The Press., 1898-03-24
ADVANCE IN SURGERY
HOW IT DIFFERS NOW FROM WHAT TT
 WAS FlFTY YEARS AGO.

covery of Anaesthesia-Dangcr as We'll
 as Pain In the Operation-First Use of
 Ether by pr. William T. c. Merton.
 One of the most interesting papers read at the celebration in Boston of the fftieth anniversary of the first admins tration of ether in surgical operation, says the Philadelphia Record, was that by Dr.. John Ashhurst of this city on Surgery Before the Days of An@sthet- ics. :" 1t wildly recalls the horrors of those days when the surgeon 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 anasthesia, said Dr. Ashhurst. reveals on the one hand 8 picture of heroic boldness and masterly self control on the part of the surgeon, and on the other a ghastly 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 anesthesia, a feature in the surgeons career which impressed very strongly the public gen. orally as we'll as those immediately con- uected with the operation. It 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 8 medical career and seek other occupa- tion. Happily his intention was recon sidered, anC he returned to his studies, asking himself, Can anything be done to make operations less painful?' and, as every one knows, in less than 20 years he became high priest of anaes- thesia and the introducer into surgical and obstetrical practice of ether's great rival, chloroform.
 ''No braver or more gallant gentle man ever lived than Admiral Viscount Nelson, and after his right elbow had been shattered by French bullet in the assault at Tenerife he manifested the utmost courage, refusing to be taken to the nearest ship lest the sight of his in- jury should alarm the wife of fellow officer whose own fate was uncertain, and when his own ship was reached he climbed up its side without assistance, saying: Tell the surgeon to make haste and get his instruments. I know must lose my right arm, so the sooner it is off the better. He underwent the amputa- tion, we learn from private letter of oF l.; leL, kI,o firmness and 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 go- ing into action at the famous battle of the Nile he gave standing orders to his surgeons that hot water should always be kept in 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.
 f'tfOn the side of the surgeon we find throughout the ages a constant effort to diminish the terrors of operations and a continuous reproduction 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 of a limb by striking it violently with heavy knife; that time when they knew neil 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 cau- xxyifn mi tho 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 Dr. Valentine Mott, when operating in some deep. dark wound, along the course of some great vein, with thin walls al- ternately distended and daecid with the vital current-how often have dreaded that some unfo' tunate struggle of the patient would .:eviate the knife alittle from it's 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 deathi Had he been insensi ble should have felt no alarm sf'-8 tf rs H.
 Coming down to the days more inn
 mediately preceding the date of the great discovery, we find that opium and alcohol were the only agents which con- tinued to be 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 now plainly recognize, but which ex- cited no attention. i-s.4
 r Sir Humphry Davy. in the early days of the nineteenth century, suggest ed the use of nii1ous oxide gas as an an;esthetic. Id minor operations, and it was the custom at some of our medical schools-at the University of Pennsyl- vania, for one-for students to breathe laughing e.as. as it was then called, | for diversion. But yet-and yet-sur- geons went on, ill every country, cutting and burning, and patients went on | writhing and screaming. until on the 18th day of October, in the year 1S46, in the Massachusetts General hospital, Dr. John c. Warren painlessly removed tunor from man who had previously
 been etherized by Dr. William T. G. Morton, and surgical an@sthesia be- came the priceless heritage of the oiyi- ized world.'' o9s xx <aFs
 Clear the window of the soul of cob webs, spider weaved by prejudice ana
 unbeiief and sin, that through faith'i crystalline atmosphere you may lool through the gate into the heavenly city