Conclusion
It is apparent that, despite the earlier use of ether by a country practitioner (Crawford Long) and dentists (William Clark and Horace Wells), the influence of a pair of distinguished surgeons (John C. Warren and Henry Bigelow) was required to promote the widespread use of ether following William Morton’s demonstration of its efficacy at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The accounts that Drs. Warren and Bigelow wrote for theBoston Medical and Surgical Journal were widely reported in many countries. Dr. Bigelow’s father, Professor Jacob Bigelow, wrote a personal letter to a friend in England, Dr. Francis Boott, telling him of the discovery. Two days after receiving this letter, Dr. Boott was present when ether was first administered in England (on December 19, 1846), and two days after this Robert Liston used ether for a leg amputation at University College Hospital in London. Thus the future of surgical anaesthesia in England was assured. The abortive attempts by Morton to conceal the nature of the anaesthetic agent and to patent the process of its application little delayed the spread of the use of ether.
The news of ether anaesthesia was received in Upper Canada during December 1846. In fact, the country practitioners of Brockville or Chatham heard of this discovery before Francis Boott or Robert Liston in England.
Upper Canada in the 1840s was a country of pioneers: country doctors were accustomed to managing all aspects of medical care, so it is not surprising that it was these practitioners who read of ether anaesthesia and were among the first to apply it.* The use of ether for tooth extraction and surgical operations was probably widespread throughout rural Upper Canada within six months of Morton’s original demonstration — as illustrated in Fig. 3, an excerpt from theChatham Gleaner of Tuesday, May 25, 1847.
Résumé
La découverte et la pratique de ľanesthésie àľéther par ďobscurs praticiens de campagne ( Crawford Long, médecin, et William Clark et Horace Wells, dentistes ) étaient en passe de demeurer ignorées et il aura fallu tout le poids de ľinfluence combinée des docteurs Warren et Bigelow, tous deux de grande renommée, pour permettre à ľanesthésie à ľéther de faire une entrée remarquée dans le monde médical, àla suite de la démonstration de William Morton.
Les comptes rendus originaux des docteurs Warren et Bigelow écrits pour le Boston Medical and Surgical Journal ont connu dans plusieurs pays une très large diffusion, de sorte que dès le 19 décembre 1846, soit à peine deux mois après ľévénement de Boston, on effectuait en Angleterre une première anesthésie à ľéther.
Il semble que la nouvelle de la découverte soit parvenue ici en Haut Canada au cours de décembre 1846. On croit même pouvoir affirmer que des médecins de campagne de la région de Brockville ou de Chatham étaient même au fait de cette découverte avant qu’elle ne parvienne en Angleterre. Le Haut Canada àcette époque était un pays de pionniers, les médecins, particulièrement en campagne, exerçaient sur tous les fronts et il est peu suprenant que mis au fait de ľanesthésie à ľéther, ils aient été les premiers à ľutiliser. Moins de six mois après la démonstration originale par Morton, il est permis de croire que ľon utilisait couramment ľanesthésie à ľéther pour des opérations chirurgicales et des extractions dentaires dans tout le territoire du Haut Canada, comme en fait foi cet extrait du Chatham Gleaner daté du 25 mai 1847 ( fig. 3 ).
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Steward, D.J. The early history of anaesthesia in Canada: The introduction of ether to upper Canada, 1847. Canad. Anaesth. Soc. J. 24, 153–161 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03006228
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03006228