154 Du. Buchanan on the Effects of the Inhalation of Ether. 



they know themselves unable to attain it — that their boasted power is a 

 deception, or, at most, has no influence but over the minds'of a few 

 hysterical females. Were it otherwise, the charge I make against them 

 is a light one, compared with the moral charge implied in their deserting 

 so many sufferers, whom they have the power to relieve. 



I confess that when I first heard of the marvellous efficacy of ether in 

 deadening the sensibility of the nerves, I received it with distrust, and 

 thought it was to turn out just such another imposition as animal magnetism. 

 I am not ashamed to say this, because I think that every rational man 

 ought to receive in a spirit of scepticism, statements made to him in 

 opposition to all antecedent experience. But I should have thought 

 myself a very unworthy member of this Philosophical Society, had I 

 refused to inquire further, and shut my mind against the authority of 

 facts. I have carefully examined the subject, by actual observation and 

 experiment, and I have now to state as the result, that I am fully satis- 

 fied that the statements originally made to me were in no way exaggerated: 

 that the inhalation of ether really has the power of suspending, for a 

 time, the sensibility of the nerves; and that, during the period of 

 suspended sensibility, the most formidable surgical operations may be 

 performed — amputation of the limbs, the dissecting out of tumours, 

 and cutting for the stone — without any perception of pain by the person 

 operated upon, and without reason to apprehend any bad consequences, 

 either immediate or subsequent. I can honestly declare that I have seen 

 all these, and many other operations performed ; and that the patients, when 

 put fully under the influence of the ether, gave no indications of feeling 

 pain during these operations, and declared afterwards that they had felt 

 none, which is the whole evidence that the case admits of. So great a 

 triumph of the medical art I never expected to witness ; but it should not 

 excite feelings of exultation merely, but should be received with gratitude 

 and with thankfulness, as a great boon which it has pleased the Giver of 

 all good to bestow, in his compassion for the sufferings of mankind. 



When our wonder at results so unexpected has in some degree 

 subsided, it becomes our duty to inquire in what way they are produced ; 

 because it is only when we come to understand the nature of this impor- 

 tant agent, and the laws which regulate its action upon the human body, 

 that we can expect to derive from it all the benefits which it is capable 

 of imparting ; to direct and modify it according to circumstances, and to 

 avoid the dangers which, in the hands of the incautious and ignorant, it 

 may, most unquestionably, occasion. It was to attain these important 

 ends, and not to gratify a mere vulgar curiosity, that the Council of the 

 Society started this subject ; and I am not without hopes that good may 

 be done by the mutual communication of opinions, and that even the 

 collision of them may serve to strike out some useful light. 



That we may be better able to appreciate the new facts recently ascer- 

 tained, let us first inquire what was previously known of the action exer- 

 cised by ether upon the human body. I could state this in few words, 



