Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/46

 xxxvi INTRODUCTION

Zoge-Manteuffel with the introduction of operating gloves in spite of the fact that his own references show that Halsted published his article advocating the use of rubber gloves eight years earlier than Zoge- Manteuffel.

Quite equal in importance to the introduction of antisepsis was the discovery of anesthesia. Not only does the truly epoch-making dis- covery of prevention of pain during operations by ether anesthesia belong to America, but far more has been done by Americans than is generally known in introducing other forms of anesthesia. After the introduction of ether anesthesia, it was a relatively easy step to apply other similar gases for the production of anesthesia. To Simpson, of Edinburgh, no doubt belongs the credit of suggesting the use of chloro- form, but there seems to be every reason to believe that the credit of the discovery of the chemical, chloroform, belongs to Guthrie, who then lived at Sackett's Harbor, New York. In an article published in "Silli- man's American Journal of Science and Art," October, 1831, he described "A New Mode of Preparing the Spiritous Solution of Chloric Ether." The Germans give credit to Leibig, the French to Soubeiran, but careful investigation seems to show that Guthrie antedated both. (See pamphlet entitled "Memoirs of Dr. Samuel Guthrie and the History of Discovery of Chloroform" by Ossian C. Guthrie, Chicago, 1877.)

Coming's use of spinal anesthesia has already been mentioned. In his little book on local anesthesia, published in 188C, he also discusses many of the important questions concerning local anesthesia, such as the effectiveness of weak solutions, lack of harmful influence in wound healing, nerve blocking, etc., which have later interested many workers in this field.

While Sir Humphrey Davy discovered the chemical nitrous-oxide gas, and knew something of its anesthetic properties, Horace Wells doubtless made much more practical use of this anesthetic than any previous worker, and his influence on Morton very likely helped to lead to the discovery of ether anesthesia.

Anesthesia and antisepsis are certain to stand through all time as the great discoveries not only of the nineteenth century, but of the entire history of surgery. Important as all regard antisepsis, it is certain that most persons, if they had to choose between operations without anes- thesia or without antisepsis, would take the old dirty methods rather than the terrible torture of an operation without anesthesia. Every member of the medical profession should know of William T. G. Morton who introduced ether anesthesia in 1846; how after failing in business in Boston, he studied dentistry in Baltimore, and later medicine in Boston; how he entered the dental office of Horace Wells, of Hartford, Connecticut, who used nitrous-oxide gas anesthesia, first as an assistant,