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 



165 



