The Press., 1898-03-24
ADVANCE In SURGERY
HowIT DIFFERS NOW FROM WHAT 1T
WAS FIFTY YEARS AGO.

as Pain In the Operation First Use Of
Ether by DIR. William II. G. Morton.
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-
les. ? 1t vividly 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.
ga study of the condition of surgery
before the days of an@sthesia, " said DR..
Ashhurst, reveals on the one hand
picture of heroic boldness and mastery
self control on the part of the surgeon,
and on the other a CHASTITY panorama,
sometimes of stole 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
surgeon 8 aid.
''The 'pitilessness' which Ceicus urged
as an essential trait in the operative sur
geon was. before the days of an@sthesia,
a feature in the surgeons 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
a medical career and seek other occupa-
tion. Happily his intention was recon-
sidered, ant he returned to his studies,
asking himself, Can anything be done
to make operations less painful?' and,
as every one knows, in less than 90
years he became high priest of anses-
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 a fellow
officer whose own fate was uncertain,
and when his own ship was reached he
climbed up it's side without assistance,
saying: Tell the surgeon to make haste
and get his instruments. l know must
lose my right arm, so the sooner it is off
the better. He underwent the amputa-
tion, we learn from a private letter of
one of his midshipmen, with the same
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.
son the side of the surgeon we find
throughout the ages constant effort to
diminish the terrors of operations and a
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 of 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.
s'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 all
ternately distended and fiaocid with the
vital ourrent-how often have dreaded
that some unfo' tunate struggle of the
patient would ,:eviate the knife little
from its proper course and that /, 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 deathl Had
he been insensible l should have felt no
alarm. f es
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
now plainly recognize, but which ex-
cited no attention
& Sir Humphry Davy, in the early
days of the nineteenth century, suggest
ed the use Of MI s9ous oxide gas as an
an;esthetic IN minor operations, and it
was the custom at some of our medical
sohools---at the University of Pennsyl-
vania, for one for students to breathe
laughing tas, as it was then called,
for diversion. But yet--and yet-sur-
geons went ON, i'll every country, cutting
and burning, and patients went on
writing and screaming, until on the
18th day of October, in the year 1846,
in the Massachusetts General hospital,
DR., John G. Warren painlessly removed
a tua2or from man who had previously
been etherized by DIR. William T. G.
Morton, and surgical an@sthesia be-
came the priceless heritage of the oAvi-
lized world. &rs
Clear the window Of the soul of cob
webs, spider weaved by prejudice and
unbelief and sin, that through faith q
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