About 1806, Woolcombe, of Plymouth, prescribed for Lady Martin, a patient suffering from asthma, the inhalation of sulphuric ether to relieve the attacks. Lady Martin found the inhalation gradually caused her to become unconscious, from which state she would recover in a short time, with the result that the paroxysm of dyspnœa had disappeared. But the teaching of this case, and even the more explicit account of Humphry Davy, was overlooked; and no further development occurred until the year 1818, when Faraday pointed out, in “The Quarterly Journal of Science and Arts,” that the inhalation of the vapour of sulphuric ether produced effects similar to those caused by nitrous oxide.
Michael Faraday
About this time Professor Thompson, of Glasgow, was accustomed annually to amuse his students by allowing them to inhale ether and nitrous oxide until they were intoxicated, and occasionally became unconscious, when it was noticed that they were insensible to the prick of a pin, or a blow. In these cases the gas or ether was inhaled from a bladder. Two drachms of rectified and washed ether were poured into a bladder and allowed to diffuse. Then the mixture of air and ether vapour was breathed, the expired air being allowed to enter the bladder also. Curiously enough, very little improvement has been made on this method of administration to the present day.
On the brink of the discovery
It is an extraordinary fact that, even in the face of such experiments as those we have referred to, no one among the investigators who stood at this time on the brink of so great a discovery ventured over the threshold. It is almost inconceivable in these days to realise, that for thirty-nine years these substances were used for experimental purposes, and even for amusement, without a realisation of the great blessing to humanity that lay almost within grasp. The things that are apparently most plain may lie longest buried; so with the discovery of efficient anæsthesia, which even then developed in an indirect manner.
Mesmerism as an Anæsthetic
Mesmerism in antient times
From the earliest ages the apparent power of some men to influence the minds and bodies of others has been known. Certain diseases were said to be affected by the touch of the hand of certain persons, who were supposed to communicate a healing virtue to the sufferer, and these practices were often connected with religious and magical rites. This method of healing was practised in antient times by the Chaldæans, Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, Hindus, Greeks and Romans. Their priest-physicians are said to have effected cures and to have thrown people into deep sleep in the precincts of the temples. Such influences were at that time held to be due to supernatural power, a belief which was no doubt fostered by the priesthood. In the middle of the seventeenth century an Irishman named Valentine
Healing by “stroking”