ANESTHETICS 



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doubled. Yet in all three — rabbits, dogs, and men 

 — belladonna paralyses the power of the vagus over 

 the heart. The difference is that in rabbits the 

 vagus normally exerts but little action on the heart, 

 and the effect of its paralysis is consequently slight 

 or hardly appreciable." (Professor Fraser.) 



It would be strange indeed, if experts who work 

 in micromillimetres and decimal milligrammes, and 

 study the vanishing-point of microscopic structures, 

 and measure and ordain infinitesimal changes in 

 invisible organisms, were blind to such gross and 

 palpable differences as exist between men and 

 pigeons in their susceptibility to a dose of opium. 



Anaesthetics must be reckoned among the drugs 

 that have been studied on animals : but, for the 

 discovery of them, men experimented on themselves. 

 The first use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in 

 surgery was nth December 1844, when Horace 

 Wells, of Connecticut, had it administered to himself 

 for the removal of a tooth. The first use of ether 

 was made by Dr Long, of Athens, Georgia ; but he 

 did not publish the case, or follow up the work : 

 and the honour of the discovery of ether went to 

 Morton, of Boston, who made repeated experiments, 

 both on animals and on himself. The date when he 

 first rendered himself absolutely unconscious for 

 seven or eight minutes, is 30th September 1846 ; and 

 the first operation under ether was done on 16th 

 October, in the Massachusetts General Hospital. 

 The first use of chloroform was 4th November 1847, 

 that famous evening when Simpson, George Keith, 

 and Matthews Duncan took it together. The whole 



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