Show STUDENT LIFE ncr of the same shire who is known as the ( 1749-184- 3) in England “Father of Vaccination” Tie spent years of investigation and experimentation in order to benefit mankind lie performed his first vaccination in 796 In 1798 lie published his memorable work on his investigations and observations He Durdied full of fame and honor ing his later years great rewards were given him by the government The first vaccination in America was performed by the professor of medicine at Harvard University in 1800 That vaccination has done much to lessen the mortality of smallpox is beyond question that there is less danger of serious results from its employment if ascep-ticall- y done than is generally believed by the laity is equally true We come next to a discovery the benefits of which are beyond the power of language to describe the successful use of chloroform and ether as general anaesthetics If God-send ever there was a to sufthis discovery fering humanity was one It had long been the dream of the surgeon but its realization came suddenly — sooner In 1839 Velpau than expected wrote “To escape pain in surgical operations is a chimera which we are not permitted to look for in our time” and in 1846 a year which deserves to be memorable in the history of medicine ether was successfully used to produce general anaesthesia The use of chloroform came a year later (Xov 15 1847) the test being made with 1 os success by Dr (Sir) James Simpson of England Upon his bust in estminster Abbey is this inscription “To whose genius and benevolence the world owes the blessings derived from the use of chloroform for the relief of suffering” For the honor of introducing ether there are four claimants two doctors and two dentists The honor is usually ascribed and probably due Dr Win G T Morton a dentist of Boston The monument erected to his memory at Mount Auburn cemetery Boston bears this inscription “Inventor and of anaesthetic inhalation before whom in all time surgery was agony and by whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled since whom science has controlled pain” Chloroform and ether are too familiar to the readers of this paper to need discussion at my hands Their use is universal and their administration comparatively safe if properly done Ether is all things considered somewhat the safer To show the safety of anaesthetics I might mention that the eleven thousandth anaesthesia is reported as having been recently done at the Mayo Brothers’ hospital in Rochester Minnesota without a death Following this last mentioned discovery comes one that surpasses it in importance and equals it in wideness of application Such a one was the discovery in 1876 of carbolic acid as an antiseptic in surgery by the famous Edinburgh surgeon Lord Joseph Lister This re-vea- ler |