Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-09-24

science whatever, says Harper's. This
was the discovery of the pain-dispell-
ing power of the vapor of sulphuric
ether, inhaled by patient undergoing
a surgical operation. This discovery
came solely out of America, and II
stands curiously isolated since appar-
emily no minds in any other country
were trending toward it even vaguely,
Davy, in England had indeed originat-
ed the method of medication by inha-
lation, and carried out some most in
teresting experiments SO years earlier,
and it was doubtless his experiments
with nitrous oxide gas that gave the
clue to one of the American investigar
tors; but this was the sole contribution
of preceding generations to the SUBJ
ject, and since the beginning OF the
century, when Davy turned his atten-
ton to other matters, no one had made
the slightest advance along the same
line until an American dentist renewed
the investigation. Moreover, there
had been nothing in Davy's expert
ments to lead any one to suspect the
possibility that surgical operation
might be rendered painless in this way;
had Acknowledged with one accord
that all hope of finding means to SC
cure this most desirable end must be
utterly abandoned-that the surgeons
knife must ever remain synonym for
slow and indeseribable torture. Benla-
min Brodie, the acknowledged leader OF
English surgeons, had publicly express
ed this as his deliberate, though re-
GREETED opinion at a time when the
quest which he considered futile had
already led to the most brilliant sue
cess in America, and while the an
nouncement of the discovery, which
then had no transatlantic cable to con-
vey it. was actually on its way TO the
Old World.
The American dentist just referred
to, who was, with one exception, to be
noted presently, the first man in the
world to conceive that the administra-
ton of a definite drug might render a
surgical operation painless, and to give
the belief application, was DR.. Charles
w. Wells, of Hartford, Conn. The drug
with which he experimental was MI
trous oxide: the operation which he
| rendered painless was no more import
|
i il sufficed to mark a principal; the
year of the experiment was 1874.
The experiments Of DR.. Wells, how
| ever, though important, were not suffi-
| GENTLY demonstratiye to bring the mat
ter prominently to the attention of the
| medical world. The drug with which
| he experimental proved not always re-
liable, and he himself seems ultimately
| to have given the matter up. or at least
| TO have relaxed his efforts. But mean
| time friend, to whom he had com
municated his belief and expectations,
took the matter up, and with unre-
| hitting zeal carried forward expert
ments that were destined to lead to
more tangible results. This friend was
! another dentist, DR.. William J. Nor
ton. of Boston. then a young man, full
| of youthful energy and enthusiasm
He seems to have felt that the drug
| with which Wells had experimental
was not the most practicable one for
/ the purpose, and so for several months
/ he experimental with other allied
| drugs, until finally he hit upon sui
phuric ether, and with this was able to
| make experiments upon animals, and
! then upon patients in the dental chair,
that seemed to him absolutely demon
| strative.
Full OF eager enthusiasm. and abso-
| lutely confident Of his results, he at
once went to DR. J. G. Warren, one Of
| the foremost surgeons of Boston, and
asked permission to test his discovery
decisively on one Of the patients at the
| Boston hospital during a severe opera
| ton. The request was granted. the
| text was made in September, 1886, in
| the presens of several of the formost
| surgeons Of the city and of body Of
| medical students. The patient slept
| quietly while the surgeons knife was
! piled, and awoke TO astonished compre-
/ hension that the ordeal was over. The
| impossible. the miraculous, had been
| accomplished.
THE FORCE OF HABIT.