| |
September 1996
Volume 60 |
Number 9
|
| |
|
Spreading the
News of Anesthesia:
From W.T.G. Morton to the World Wide Web |
George S. Bause, M.D., Trustee
Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
October 16, 1996, marks the sesquicentennial of William T.G.
Morton's public demonstration of ether for surgical anesthesia.
Though not the first to etherize, Morton was a successful communicator.
Newspaper accounts and letters spread the news of anesthesia,
shipped throughout the civilized world largely by steamship.
A fruitful voyage of one steamship, the Acadia, shared Dr. Morton's
achievement serially with Canadians, Scots and the English. Departing
Boston on December 1, 1846, this wooden paddle steamer harbored
in Halifax on December 3 before arriving in Liverpool on December
16. The Acadia's surgeon, Dr. Fraser, took a steamer and connecting
coach to reach his mother in Dumfries, Scotland, by December 17.
Two days later, his surgical friends Drs. M'Lauchlan and Scott
administered ether to a patient there in Dumfries. That same Royal
Mail steamer, Acadia, brought Bostonian Jacob Bigelow's letter
and his son's Boston Daily Advertiser story to Dr. Boott
at Gower Street, London. Robinson etherized Dr. Boott's niece
for a molar extraction on December 19, 1846. In contrast, the
Canadian effort did not begin until January 18, 1847, when surgeon
Dr. Peters excised Beatteay's arm tumor under Fiske and Adams'
ether at St. John, New Brunswick.
Africa was introduced to Morton's ether by the steam-ship Pekin,
which reached Cape Town, South Africa, by April 1, 1847. However,
not until April 17 did Raymond extract a tooth there under ether.
No early etherization has been documented for Egypt, in spite
of prominence in the Mediterranean/ Egypt/Red Sea or "overland"
route to the tea-rich nations of the East Indies.
Like Egypt, Asia was introduced to Morton's ether by the "overland
route." Ships leaving England passed through the Straits
of Gibraltar and traversed the Mediterranean. Reaching Egypt in
40 days, they initiated there the only truly overland part of
the trip to the Red Sea. Connecting mail boats sailed onward to
Bombay, Ceylon, Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong.
Australia received the news first from the ship Mount-stuart Elphinstone.
This vessel rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope, stopping at Mauritius,
Penang and Singapore. The S.S. Mountstuart Elphinstone reached
Sydney, Australia, on April 28, 1847. Awarded the inaugural Wood
Library-Museum Laureate in the History of Anesthesia, Gwenifer
Wilson, M.D., has traced such voyages in her two-volume text,
One Grand Chain (Melbourne: The Australian and New Zealand
College of Anaesthetists; 1995).
These were indeed "slow boats to China" to Australia
and beyond. Yet some argue that Great Britain spread the news
to Paris, continental Europe and British Commonwealth nations
faster than Boston impacted the rest of the United States. A second
trans-Atlantic shipping delay slowed the Iberian relay of news
to Latin America. Indeed, an etherization in Cuba on March 10,
1847, preceded the use of ether in nearby Merida (Yucatan, Mexico)
by more than three months.
Fifty-year intervals have witnessed wonderful advances in communication
and transportation. By 1896, locomotives linked bulk mail delivery,
and rapid-fire communication was facilitated by telephone and
rail telegraph. By the centennial celebration of Morton's ether
demonstration, radio receivers were widespread, and airmail was
delivered by motorized airplane and jet. Today, we have faxes,
electronic mail via the Internet and a vast opportunity for international
exchanges of information on the World Wide Web.
And just what is the Web? A member of the ASA Committee on Electronic
Media and Information Technology (EMIT) might define the Web as
a menu-based, network-wide program linking hypermedia and hypertext
to other Internet information sources. But information can come
through more than the written (typed?) word. For example, EMIT
committee member George J. Sheplock, M.D., has digitally photographed
a virtual tour of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology in
Park Ridge, Illinois. Through the WLM's Web page, ASA members
or anyone with Web access can soon take a guided tour through
the WLM gallery without flying into the world's busiest airport,
Chicago's O'Hare.
What will the future bring? Perhaps instant audio-video satellite
communication from one anesthesiologist to the next a hemisphere
away ... maybe voice-recognition, pocket-size personal computers
with limitless, wireless links to databases worldwide ... instant
voice translation from one human language to the next ... holographic
projection of museum objects in three dimensions ... or maybe
audiovisual-tactile-olfactory-gustatory virtual reality where
you, the ASA member, can see and grab that virtual ether container
ahead of you, hear that virtual safety pin pop through the top
and virtually smell the ether.
Communicating in 1846 between countries took weeks by boat. Communicating
the latest breaking news today by modem has been accelerated to
transmissions that take 1/200-millionth of a second. From ether
to ethernet, anesthesiologists have come a long way from Morton
to the Web.
George S. Bause, M.D., is Associate Clinical
Professor, Case Western Reserve University, and Whitacre Director
of Anesthesia Education, Meridia Health System, Cleveland, Ohio.
He is the Curator of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.
E-mail the author.
return to top
Home >Newsletters
>September 1996Home >Test
|