CHAPTER XIV 



SOME MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS. PAINLESS 



SURGERY, ETC. 



No student of biology should be unacquainted 

 with the circumstances leading up to the demon- 

 stration of the properties of anaesthetics and to 

 painless surgery. The discovery of the methods of 

 painless surgery was one of the greatest medico- 

 biological advances of all time, and the application of 

 these methods has conferred upon suffering hu- 

 manity one of the greatest blessings of science. It 

 was in a way a by-product of biological investigation, 

 and one of those advances so intimately connected 

 with the progress of biology that it is appropriate to 

 consider it within the scope of this book. 



% 



The first definite step that brought anaesthetics 

 into general use was the demonstration, in 1846, by 

 W. T. G. Morton, that ether is a safe, effective and 

 reliable agent for producing insensibility to pain 

 during a surgical operation. 



Since there were anticipations of this discovery and 

 various claimants to recognition for the honor of the 



important achievements, the story should be told in 



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