ANAESTHETICS. 



13 



things for himself, to accept no statements on 

 trust, and, as far as possible, to bring the con- 

 clusions of science under the test of personal 

 observation. Many of his papers on these sub- 

 jects have been published under the title of 

 "Literature and Travels," a book abounding in 

 sprightly descriptions characterized alike by 

 grace, wit, and erudition. 



It was while reading De Tocqueville's "De- 

 mocracy in America," during a trip up the 

 Rhine, that Ampere conceived the desire and 

 purpose to visit the United States, which he 

 carried into effect in 1852-'53. His Promenade 

 en Amerique, recording his tour, says a 

 recent critic, "is singularly unpretending. It 

 resembles in tone and method the best conver- 

 sation. The style is pure and animated, and 

 the thoughts naturally suggested. He de- 

 scribes what he sees with candor and geniality, 

 criticizes without the slightest acrimony, and 

 commends with graceful zeal. And yet, simple 

 and unambitious as is the narrative, it af- 

 fords a most agreeable, authentic, and sugges- 

 tive illustration of De Tocqueville's theories." 

 His remaining works comprise " Greece, Rome, 

 and Dante." " Literary Studies after Nature " 

 (1848), "Roman History at Rome" (1856), a 

 a novel and remarkably liberal application of 

 archaeology to literature and politics, " Caesar ; 

 Historic Scenes " (1859), etc., beside eulogies 

 on Ballanche and Chateaubriand read before 

 the Academy. His own eulogy was pronounced 

 by Guizot, who bore testimony to his scholarly 

 attainments, critical abilities, and a rare amen- 

 ity of manners. 



ANAESTHETICS, if the term be taken in its 

 original and broadest sense, are those agents 

 of whatever sort which, upon, administration 

 or application to the living body, suspend or 

 greatly diminish for a time the common sensi- 

 bility, . e., the power of feeling. Since the de- 

 velopment, however, of the modern and most 

 successful methods to this end and hence, 

 mainly within the past twenty years this 

 term has acquired a new importance and in a 

 manner a new signification, being now employ- 

 ed to designate specifically those agents which 

 are in greater or less degree available for the 

 relief or prevention of pain, as incident to sur- 

 gical or dental operations, or as met with in 

 general medical or in obstetrical practice. The 

 condition of insensibility which such agents in- 

 duce, and which, when perfect, precludes the 

 feeling of pain, is termed ancesthesia. Illustra- 

 tions of it are witnessed in the insensibility of 

 faulting, of stupor from narcotics or other cause, 

 and of one form of paralysis, and in the numb- 

 ness caused by a blow or by severe cold. But 

 since the common sensibility depends on the 

 activity of a certain set of nerves and of nervous 

 centres hence called the "sensory," or those 

 of sensation we may say, more precisely, that 

 anaesthesia is that state of a living body or of 

 some part of it, in which the action of its sen- 

 sory nervous apparatus is for the time suspend- 

 ed ; and whatever can produce such condition, 



without destroying the nervous apparatus itself, 

 is so far an anaesthetic. 



Under the title, AXJESTHETICS, in the NEW 

 AMERICAN CYCLOPAEDIA, will be found a con- 

 cise history of the practice (to about the year 

 1858), together with an account of the mode 

 of action of anaesthetic agents, and their effects, 

 a summary of their applications in medicine, 

 surgery, and obstetrics, &c. 



Among the earliest recorded instances of 

 anaesthetic practice collected by MM. Perrin 

 and Lallemand (" Treatise upon Surgical Anaes- 

 thesia," Paris, 1863), and in which the end 

 aimed at was precisely that sought in the prac- 

 tice of the present day, are those of the resort, 

 among the Assyrians, to the stupor caused by 

 compressing the arteries (it would appear) of 

 the neck, preparatory to performing circum- 

 cision in childhood ; of the local application 

 in certain minor surgical operations, among 

 the early Greeks and Romans, of the pow- 

 dered "Memphis stone" probably a species 

 of marble mixed with vinegar, to parts to 

 be benumbed, and which the authors conjec- 

 ture to have acted by means of the carbonic 

 acid set free by the mixture ; and of the anaes- 

 thetic employment in China of the Indian hemp 

 (Canndbis Indicd) the plant, closely allied to 

 our common hemp, from which the celebrated 

 "hashish," well known as possessing inebri- 

 ating and stupefying properties, is still extract- 

 ed ; as also of both the hemp and the mandrake 

 (Atropa mandragora) in India and some other 

 oriental countries. The medical school of Bo- 

 logna, in the 13th century, brought into vogue 

 in surgery a set of stupefying preparations 

 some of them believed to have been imitated 

 from the ancients, and some, at least, of a high- 

 ly complex character ; of the latter class, one is 

 known to have been a mixture of extracts with 

 which a sponge was saturated ; and when to be 

 used, the sponge was wet in warm water, and 

 the emanations were inhaled until stupor fol- 

 lowed. But, in western and southern Europe, 

 all the modes of producing anaesthesia thus far 

 considered imperfect as they were would ap- 

 pear by the beginning of the 18th century to 

 have passed wholly out of use. The stupor of 

 intoxication, and that produced by opium, were 

 still resorted to, at times, in severe operations ; 

 and in minor ones, the practice of diverting the 

 patient's attention by a blow or by some agita- 

 tion of the feelings was much in vogue. The 

 18th century was strongly marked, however, 

 by a tendency to seek for anaesthetic effects 

 through agencies of a physical or biological 

 character. 



The modern anaesthetic practice may be in a 

 manner traced to the founding of Dr. Beddoes' 

 " Medical Pneumatic Institution," in 1798, near 

 Bristol, England, and which was designed for 

 the treatment of pulmonary diseases by inha- 

 lation of ether, and of carbonic acid and other 

 gases. It was here that Humphry Davy, then 

 young, acquired his interest in the subjects of 

 gases and their inhalation ; and his discovery. 



