14 



ANESTHETICS. 



soon after, of nitrous oxide (protoxide of nitro- 

 gen), or " laughing gas," and of its effects on 

 the human system first published in the year 

 1800 created for some time a sort of furore in 

 regard to its inhalation, for amusement, and as a 

 restorative and curative agent. Davy himself 

 predicted the use of this gas for anaesthetic pur- 

 poses, when he wrote : " As nitrous oxide in 

 its extreme operation [deeper stages of its ef- 

 fect] seems capable of destroying physical pain, 

 it will probably be used with advantage during 

 surgical operations in which no great effusion of 

 blood takes place." Still, this remained a mere 

 prediction until, many years after, the use of 

 agents capable of anesthetic effects was taken 

 up and successfully reduced to practice in this 

 country, by three physicians of the cities of Hart- 

 ford and Boston. For, although nitrous oxide 

 was in the outset experimented with by Euro- 

 pean chemists and surgeons, it was by them 

 pronounced unsafe and laid aside ; and ether, to 

 which attention was thereupon turned as a sub- 

 stitute, was not at the time brought into prac- 

 tice. As early as 1828, Dr. Hickman, of London, 

 in particular, addressed the French Academy on 

 the subject of anaesthesia by inhalation, and 

 especially of carbonic acid ; but that body did 

 not favorably entertain the subject, and it was 

 dropped. 



Without here entering into a discussion of the 

 vexed question of priority in the discovery of 

 the modern anaesthetic methods, it will be 

 proper, at least, to name what appear to be the 

 facts in the case. Eecent evidence goes to 

 show that the first painless operations (and also 

 quite numerous) in the development of the new 

 method, were performed by Dr. Horace "Wells, 

 a dentist of Hartford, Conn., during the close 

 of the year 1844 and the early part of 1845 ; 

 and that the agent which he employed in these 

 cases was nitrous oxide, the operations being 

 the extraction of teeth. This conclusion has 

 been confirmed by the report and action of at 

 least two important medical bodies in this 

 country within the past two years. While, 

 however, it is by some asserted that Dr. Wells 

 was led to try the nitrous oxide by his reading 

 of the views of Davy and other early authori- 

 ties on the subject, Dr. G. Q. Colton states 

 that Dr. Wells' attention was called to the 

 agent by an observation made by the latter of 

 the painlessness, for the time, of a wound which a 

 person inhaling the gas at one of Dr. Colton's 

 exhibitions of it had inflicted upon himself. Dr. 

 Wells laid aside the use of the nitrous oxide, 

 after its failure on the occasion of an attempted 

 public demonstration with it, in Boston. It 

 would further appear, that it was the application 

 of Dr. Wells' process that Dr W. T. G. Mor- 

 ton, of Boston, was proposing to imitate, with a 

 person for whom he was about to extract a 

 tooth, when Dr. C. T. Jackson, a chemist, also 

 of Boston, and who had previously had experi- 

 ence in his own person of the insensibility pro- 

 duced by ether, suggested to Dr. Morton the 

 real and superior value of the latter agent. 



This was in September, 1846. Dr. Morton's 

 first private administration of ether occurred on 

 the 30th of that month, and his first public de- 

 monstration of the method, in the Massachusetts 

 General Hospital, on the 16th of October fol- 

 lowing ; while the first capital operation upon 

 an etherized patient was performed on the 7th 

 of the succeeding November, by Prof. George 

 Hayward, also of Boston : the result in all these 

 cases was, as desired, a complete freedom, on 

 the part of the subjects operated on, from pain. 

 The news of the remarkable success obtained 

 with ether having reached Europe, certain phy- 

 sicians and chemists there made trial of several 

 other volatile liquids, in the hope of obtain- 

 ing one still more suited to the end in view 

 than ether. In the following year, 1847, Dr. 

 Simpson, of Edinburgh, announced his dis- 

 covery of the applicability of chloroform a 

 material which has since closely contested the 

 ground with the prior agent, and has even in 

 some degree supplanted it. 



The fact, soon rendered evident in practice, 

 that neither ether nor chloroform w as wholly 

 free from danger or from other inconveniences 

 of application, led to the trial of still other 

 agents, with a view, if possible, to find some 

 one that should be entirely safe and devoid of 

 disagreeable effects conditions which, how- 

 ever, no substance has yet been found fully to 

 satisfy. 



The following list presents not altogether 

 in the order of time the more important of 

 the substances, possessing anaesthetic powers in 

 some degree, which have been experimented 

 with for the purposes now indicated : 



1. Nitrous oxide. (Davy, 1800 ; Dr. Horace Wells, 



1844 ;_ Dr. G. Q. Colton, 1863.) 



2. Carbonic acid. (Dr. Hickman, 1828; Dr. Ozanam, 



about 1862; and others.) 



3. Sulphuric ether. (Drs. Jackson and Morton, 1846.) 



4. Chloroform,. (Dr. Simpson, 1847.) 



5. Hydrochloric ether. (M. Flourens, 1847; M. 



Sedillot.) 



6. Acetic ether. (M. Figuier, 1848; M. Flourens.) 



7. Nitrous ether. (M. Flourens.) 



8. Nitric ether. (Dr. Simpson tried on animals.) 



9. Aldeliyde. (M. Poggiale.) 



10. Olefiant gas. (M. Tourdes.) 



11. Chloride of Tiydrocarlon ; or, Dutch liquid. (Dr. 



Nunneley; M. Aran.) 



12. Benzine. (Drs. Simpson and Snow.) 



13. Formomethylal. (M. Bouisson.) 



14. Bisulphide of Carbon. (1848.) 



15. Carbonic oxide. (MM. Ozanam and Tourdes.) 



16. Kerosolene. (Drs. Jackson and Bigelow.) 



17. Amylene. (Drs. Snow and Fergusson, about 1856.) 



18. Oil of turpentine. (Successfully, on shipboard, 



by John Wilmhurst, naval surgeon.) 



lodoform, the teriodide of formyle, and thus 

 the analogue of chloroform, as well as, of 

 course, many other substances which do not 

 appear to have been especially subjected to trial, 

 possesses in degree anaesthetic powers. The an- 

 ticipations awakened by the earlier success of 

 amylene, in the hands of Dr. Snow and others, 

 were soon disappointed, through the detection 

 of disagreeable consequences, and finally by the 

 occurrence in two cases of death, under its use : 



