The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-02-23

uOcUor lnqulrin9ly remarked, ell, cap
tain, it didn't hurt as much as you ex-
pectedr' True enough" was the reply, "the
hurt was in the anticipation, but l would
rather be shot in a quickStep to the tune of
Yankee Doodle than be knitted to the slow
music of Old Hundred
Prior to 1876 pain was partially relieved by
the use of opium, Indian hemp copious
draughts of whisky and brandy that made
the patient drunk and few other articles
known to chemistry and the materia medica,
but during that year the scientific world was
startled by the announcement that an Amer
lean had discovered in pure sulphuric ether
an anasthetic that was destined to become a
blessing to mankind At first the informa-
ton was received with doubt.
When, however, the first surgical operation
with the use of ether demonstrated the new
truth, the exultation of professional men
know no bounds, and everywhere, on both
sides of the Atlantic, in private practice and
in the hospitals the experiments that follow
ed added fresh triumphs to the discovery.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holiness one of the most
eminent of HarYard's professors, wrote: ''The
knife is searching for disease; the pulleys are
dragging back dislocated limbs; nature her
self is working out the primal curse that
doomed the tenderest of her creatures to the
sharpest of her trials; but the fierce extrem-
ity OF her suffering has been stepped in the
waters OF forgetfulness, and the deepest fur
row in the llnotted brow of agony has beea
smoothed forever"
The circumstances attending the first oper-
ation-it took place i'll the Massachusetts Gen
eral hospital, in Boston-are worth recalling
''The scene says DR.. Hayward, the operating
surgeon, was one of g. surprising interest.
The operating room was crowded; many were
obliged to stand. Besides the class of stu
dents in attendance on the lectures, number
ing more than one hundred, and many of the
principal physicians and surgeons of the
neighborhood, there were present clergy men,
lawyers and other individuals from the vari
Gus callings of life. When | entered the the
atre before the patient was brought in, l
found it, to my surprise, filed in every part
| except the floor ON which the table stood with
persons on whose countenance was depicted
the almost painful anxiety with which they
awaited the result of the experiment they
were about to witness. i simply told them
that 1 had decided, With the advice of my
colleagues, to allow the patient on whom L
was to operate to inhale an article which was
said to have the power of annulling pain. The
patient was then brought ina delicate look
ing girl of about 90 years of age, who had suf-
fered for long time from scrofulous disease
of the knee joint. I told her l should let her
breathe something which l hoped would pre-
vent her from suffering much from the oper-
alton, and that she need not be afraid of
breathing it freely"
Dr. Hayward then grasped the patients
limb with his left hand and held the ampu-
tating knife behind him in his right, carefully
concealed from view The mouthpiece of
the inhaling instrument being put in her
mouth, she was directed to take long inspira-
tons. After breathing in this way short
time, the nostriis were compressed SO that all
the air that went into the lungs must first
pass through the machine and be mixed with
tho vapor of the ether She breathed with
perfect ease and without struggling, and in
| about three minutes from the time the instfu-
ment was put in her mouth DR.. Morton (the
discoverer) said: "She is ready" A death
like silence reigned in the room; no one
moved or hardly breathed. The doctor
passed the knife directly through the limb,
and brought it out as rapidly as he could, and
made the upper flap.