19th Century Medical Revolution: Anaesthesia
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This article is from the Health Articles series.
19th Century Medical Revolution: Anaesthesia
Anaesthesia started in North America. Various potions including opiates and alcohol have been used since ancient times to dull pain and lull into sleep. The hypnotic effect of ether, "sweet vitriol", has been known since the sixteenth century, but the first effective anaesthetic dates back only to 1842.
In that year Crawford Long, a physician in the small town of Jefferson, Georgia noticed that when people inhaled ether as a "recreational" drug, they became insensitive to pain. He removed a tumour from a patient's neck under ether anaesthesia, but did not immediately publicize his discovery. Two or three years later others, Wells, Morton and Jackson tried first nitrous oxide then ether for first dental and then other purposes. Over the years Congress voted $100,000 to the inventor of anaesthesia; but there was profound disagreement as to who the inventor was.
Long wrote some time later:
In the month of December, 1841, or January, 1842, the subject of the inhalation of nitrous oxide gas was introduced in a company of young men assembled at night, in the village of Jefferson, Ga., and the party requested me to prepare them some. I (Long) informed them that I had not the requisite apparatus for preparing or using the gas, but that I had an article (sulphuric ether), which would produce equally exhilarating effects and was as safe. The company was anxious to witness its effects: the ether was produced, and all present, in turn, inhaled. They were so much pleased with its effects that they afterwards frequently used it and induced others to use it, and the practice became quite fashionable in the country and some of the contiguous counties. On numerous occasions I inhaled the ether for its exhilarating properties and would frequently at some short time subsequently discover bruises or painful spots on my person which I had no recollection of causing, and which I felt satisfied were received while under the influence of ether. I noticed my friends while etherized, receive falls and blows, which I believed sufficient to cause pain on a person not in a state of anaesthesia, and, on questioning them they uniformly assured me that they did not feel the least pain from these accidents.
Observing these facts I was led to believe that anaesthesia was produced by the inhalation of ether and that its use would be applicable in surgical operations.
The first person to whom I administered ether in a surgical operation was Mr. James M. Venable, who then resided within two miles of Jefferson, and at the present time in Cobb county, Ga. Mr. Venable consulted me on several occasions as to the propriety of removing two small tumors on the back part of his neck, but would postpone from time to time having the operating performed from dread of pain. At length I mentioned to him the fact of my receiving bruises while under the influence of the vapor of ether, without suffering, and, as I knew him to be fond of and accustomed to inhale ether, I suggested to him the probability that the operation might be performed without pain, and suggested to him operating while he was under its influence. He consented to have one tumor removed and the operation was performed the same evening. The ether was given to Mr. Venable on a towel and fully under its influence, I extirpated the tumor. It was encysted and about one-half an inch in diameter. The patient continued to inhale ether during the time of the operation, and seemed incredulous until the tumor was shown to him. He had had no evidence of pain during the operation and assured me after it was over that he did not experience the least degree of pain from its performance ...
The discovery soon crossed the Atlantic and was first used in the University College Hospital, London, 1846. It was followed a year later by chloroform introduced in Edinburgh by James Young Simpson.
by Dr. Ian Carr, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba
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