The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-27
THE DYING CENTURY
PASSED In REVIEW
PROGRESS MADE IN MEDICINE
AND SURGERY.
Germ Theory of Disease, the Dis
covery of Ether as an Anesthetic
and the Proof of the Value of An
tiseptics Represent Three Distinct
pariodc

From the Chicago Times Herald
Three distinct periods have been
marked in the practice of medicine and
surgery since the beginning of the
century-first and greatest perhaps,
the establishment of the germ theory
in disease as proved by Dr. Robert
Koch, of Germany; the discovery of
ether as an anesthetic, brought to the
attention of the world in 1874 by DIR.
Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford,
Conn.,, and the proof of the value of
antiseptics, emphasized by Dr. Joseph
Lister in England in 1860 To these
may be added DR.. James Young Simp-
sons discovery of the uses of chloro-
form as an anesthetic.
In 1880 the indefatigable Sir Humph-
rey Davy had prophetic foretaste of
the future of anesthetics. While eX-
perimenting with nitrous oxide gas he
inhaled the vapor to the extent of los
ing consciousness and on recovering
from its effects he predicted that in the
future some such substance would be
found to make dental and surgical op-
eratiOns painless. In 1880 Michael
Faraday made a similar discovery re-
garding ether but so far as note was
taken of the experiment, it was re-
garded as in the nature of a Joke.
1t remained for Horace Wells in 1874
to bring the discovery to the credit of
the American profession. He had eX-
perimented upon himself, and follow.
ing these experiments he planned a
public exhibition in Boston before
clinic of physicians and students. For
some reason the patient failed to lose
consciousness, and Wells was hissed
by the gathering. Two years later he
explained his discovery before the
French Academy of Sciences. but his
Boston failure is supposed to have led
to his death in an insane asylum in
New York in 1S4S
VALUE OF ETHER SHOWN.
w. T. G. Morton, who was associated
with Wells in the unfortunate Boston
experiment, satisfied himself of the
efficacy of ether on the night of Sept.
so, 1916. He had experimental upon
himself all day, when about nightfall
a man with his face tied up came 10
his door, saying that he was distracted
from the pain of a tooth. Morton
placed him in a chair, put him under
tooth. Then a great fear seized him
that the man might not recover con-
sciousness. Morton threw a glass of
water in the patients face, whereupon
he sat up, unable to believe that the
heavy jaw tooth lying on the floor had
come from his own mouth. Eben Frost
was the name of the mantle first
to demonstrate the value of an anes-
= to n n
| following Morton etherized a patient
| in the Boston general hospital, and a
tumOr was removed from the man 2
| neck-the first time in the history OF
| surgery that the patient had not been
| held by brute force of attendants,
| while the knife cut into his protesting
| nerves.
| James Simpson of Edinburgh had
protested against the shambles-like
| brutalities of the surgeon to his
patient and the dream of his life had
| been the alleviaton of this suffering.
| Liebig, the great chemist, had dscov-
cred chlorOfurm in 1881, but not till
Nov. 4, lS47, was Simpson led to expert
ment with its possible anesthetic quail. .
tiles. on the evening of that day, with
Drs. Keith and Duncan he first in
| hailed its fumes. Its marked stimulat-
ing effect was noticed at once, grad
ually increasing into something like
intoXication. Then, after a black
blank, Simpson had the JOY of awaken
ing to a sitting posture on the floor to
find Keith and Duncan still uncOn-
scious under the table. Simpson had
experimental with ether in accouche-
ments, to find it's after effects unsatis-
factory. He introduced choloform into
obstetrics, a place that it ever since
has held
AS has been common with innova-
tiOns in all times the discovery of an
esthetics aroused opposition, and to
Simpson, more than to any other man
is due the breaking down of this preju-
dice in Europe. The bugbear of the
surgeon in those days was a thigh am
putatiOn, and in these cases Simpson
brought proof that the use of anes
thetics reduced fatalities from 81 II
100 to 25 in 100, taking the hospital!
of Europe as they ran. Today tht
painlessness of an operation is as mucl
desired by the surgeon as by the pa
tient, and the use of cocaine and ethe
spray is considered essential whel
only slight suffering would be occa
stoned by the knife.
ONLY A STEP TO ANTSEPTICS.
From anesthetics to antiseptics wa
only a step, the Koch germ theor,
having interviewed. Lister first advo
Gated the theory of the pus germ an,
sought for a specific which whit
death to the germ should be a non
irritant to surrounding tissues. He wa
laughed at and scOffed at, but his ex
periments vrought proofs of his theory
Various by-products of coal tar wer
found to have antiseptic properties
chief of which is Carbolic acid. QUINN
was discovered to be equally valuable
; and from these long list of substance
! has been found to be effective agains
the pus germ. Today there are prac
titioners who, if not opposed to anti
septic dressings, are at least indffer
ent to them, but in the main surgeon
regard the formation of pus In
wound as a mark Of careless treat
ment.
If with reference only to tubercu
losis, Professor Koch's germ discover
l must stand as the greatest epoch
e marking incident Of the century. vi
t lemin in 1865 had proved the infectious
e ness of the disease TO the satisfactio
, of the French Academy of Medicin
= Seventeen years later Koch prove
, why 1t was So He found the bacillu
= that gives life to the disease, and
e is according to his scheme Of deter
n limitations that the microscope of toda
s is revealing the disease in diagnose
Straus is authority that tuberculos
is the least contagious of the gerl