82 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



surgical operations. Just as the opposition of the chiefs of the 

 medical profession was dying away, and they were beginning 

 to acknowledge the great value of the mesmeric sleep in 

 alleviating pain and greatly facilitating serious operations, the 

 discovery of anaesthetics offered a rival, which, though much 

 more dangerous, was more certain and more easily applied in 

 emergencies, and this led to the discontinuance of the use of 

 mesmerism as a remedial agent. This naturally disgusted 

 Dr. Purland, who, with the whole energy of his character, 

 hated chloroform, ether, and nitrous-oxide gas, and would 

 have nothing to do with them in his profession. Besides, he 

 despised any one who could not bear ^the pain of tooth- 

 drawing, and would turn away any patient who required the 

 gas to be administered. A year or two after the date of his 

 last letter my teeth were in a very bad state, and I had a 

 number of broken stumps which required to be extracted 

 preparatory to having a complete set of artificials. Entirely 

 forgetting his objections, which, in fact, I had hardly believed 

 to be real, after making an appointment I asked him to get 

 a doctor to administer nitrous-oxide, as I could not stand the 

 pain of three or four extractions of stumps of molars in 

 succession. This thoroughly enraged him. He wrote me a 

 most violent letter, saying he could not continue to be the 

 friend of a man who could ask him to do such a thing, and 

 gave me the name of an acquaintance of his who had no such 

 scruples and whose work was thoroughly good. And that 

 was the last communication I ever had from Dr. Purland. 



The dentist to whom he recommended me was really a 

 good workman, and made me a set of teeth which I wore 

 almost constantly for thirty years, and which I have never 

 had equalled since. While going about lecturing, and 

 especially when going to America in 1886, I had new sets 

 made, and I think I have had altogether four complete sets 

 besides the first, but not one of them has been comfortable 

 or even wearable without great pain ; with none could I eat 

 satisfactorily or speak distinctly, and though I pointed out to 

 each new dentist how well these old ones fitted me, and how 

 comfortable they were, and begged each of them to make the 



