Review of the "Lancet's" article on the history of anaesthetic discovery / by the original discoverer, Robert H. Collyer, M.D.
- Collyer, Robert H.
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Review of the "Lancet's" article on the history of anaesthetic discovery / by the original discoverer, Robert H. Collyer, M.D. 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.
14/20 page 12
![blishecl the fact, that the iiihalatiou of narcotic and stimulating vapours produced an anaisthetic state. The medical profession has made tlu'ee great discoveries :—Dr. William Harvey discovered the cii-culation of the blood; contemporaneous liistory states, that not a medical man of the time gave his adlierence or believed in the discovery. Dr. Jenuer made the discovery that the lymph fiom the pustules of the cow was a preventitive, or at least secured the person vacci- nated against one of the most dreadful pestilences that ever afilicted the human race. Notwithstanding the inestimable benefit derived fi-om vacci- nation, it will hardly be credited that it was with, the gi-eatest difficidty that Dr. Jenner could induce any one to adopt or give the least credence to his discovery. Every species of opposition, every imaginable difficulty, was made. With regard to the anresthetic discover}', no one in ti'utli or justice can pretend that the honour of the discovery does not belong to Dr. CoUyer; he was the first who produced an unconscious, or anaesthetic, state hy in- halation. The evidence which exists of this fact is undeniable ; to him alone is due the credit of having estabhshcd and pubhshed the fact which was years in advance of every other claimant, that the inhalation of narcotic and stimulating vapoui'S produced this insensible state of brain. The fact of liis having performed sur(/iccil ojierations during an anaesthetic state by the mesmeiic oj)eration ])rior to the j)ubhcation as regai'ds iuhala- tiou, is a confirmation, of the most positive character, that his mind was for years directed iu the same channel of thought. As we have the fact before us that a large fungus, involving the eye of a cliild only twenty-two months was removed, an operation wliich lasted only thii-ty-five minutes without the loiowledge of the infant, was successfully performed by Dr. Collyer in IBil, it strengthens most materially his position, in 18i3, when he published, that the states of insensibility induced by mesmerism and inlialation are identical. Had he never induced, prior to this period, an autesthetic state, with a view to the performance of sui-gical operations, then it might be advanced that he had merely pubhshed a fact, which is premising too much, as it indicates a knowledge, which could not have been arrived at without the experience of the fact published. The origuial article from the Bostoman, April 23rd, 1842, is before us— Whilst Dr. Collyer was at Bangor, Dr. Dean, a physician of that place, requested Dr. Collyer to visit a cliild in a towTi sixteen miles distant. He consented, and they went in company with Dr. Kich, an eminent surgeon](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21479458_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
