Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-07-09
ADVANCE INsURGERY
Howir DIFFERS NOW FROM WHAT IT
WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO.

s1OW W OiefeHS NOW FROM WHAT 1T
WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO.
The Horror Of the Knife Ur to the Ibis.
covery OF Anestl,esia-Danger as Well
rs Pain In the Operation-First Use Of
Ether by DR.. William T. q. Morton.
One Of the most interesting papers
read at the celebration in Boston of the
fiftieth anniversary of the first admins.
tration Of ether in surgical operation,
says the Philadelphia Record, was that
by DIR. John Ashhurst of this city on
"Surgery Before the Days of Anesthet-
les. 1t vividly recalls the horrors of
those days when the surgeon s knife was
an object of far greater terror than now
and inflicted untold tortures upon the
conscious patient.
"a study Of the condition of surgery
before the days of anestIlesia, said DR..
Ashhurst. reveals OH the one hand q
picture of heroic boldness and mastery
self control OH the part of the surgeon,
and on the other a chastity panorama,
sometimes of stoic fortitude and endur.
ance, sometimes Of abject terror and hu-
miliation-but always of agonizing
wretchedness and pain-on the part Of
the unhappy victim who required the
surgeons aid.
'"The 'pitilessness' which Ceicus urged
as an essential trait in the operative sur
geon was, before the days of annsthesia,
feature i'll the surgeons Is career which
impressed very strongly the public gen.
orally as we'll as those Immediately con-
nected with the operation. 1t is inter-
esting to recall that Sir James Simpson
OF Edinburgh, shortly after beginning
his professional studies, was SO affected
by seeing the terrible agony of poor
Highland woman under amputation of
the breast that he resolved to abandon
medical career and seek other occupa-
tion. Happily his intention was recon.
sldered, ant. he returned to his studies,
asking himself, Can anything be done
to make operations less painful?' and,
as every one knows, ill less than 20
years he became u high priest of anes-
thesia and the introducer into surgical
and obstetrical practice of ether's great
rival, chloroform.
mo Drawer or more gallant gentle
man ever lived than Admiral Viscount
Nelson, and after his right elbow had
been shattered by French bullet in tho
assault at Tenerife he manifested the
utmost courage, refusing to be taken to
the nearest ship lest the sight of his ill
jury should alarm the wife of q fellow
officer whose own fate was uncertain,
and when his own ship was reached ho
climbed up its side without assistance,
saying: Tell the surgeon to make haste
and get his Instruments know l must
lose my right arm, SO the sooner it is off
the better. He underwent the amput.-
tion. we learn from IL private letter of
one of his midshipmen, with the same
firmncss aud courage that have always
marked his character. And yet so pain
fully was he affected by the coldness of
the operators knife that when next 60
ing into action ut the famous battle of
the Nile he gave standing orders to his
surgeons that hot water should always
be kept i'll readiness during an engage.
ment. so that if another operation should
be required he might at least have the
poor comfort of being cut With warm
Instruments
"On the side of the surgeon we find
throughout the ages constant effort to
diminish the terrors of operations and q
continuous reprobation of the distress
full, not to say cruel, modes of prac-
tice adopted by preceding generations.
And yet the time is not very far distant
from ours when they Topped off limb
by striking it violently with heavy
knife; that time when they knew nei-
ther how to stop nor how to prevent
hemorrhage but by burning the part
whence the blood jetted with boiling oil
or the redhot iron; that time when sur
geons armed themselves at every mo.
ment with pinchers, with burning eau
teries and with instruments the repre-
sentations even Of which cause terror.
But the presence of pain was not the
only evil dreaded by our predecessors in
attempting important operations. The
great risk Of fatal accident from some in
voluntary movement of the patient was
constantly present to the mind of the
conscientious surgeon. How often, says
DIR. Valentine Mott, when operating in
some deep. dark wound, along the course
of some great vein, with thin walls al.
ternately distended and flaccid with the
vital current-how often have dreaded
that some unfortunate struggle of the
patient would deviate the knife little
from its proper course and that I. who
fain would be the deliverer, should in
voluntarily become the executioner, see
ing my patient perish in my hands by
the most appalling form of death! Had
he been insensible should have felt no
alarm.
Coming down to the days more i'm
mediately preceding the date of the
great discovery, we find that opium and
alcohol were the only agents which con-
tinued to he regarded as of practical
value in diminishing the pain of opera
tions. though the attendant disadvan-
tages of their employment were of course
recognized. Meanwhile facts were accu.
mulating the significance of which we
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