A narrative of events connected with the introduction of sulphuric ether into surgical use / By Richard Manning Hodges.

  • Hodges, Richard M. (Richard Manning), 1827-1896.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A narrative of events connected with the introduction of sulphuric ether into surgical use / By Richard Manning Hodges. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    31/170 (page 25)
    safe and would destroy the pain attending the operation, Mr. Frost consented to the process. Thereupon Dr. Morton saturated a folded cloth with ether, and held it to the man's mouth and nose until he was unconscious. In less than five minutes after the patient had taken his seat in the operating-chair the great discovery was achieved. It was so dark that Dr. Hayden held a lamp for Dr. Morton while the firmly rooted bicuspid was extracted, never imagining how near his assistance came to defeating the dis- covery and contributing to a catastrophe, by the ignition of the inflammable vapor. Mr. Frost quickly recovered, asked the number of the street, and said he never felt so happy in his life. On finding his tooth already extracted, he declared that he had suffered no pain whatever. He even remained sometime talking about the occurrence, and at Morton's request, before leav- ing, wrote the following certificate : — This is to certify that I applied to Dr. Morton this evening at eight o'clock, suffering under the most violent toothache; that Dr. Morton took out his handkerchief, saturated it with a preparation of his, from which I breathed about half a minute, and then was lost in sleep. In an instant more I awoke, and saw my tooth lying on the floor. I did not