1 70 THE MAIN CURRENTS OF ZOOLOGY 



mained for him, on the basis of his own experiments, 

 followed by a hospital demonstration, to introduce 

 the method of anaesthesia to the medical world. 

 Morton's work was on a different plane from that of 

 his predecessors. Except for its practical use by 

 Long the work of others was merely anticipatory 

 glimpses, and Morton, by demonstrating the safety 

 and reliability of ether as an anaesthetic agent, in- 

 troduced the method into surgery. 



The new method was put into immediate use. In 

 1847, after ether had been successfully used in 

 Europe, the Scottish surgeon, Sir James Simpson, 

 introduced the use of chloroform which had been 

 previously used in France by Flourens in experimen- 

 tation on animals. Since that time the methods of 

 administering ether and chloroform have been 

 greatly improved and they remain to-day the chief 

 agents used in anaesthesia. 



Vaccination Edward Jenner. The method of 

 vaccination for small-pox was an original and unique 

 discovery, and antedated by more than three-fourths 

 of a century, the modern vaccinations and serum 



inoculations devised by Pasteur. 



i 



Formerly, small-pox was a dreaded and highly 

 contagious disease. It was very prevalent, sweeping 



