Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-24

Although it may appear to the super
fetal observer as if more progress had
been made in the realms of medicine
and surgery during the present century
than in any other branch of science.
this is not entirely true. 1t cannot be
denied that the achievements that have
marked the past hundred years have
been great and grand in their effect upon
humanity, but still it must be admitted
that the seed that has brought forth
has harvest was planted by men who
lived and worked in a period that ante
dates the present era.
The nineteenth century has given to
the world men who deserve great credit
for the work they have done, but if it
had not been for Harvey, who discov-
cred the circulation of the blood in the
early part of the seventeenth century,
lived more than a hundred years ago.
the progress of the present century
would have been impossible.
In making this statement it is not my
intention to detract from the grandeur
of the achievements of our own philo-
sophical view of the matter. After we
a given the credit to the men to whom
it is due we can u1Il attention to our
W work, and it is safe to say that it
will not suffer in consequence.
AS DR.. Edward H. Clarke has so wisely
said:
DuiIAS Tx plCSSAl CCnlu IA
has been enfranchised from superstition.
Observation-Disclosures, bad empiricism, and
speculation, has developed into a SYSTEM
attic service"
LIN addition, he might have said, auxil-
larry cience has re-enforced medicine
and surgery, notably chemistry and cleo
tricity. Mechanical skill has been shown
In the invention of cutlery and instru-
ments never before dreamed of, and,
h is more to the point from the hu-
marritarian view, a benevolent spirit
now possesses the medical world so that
a patient is not regarded as a semi
criminal, but is treated with the most
angelic compassion.
AN ENTIRE CHANGE.
Hospitals and asylums for the treat
ment of the poor and unfortunate is the
result Of this. Patients who are suffer-
ing from insanity are now treated kind
ly instead of being shackled and bound
to the walls of their cell. The nurses Of
the Red Cross and other organizations
have robbed war of some of it's worst ter
rors, and all this works to the glorifica
ton Of his age as a benevolent era.
To speak of all the remarkable achieve
ments of the past hundred years would
be impossible in the confines of a single
article, but these achievements have
been so great that it is only necessary
to touch upon Them ever SO slightly to
bring them before the mind Of the reader
with all force.
One Of the greatest of these achieve
ments was certainly the discovery of an
aesthetics, and while there has been
much controversy concerning priority OF
discovery in this matter, it seems to be
now agreed hat at least the greater part
of the credit for this work belongs to- DR..
William 7. G.. Morton. That the credit
for the o%rigination of the idea may be-
long to Wells or Long, or Jackson can
scarcely be discussed at this time, but
1t cannot be denied that while Long
waited and Wells turned back and Jack
SON was thinking, the practical man went
to work and worked resolutaly. He gave
ether successfully in severe surgical OPP
erations, he loudly proclaimed his deeds
n he absolutely compelled men to lis
ten to him..
1t was Morton who first proved to the
world that ether could produce insensi-
billy to the pains of surgery and that
the new anaesthetics could be used with
perfect safety. 1t is to him, therefore,
that humanity owes this great debt, for
no other achievement of the century has
done more to mitigate human suffering.
A GREAT STEP.
It was on October 16, 1916, that DR..
Morton gay his first public demonstra-
ton in the operating theater of the Mas
sachusetts general hospital, at Boston.
IreNious " tlial Vlhie ne nau lhaue MANY
experiments, upon upon MIN
self and upon submissive patients, but
until this day in October physicians had
received his statements with little faith.
They could not believe that this appar-
emily impossible feat could be performed,
but the public demonstration persuaded
them, and since that October morning
surgery has undergone a complete
change. Now the terrors of the operat-
ing room have vanished and the patient
dreams pleasant dreams as he sleeps
under the knife, permitting the surgeon
to work on as methodically as if he We're
repairing an iron machine. About a
year later chloroform, which had beer
invented IN 1880, was first used as an ans