The Perfect and Famous Anesthetic Known as Methyl in Boston in 1895.

Extravagant claims were made for proprietary dental anesthetics in Boston, MA, in the late 1800s. For instance, in 1883, Urial K. Mayo introduced an inhaled Vegetable Anaesthetic comprised of nitrous oxide that had been uselessly pretreated with botanical material. This misguided concept may have been inspired by homeopathy, but it was also in line with the earlier false belief of Elton R. Smilie, Charles T. Jackson, and William T.G. Morton that sulfuric ether could volatilize opium at room temperature. In 1895, the Dental Methyl Company advertised an agent they called Methyl, a supposedly perfect topical anesthetic for painless dental extraction. The active ingredient was probably chloroform. Anesthetic humbug did not cease in Boston on Ether Day of October 16, 1846.

Charles T. Jackson and William T.G. Morton Patented the "Ethereal Solution of Opium" of Elton Romeo Smilie.

The Jackson-Morton 1846 patent for surgical insensibility by means of sulphuric ether states that opiates can be added to the ether and co-administered by inhalation. The erroneous concept that ether could carry opiates in its vapor phase at room temperature was proposed in Boston in 1846 by Elton Romeo Smilie (1819-1889), who believed that the opiates were more important than the ether vehicle.

Intrarectal Anesthesia in Neurosurgery.

In the early days of modern neurologic surgery, the inconveniences and potential dangers of general anesthesia by chloroform and ether using the so-called "open-drop technique" led to the quest for alternative methods of anesthesia. This became all the more necessary, since patient positioning and the surgical arrangements often hindered the use of a drop bottle. One approach to solve this problem was intrarectal ether application. The present article aims to shed light on this original, less well-known anesthesia technique in the neurosurgical field.

[Questions on the first operation with ethyl ether as anaesthetic by Dr. Peter Parker].

Ethyl ether was the first accepted effective general anaesthetic. It was introduced into China by an America missionary, Dr. Peter Parker. This was one of the historical events of medical communication between China and the West. In the records of the first operation with ether, however, Dr. Parker unusually omitted the patient's medical record number and the date of the operation, while those of other operations with ether anesthetics were all available. This was very unusual for a doctor like Peter Parker who always recorded every important case in detail in the hospital reports. It seems that he deliberately rather than carelessly omitted the information for some reasons. Based on the analysis of Parker's reports, a conclusion is made that the anesthetic effect of the case was actually ineffective. Furthermore, possible answers to this are outlined and question by discussion based on the situation that Parker faced in the late Qing era.

[The beginning of anesthesia]. / Les débuts de l'anesthésie.

On October 16, 1846, the first public demonstration of etherization, at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, illustrated the rise of Inhalational Anaesthesia. Pioneers were: Hickman, Wells, Morton, Davy and Long. Anaesthesia was considered an American invention. Thereafter, the development of new molecules (cocaine, hexobarbital) which can be administered by others ways (spinal puncture, intravenous injections) allowed new methods of anaesthesia to be achieved. Thus, three successive periods have illustrated the Story of Anaesthesia: Inhalational Anaesthesia (1844), Local Anaesthesia (1860), Intravenous Anaesthesia (1932).

The introduction of local anaesthesia in Australia, January 19, 1885.

Medical journals in Australia between 1856 and 1884 were wont to publish many references to forms of local anaesthesia, probably because this form of pain relief was of assistance to lone practitioners in isolated country towns. Some of these methods are described, as is the first use of cocaine by A. S. Gray and J. T. Rudall on January 19, 1885. As in journals elsewhere there followed a spate of articles reporting various aspects of cocaine and its usage, including an abortive attempt to find an alternative agent.