As Dr. J.
Collins Warren says: "Anaesthesia had been the dream of many surgeons and
scientists, but it had been classed with aerial navigation and other
improbable inventions." [Footnote: Anaesthesia in Surgery, 15.] As long
ago as 1818 Faraday had discovered the chief properties of ether, with
the exception of its effect in deadening sensibility. In 1836 Dr. Morrill
Wyman and Dr. Samuel Parkman had experimented with it on themselves at
the Massachusetts Hospital, but without taking a sufficient quantity to
produce unconsciousness. It was actually employed in 1842 by Dr. Crawford
W. Long, at the University of Pennsylvania, in some minor cases of
surgery, but he would seem to have lost confidence in his method and
afterwards abandoned it.
In December, 1844, Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford, had a tooth
extracted by his own request while under the influence of nitrous oxide;
and the following month he came to Boston, and having made his discovery
known, an operation at the hospital was undertaken with his assistance,
but the patient screamed, and it proved a failure so far as anaesthesia
was concerned.
From these facts we readily draw the following conclusions: That the
discovery of painless surgery was essentially a practical affair for
which only a slight knowledge of chemistry was required; that it was not
a discovery made at hap-hazard, but one that necessitated a skilful hand
and a clear understanding of the subject; and that the supposition which
has sometimes been advanced that Doctor Morton was necessarily indebted
to Doctor Jackson for a knowledge of the hypnotic effect of ether is
wholly gratuitous.
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