1. This community is familiar with the great scientific talent and attainment of Dr. Jackson. Dr. Morton has acuteness, ingenuity, zeal, and perseverance. The discovery is not of a character to have demanded extensive scientific acquirement, and it is probable that either Dr. Jackson or Dr. Morton might have made it.

2. The suggestion occurred to Davy, Jackson, Wells, Morton, and many others. Horace Wells seems to have conceived this hypothesis more distinctly than any other individual. So persuaded was he of its probability, that he made several experiments; and even made a journey to the medical class at Boston, before whom, however, he entirely failed to verify his theory. He then abandoned it until it was confirmed by Dr. Morton. Dr. Jackson fails to prove that Dr. Morton was ignorant of the hypothesis until he suggested it to him, because Dr. Morton shows by the evidence that he was considering the properties of ether at intervals both of three months and of three days before his interview with Dr. Jackson.

3. I have shown that he who verifies the suggestion is the real discoverer. Dr. Morton, according to the evidence, generalized this discovery. He verified the suggestion, from whatever source it emanated; he made and modified the experiments at his own discretion; he assumed the responsibility of danger; he first conclusively demonstrated of ether, that it would always produce insensibility to pain, — that it was safe. These two points constitute the discovery. Dr. Morton demonstrated these points, and no one else did.

To show that Dr. Morton was only a "nurse," an instrument of pre-established knowledge, - such knowledge must be proved to be pre-established. It is impossible for human reason to infer, upon the experiments put in evidence by Dr. Jackson, either that ether was universal in its effects, or that it was safe. It must, therefore, be argued

that this knowledge was not pre-established; that Dr. Morton was not a mere administrator, but that he was an originator.

4. Lastly, many may have been the real discoverers of ether insensibility to pain, and at a remote period. But if so, they have kept it to themselves; and they will be known as discoverers only to themselves. The world has always honored that individual among such discoverers who presented his discovery to them. Dr. Morton was, according to the evidence in print, both the prime mover and the immediate agent in the introduction of this discovery to the world.

ANESTHETIC AGENTS:

THEIR MODE OF EXHIBITION AND PHYSIOLOGICAL
EFFECTS.1

THERE is no difference of importance in the general character of the insensibility or other symptoms resulting from the inhalation of ether and chloroform. The latter, whose discovery in this relation the world owes to Professor Simpson, is much more potent than ether, more palatable, and less irritating to the lungs.

Chloric ether was extensively employed by Mr. Lawrence, and has been since used by other experimenters. Its effects are apparently identical with those of common ether, than which it is if anything less powerful, while its vapor may be a little less irritating. Its odor is certainly more agreeable. Nitrous oxide was employed by Horace Wells in his experiments. It was then found to produce exhilaration out of proportion to its inebriating properties. In order to place this gas in circumstances favorable for its complete effect, it should be furnished to the lungs as freely and as pure as ether vapor from the evaporating surface of liquid. ether. It should be supplied from a large gas-holder, and not from a small gas bag; and that portion of the gas which has been deprived by the lungs of its inebriating principle should be exhaled as waste. Thirty quarts thus inhaled by myself produced complete but brief insensibility; and on April 26 I removed a breast by the aid of about twice that quantity, consumed during six minutes, and producing a most tranquil and complete insensibility. Though bulky,

1 Transactions of the American Medical Association, vol. i., 1848.

nitrous oxide, administered in the above manner, which I have not seen mentioned, is quite likely to prove a certain, as well as safe and agreeable anæsthetic agent. In the case mentioned, the pulse, which Dr. Townsend was good enough to note for me, rose from 90 to 120, and continued at that point during the operation.

Aldehyde, used by Monsieur Poggiale, although it is said to be stronger than chloroform, is also conceded to be more suffocating than ether, the odor of which it has. It is probable, therefore, that ether is the less objectionable of the two agents. It produces, says Professor Simpson, much bronchial constriction and coughing.

Nitrate of ethyl, upon the same authority, is also rapid and powerful in its effects, and produces excessive noise and fulness in the head, with subsequent headache and dizziness.

The bisulphuret of carbon, a rapid and powerful anæsthetic, has "a peculiarly offensive smell of putrid cabbage." The vapor of benzoin, which has a rather pleasant aromatic odor, is said to be less powerful than that of chloroform. In the hands of Mr. Snow it produced in the patient certain convulsive tremors. The foregoing agents are "not comparable," says Professor Simpson, "with chloroform or sulphuric ether, either in their manageableness or in their effects."

By a rough estimate of the quantity consumed in operations, chloroform is eight times as strong as ether; and a dram of the one or an ounce of the other is a fair allowance for inhalation at the commencement of the process. As it evaporates, the fluid may be replaced if necessary.

The absolute necessity of interposing something between the lips and the inebriating agent when, like chloroform, it irritates the skin, was quite overestimated in the case of common ether; and the public attached as false a value to the inhaling apparatus as to the stethoscope in a kindred

science.

In administering ether, an inhaling apparatus is occasionally convenient. The more complicated form, in all its modifications, contains as its chief element the double valve originally suggested by Dr. Gould; and a tube furnished with it may be dilated or constricted so as to represent almost all the principal inhalers in use.

For brief and repeated inhalation, and to avoid the odor of sulphuric ether, as well as to retard its evaporation, an inhaler is convenient; but for common purposes, a bellshaped sponge is quite efficient, and is to be turned from time to time, during an expiration, to bring the gravitating ether to the top.

With the introduction of chloroform the invention of apparatus received new impetus. Its stimulant and even vesicating properties contraindicate the direct application of this fluid to the skin. The simplest contrivance is the best, and Simpson's folded handkerchief rolled into a cone answers well for a brief inhalation. Channing's pasteboard cone, so cheap that each patient may have a new one, lasts through an average midwifery case. A lamp chimney, stethoscope, or other tube containing a sponge, answers equally the purpose, while for the rapid and complete insensibility required for surgical purposes, and for hospital use, some more durable form of apparatus is requisite. It should comprise a mouthpiece, a receptacle for the sponge, and a diaphragm to prevent the flow of the fluid towards the mouth.

It is optional whether the vapor enter the system simultaneously through the mouth and nasal orifices, or by the mouth alone, the nostrils being closed. It has been said that the effect is more immediate when the nasal cavities are filled with vapor; but the difference in the time of inhalation, if any, is inconsiderable.

It is a striking fact that in many of the first experiments, both in this country and abroad, vapor was inhaled from a