Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-03-14
WONDERS OF MODERN SUR.
GERY.

.Moathiy. The nrst grew anu '"u'N"i
step in modern progress was the intro
duction Of what the doctors call anes-
,hetic agents. Ether was brought into
use on the Both Of March, 1916, by DR..
Morton Of Boston, who extracted a tooth
from q man without pain, by first put.
ting him under the influence Of ether.
DR.. c. jackson, the geologist, claims to
have made the first suggestion Of ether,
and did, unquestionably, suggest great
caution in the use Of it. Chloroform
was discovered by Sir J. Y. Simpson,, a
surgeon of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the
4th Of November, ls47. Now no opera
ton of magnitude is performed without
the aid of insensibility to pain, pro-
duced either by ether, chlorotorm OF
some other anesthetic agent. II seems
as far back as the thirteenth century
the idea of painless operations was care
fully considered, but though treated Of
by one Theodore was apparently ana
aside as practically useless. The ehie'
effort of the old surgeons was apparent
" to produce iuseusibility in the opera
tor in infiicting suffering. BY the local
application of a sufficient degree OF
cold, i%nseusibility can be produced in
any desired part, so that II man with q
most exquisitely painful wound on his
arm, or felon on his finger, can now
look quietly down, in his perfect senses,
upon the knife as it enters his own
body, and performs the most difficult
operations without giving the least pain.
Modern science has constructed an in
strument by which a vapor Of ether, or
other volatile substance, is thrown out
in the form of spray, which so rapidly
absorbs the natural heat Of the parts of
the body exposed to its operations as to
produce perfect insensibility to pain,
without the loss Of volition or conscious
ness. This evaporation is so potent
that the great Faraday was able to pro-
duce ice in q red hot crucible DR..
Henry S. Bigelow of Boston has intro
duced the use Of rhigolere, a product
Of petroleum, which is extremely vola-
tile, and will freeze up the skin and
textures beneath in n few seconds, 10
degrees Of cold below zero being easily
produced in q few minutes.
Artificial legs and arms are now man
ufactured, which are light and have oil
the movements Of natural joints, by
means of springs, cords and wheels,
and are so perfectly adapted to use that
it is by no means easy to discover which
is the natural and which the artificial
limb, when the wearer is once used to
wearing the work of art. One man
boasts, I" 1 can carry an armful of wood
quite haudily," OF ''carry n pail OF wa-
ter with ease :" and then says, I'll was
fitted with a pair Of artificial hands, aud
can feed myself very we'll with them,
also a write so rs to be read" An
other declares he has driven a horse
twenty miles on the coolest day, without
calling on his other hand for assistance.
This is a great Improvement on the iron
hook, which was the best substitute that
old surgery could afix to the stump.
These artificial limbs, however, nre tri-
umphs of mechanical ingenuity, rather
than of surgery.
A French surgeon has invented an in
strument he calls the eera'e"r, or crush
er, to perform operations dangerous IN
surgery on account Of the loss Of blood
from the smaller vessels, if performed
with a knife. 1t is formed Of a fine
chain gathered into n loop, which en-
closes the part to be removed, and BY
turning q screw the chain is frightened
till the parts are separated. The blunt
chain so turns up OIL twists the ends OF
the blood vessels that h~emorrhage is
prevented. A child was born with n
tongue so much too long that it pro-
truded three or four inches from her
mouth, so that she could not masticate
food, or shut her mouth, or speak. Yet
when about fifteen years old, under the
influence Of c%hloroform, the esrd'su'
was applied, the superfiuous portion oil
the tongue removed, and now she talks,
sings and eats with ease.
The eye is now examined by an IN
strument called the opthalmascope, BY
which the depths of the globe Of the
eye can be readily aud fully explored,
and through its aid a great deal Of what
has been written and conjectured about
diseases Of the eye has been found to be
wrong. Tho intricate passages Of the
ear, the nose, the whole Of the wind
pire and passages to the lungs, are
now carefully explored. Perhaps one
of the best results Of modern science
has been through what is called con-
sentative surgery, the rule of which is
to save all that possibly a DO saved
from the amputating knife. Many OF
our brave soldiers complained of the
reckless haste with which, IN the late
war, some surgeons would cut of arms
and legs on account Of trifing wounds
The complaint was often just. But one
Of the most distinguished surgeons II
the world has lately written, GA
Kings College it is rare to see an ampu
tation /; in nine cases out of ten, excelsior
for the cutting out Of the disease
portion of the limb) should be per
formed in its stead" A poor boy a
the West was caught under q falling
log, had his leg broken, crushed an
and twisted upon itself at right angles
with his thigh, the bones protrudinI
,brouoh the flesh, and no doctor near