The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-12-31
MOTHERHOOD WITHOUT FEAR

by which the pangs of childbirth
we're to be forever abolished. The
announcement was made in the form
Of an article by two women. appar
entity OF no medical training. Tht
remarkable discovery was the long
~discreGited scopolamin-morphin an
algesia. first suggested in 1902. This
sensational article was taken adyan
tage Of by q pharmaceutic firm fol
free advertising of a nostrum, baseo
on a similar formula; a number OF
physicians previously unknown
brought themselves into newspaper
prominence with naive statements re
garding their ability in the use OF
the method and with reports of then
success a host of 'sob-writers" and
sisters OF the pen. whose work is test
ed BY their ability to wiring anguish
from sympathetic hearts, filled col
umns of the daily press and maya
zines with pseudo-scientitic rubbish.
And now, when this sensation has
about died out, We are supplied with
another. This one is furnished by
Mr.. Vance Thompson, playwright and
novelist; the medium is the Cosmo-
Dolitan magazine. In an editors
note the article describing this new
method of eliminating the pains of
labor is introduced as follows:
The all absorbing events of the
last days of July prevented the
spread of the most joyful message
ever sent from the scientists labor
atory to woman. 1t was that hence
forth she will bear children not in
pain and terror but in gladness. Par
is knew of it; the French Acadmy of
Medicine had accepted it, but it got
no further. Mr.. Thompson was ther
in the city and to him has fallen the
wonderful opportunity of carrying
the good news to the men and womeI
of America. Here it is.
Attention must be called to TIL
fact that the practice here described
mas nothing to do with the morphin-
scopolamin treatment originated
some years ago in Freiburg and
which has had some measure of eX
p~loitation under the popular mann of
twilight sleep" This requires
special and very expert care on the
rart of the physician, and has the
further disadvantage of d%rugging
the patient into a state of partial in
seusibility. 1t can be administered
properly only in hospitals. and its use
in general practice should, and prob
ably will, be forbidden by law. But
detoxicated morphin, without the
slightest danger to the mother, caus-
es neither check nor delay, does not
interfere with the necessary ryth-
mic muscular contractions and makes
painless childbirth a scientific GER
tainty."
AS a composition, The Journal of
the American Medical Association re-
CARDS Mr.. Thompson's article as fair
" comparable with that of the two
ladies' who reintroduced twilight
sleep to American women; but for
sentimental rot, for Notwithstanding
rubbish. and for downright sob
writing" Mr.. Vance Thompson must
be given the palm.
l. xt11 foa4r IN Ann nlann If iC
stated:
Il do not write of this discovery as
being in an experimental stage. 1t
has been accepted by the French
Academy of M~edicine-the date was
the third week in July. Surgeons,
grnecologists, chemists, doctors OF all
degrees have examined. tested, ap
proved. For once scientific men have
been unanimous
There is no excuse for such false
statements; even Mr.. Thompson
could easily have learned the truth
What are the facts? What Is this
"'detoxicated morphin' which, we are
told, eliminates the pains of child
birth? Last July, Ribemont-Des-
saignes reported to the Academy OF
Medicine of Paris a number of cases
of childbirth in which he had used,
for the relief Of pain, a preparation
discovered" by a chemist named
Paulin. The nature of the prepara-
ton was not disclosed to the acad-
envy. September l, presumably as a
result of the suggestion of Paulin, a
reauest came to the academy from
file Minister of War asking the opin-
ion of the academy as to the advis-
ability of using this remedy, present
ed under the name "Tocanalglne"
and "Antalgine" in military hospitals
as a substitute for morphin. By
unanimous vote the academy de-
clared that, the formula and compo-
sition of these meuicines being I'M
known, it could give no opinion.
Since it was stated, however, that the
new drug was produced by the &C
ton Of engines OF m%orphin, the
academy appointed a committee tc
Investigate oxydi-morphin, a chemi
cal substance which it was known
could be produced by the action o.
engines on morphin. Under the di
rection of the committee, two chem
lists examined samples of the new
n~renaratiou obtained directly from
the d%iscoverer. The examination
showed that these samples were va
riable and that they did not contain
any oxydimorphin. The only activ'