Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-07-19
LOCAL ANEsTHssIA.
Or. McDayid's Paper Describing Its Triumphs
and Failures.

At the meeting of the Maine Dental So
cety at Roekland, Tuesday and Wednesday
several of the papers were by Augusta dem
lists and they were among the most inter-
esting of those read at the meeting. An
abstract Of the valuable paper by DR..
Roberts will be found in another column.
Following is the abstract of an interestirg q
paper by DR.. McDavid on Local Anesthe-
sia."
1.-THE subject which am to treat tonight
is one that is of interest to every dentist.
I wish / might give it that consideration
and treatment which the subject deserves,
and which an abler pen than mine would
make interesting and instructive to his fell
low practitioners. My views may not meet
with the approval of some, and my expert
ence with the use of local anesthetics coin
eide with that Of others. but however we
NAV honestly differ, we are all striving to
reach better methods and better results.
II suppose there are some here who will
not admit that failures are possible in local
anesthetics. To such will say there never
was triumph in any great or good thing in
this world that did not meet with repeated
failure. We know that Christianity for
centuries hardly dared to show itself above
ground, but had to stink away in caves and
secret places, until time in its whirligig of
changes changed the human heart, and
Christianity strobe forth the most triumph
ant of all religions. Electricity, that most
potent of all forces 10 its application to the
uses Of man, made slow progress at first, land
electricians met with frequent failure be-
fore meeting with the grand success they
have attained at this day. Indeed failure is
almost an inevitable adjunct of success.
The use of the term "anesthesia"
as designating the state Of unconsciousness
produced by the inhalation of narcotic
agents was first suggested by DR.. Oliver
Wendell Holmes, and has become firmly
fixed in usage as term, and is today re-
peated by the tongues Of every civilized ma
ton of mankind. Although anesthesia,
both local and general, as now practiced in
surgical operations is of very recent origin,
methods for producing insensibility was not
unknown to the earliest civilization. Pliny
in his writings has indicated method of
producing local anesthesia. He says:
There is also a marble, known as MEM
phites, from Memphis, the place where it
is triturated and applied in the form
of liniment to such parts of the body as
require cauterizing or incision the flesh be-
coming quite benumbed and thereby rem
dered nsensble to pain. While it is true
that anesthesia as produced by the inhala-
ton of sulphuric ether, could not have been
possible before the time of Valerius Cordus,
(if he be accepted as the earliest to possess
nnata y hat
thesia by nitrous oxide gas could not have
been practiced before its discovery by
Priestly, still putting aside the whole group
of vegetable narcotics, man has from al
most the earliest period possessed an
agent, not so convenient as the more
volatile substances now employed, but
far safer than many of them, and with
the effects of which in abolishing conscious
ness but few races or peoples are not prac-
tically familiar with "
''Anesthesia is produced by alcohol. The
annals of surgery furnish many cases in
which painless operations have been per
formed upon patients while under the in
huence Of liquor.
Then we have mesmerism, or so called,
animal magnetism for the painless opera
tons of dentistry or surgery. At one time
the subject excited wide spread interest in
all civilized countries, and many remark
able cases are on record in which grave
surgical operations were painlessly per-
formed upon patients who had been thrown
into the magnetic sleep
Various attempts TO not entirely abolish,
but to obtund sensation have from time to
time been made. The method suggested by
DIR. j. Marr of London, was the compress
sion of the principle nerves of limb with
suitable shaped instrument with pads and
a screw.
1.-The administration of moderate doses of
opium previous to surgical operations, with
view of bunting nerve sensibility, was
plan which found favor with many.
"Of more recent date is the operation of
freezing for producing local anesthesia.
You are all familiar with the method OF
using rhigolene or ether for that purpose,
and which is now practically abandoned.
Electricity is one of the many agents
which has been experimental with as pain
obtruder in teeth extraction. The method
was to attach one pole of the battery to the
extracting forceps, the handles of which
were carefully insulated, the other being
held in the hands of the patient. This too,
has practically received its quietus.
Rapid breathing, for producing gem
eral anesthetic effect, was process recon-
mended, or suggested by some crank or en-
thusiast who thought he was going to revo-
lutionize anesthetics and benefit mankind.
"Anesthesia, by the administration OF gas,
ether or chloroform, will not touch on
here, as every dentist is, or ought to be, en-
,irely familiar with their uses.
lit is only within recent years that local
snesthesia by hypodermic injection has
come into general use. Every dentist now
adays, whether he will or not, is compelled
to use local anesthetics in the extraction OF
teeth. There is such widespread demand
for its use that to be up with the times, and
to keep abreast of his fellow practitioners,
he must learn to use the hypodermic syringe
as he has learned to use the automatic
msllet
While the whole list of narcotic agents
has been tested by all possible modes of
application for the production of local anes-
thesia, it yet remains for cocaine to carry
of the palm as the most effective in dental
and surgical operations. So certain and
sure are its effects that it enters very large
ly into all the anesthetic connections thrown
upon the dental market. question how.