The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-13 00:00:00

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Etttrature.

NOTICES.

Remarks illustrative of the inhalation and use of Chlo-
roform and Ether. By Hugh Neill, Esq.
At the conclusion of Mr. Neill's excellent contribution
to medical science, entitlea " Cure of the Cataract,"—a
work which we had the pleasure of noticing on a former
occasion—there is a compendious article on the history,
inhalation, and use of tether and chloroform. Speaking
of the discovery of the wonderful properties of tether-
vapour in the operative department of surgery, Mr. Neill
claims to be the pioneer who first suggested its use in a
work published in the year 1840. He says :—" As I have
put in some claim as an humble pioneer towards its—
(tether-vapour)—complete discovery—a discovery which
unquestionably took place in America—l will state on
what grounds 1 rest my title to be considered as having
aided that consummation. Eight years ago, I published
a work o the ear ; and in 1841 the same work was pub-
lished ir. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. I have a
regular diagram of an apparatus for the administration of
tether by the eustachian tubes (air-passages from the
throat) for the cure of some forms of deafness, and for
the relief of painful affections of the inner ear, oy the
induction of tether-vapour. Well, from Boston, in 1846,
we have a reflex importation, (matured certainly to a
climax, entitling the party to the just credit of a complete
and triumphant discovery,) to the effect that tether-
vapour will not only soothe pain, but produce complete
insensibility to pain." Having thus established his claim
to be considered a pioneer in this great and pre-eminently
useful discovery, Mr. Neill proceeds to give an account
of the completion of the discovery by Mr. Horace Wells,
a dentist of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut.
From this topic our author proceeds to the discussion
of the more important discovery of chloroform as an
,esthetic agent, by Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh, to whom,
he contends, that it was suggested, as chloric tether, by
Mr. Waldie, of Liverpool, whose essay on chloroform,
read at the Literary and Philosophical Society, in Novem-
ber, 1847, he considers the best which has yet been pro-
paced on the subject, This agent was first medically used
in Liverpool, where indeed in the form of a spirituous so-
lution it has been more known than in any other part of
the kingdom, and from which the knowledge of its medi-
cinal properties has extended. As to the use of chloro-
form in alleviating the sufferings of human nature, Mr.
Neill adds testimony to the opinions of those eminent men
who have already pronounced in its favour, whilst at the
same time he warns the unskilled against tampering with
an agent so powerful in its effects. On this subject he
speaks out boldly and plainly, so as to guard against the
detrimental effects of its abuse. "In proper hands," he
truly observes, " what boons to suffering humanity in
countless forms of pain and sorrow are not chloroform and
tether. They truly are so when administered as I have
devoted considerable space to indicate. Candour also re-
quires the dangers apt to result from their abuse or im-
proper exhibition, to be pointed out, as well as their over-
whelming and predominating advantages. Such dangers
by abuses in rash hands, only prove that,
" Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
Mr. N. then proceeds to the consideration and refuta-
tion of the various objections to the use of these agents as
well by the non-progressive medical men as by a few
of the religious fanatics of the present enlightened age,
and concludes the article by an ingenious argument to
prove that the effects of tether actually realize the mar-
vellous virtues " ascribed to ancient shells, draughts, and
wonder working drugs, which have exercised the pens of
the greatest poets of all time from Homer downwards."
We regret that our space forbids us from entering more
fully into this ingenious disquisition, which displays great
talent and research, as does the entire book. Mr. Neill
deserves the thanks of the public as well as of the pro-
fession, to whom his contributions must prove of infinite
value.