Page:The First Anesthetic, the Story of Crawford Long - Frank Kells Boland.djvu/21

9 the King's diseased foot was amputated without his feeling it. In fact the operation was performed without the royal patient's consent, and was not discovered by him until the following morning.

Many factors delayed the coming of potent anesthesia in surgery, tradition and religious opposition being two of the principal ones. Man is a creature of habit and tradition, and from these it is hard to break him. An old saying, "What was good enough for my father is good enough for me," played a part in the cruel, senseless procrastination. As the first man and woman were driven from the Garden of Eden, she was reminded, "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children," (Genesis 3:16) and for a long time many literal fundamentalists believed it should remain that way. Even today occasionally a woman in labor insists that nothing be given her to allay her pain. Years ago punishment was meted out to those who attempted to relieve the suffering of childbirth. Myra E. Babcock 8 tells of a woman, in 1591, who was buried alive for seeking such relief at the birth of her two sons.

Although ether was first described in the sixteenth century by Valerius Cordus, of Germany, three hundred years passed before its anesthetic properties were recognized. Paracelsus, the eccentric genius, in the same century hinted at it when he declared, "It quiets all suffering without harm and relieves all pain." The drug was first known as "sweet vitriol," but in 1730 Frobenius of Germany named it "ether." Joseph Priestley, in England, discovered oxygen in 1771, and nitrous oxide the following year, but the anesthetic and analgesic qualities of the latter were not recognized until April 9th, 1799, by Humphry Davy, the distinguished English scientist. In 1795 Davy inhaled nitrous oxide gas which produced such sensations of giddiness and relaxation of muscles, and altogether made him feel so cheerful that