as to the light in which this invaluable discovery is viewed abroad. In Dr. Ronx’ Report from the Committee of Eminent Surgeons and Physicians of France, on the prizes in Medicine and Surgery for the years 1847 and 1848, the following decisive language is held : “A splendid service has been rendered to science and humanity in the discovery of a means nearly infallible, or at least successful in the generality of cases, of rendering man temporarily insensible to pain, with a transient perturbation only, after which all the functions return to their natural play. There have been, indeed, deplorable instances of bane¬ ful effects by anaesthetic agents, from adscititious causes, but the number of them is infinitely small, compared with the prodigious multitude of trials. There is no exaggeration in asserting that, from the time—a little more than three years since—the inhaling ether or chloroform has been introduced into the practice of physic and surgery, a hundred thousand individuals—first in America, and by American surgeons, who enjoy the glory of the initiative, and then in different parts of the world—have been subjected to it; and in this number, not more than twelve or fifteen disastrous cases can be cited. Owing to their particular situations, some of the members of your Committee—two particularly, Messrs. Vel¬ peau and Ronx—have been called to pay a large tribute to science as it regards the employment of angesthetic agents.