nt century. It
came first by mesmeric hypnotism, which was applicable only to a few,
and was restricted, by the jealous hostility of the old medical
profession. Then came the nitrous oxide, introduced by Dr. Wells, of
Hartford, and promptly discountenanced by the enlightened (?) medical
profession of Boston, and set aside for the next candidate, ether,
discovered in the United States also, but far inferior to the nitrous
oxide as a safe and pleasant agent. This was largely superseded by
chloroform, discovered much earlier by Liebig and others, but
introduced as an anaesthetic in 1847, by Prof. Simpson. This proved to
be the most powerful and dangerous of all. Thus the whole policy of
the medical profession was to discourage the safe, and encourage the
more dangerous agents. The magnetic sleep, the most perfect of all
anaesthetic agents, was expelled from the realm of college authority;
ether was substituted for nitrous oxide, and chloroform preferred to
ether, until frequent deaths gave warning.

Nitrous oxide, much the safest of the three, has not been the
favorite, but has held its ground, especially with dentists. But even
nitrous oxide is not perfect. It is not equal to the magnetic sleep,
when the latter is practicable, but fortunately it is applicable to
all. To perfect the nitrous oxide, making it universally safe and
pleasant, Dr. U. K. Mayo, of Boston, has combined it with certain
harmless vegetable nervines, which appear to control the fatal
tendency which belongs to all anaesthetics when carried too far. The
success of Dr. Mayo, in perfecting our best anaesthetic, is amply
attested by those who have used it. Dr. Thorndike, than whom Boston
had no better surgeon, pronounced it "the safest the world has yet
seen." It has been administered to children and to patients in extreme
debility. Drs. Frizzell and Williams say they have given it
"repeatedly in heart disease, severe lung diseases, Bright's disease,
etc., where the patients were so feeble as to require assistance in
walking, many of them under medical treatment, and the results have
been all that we could ask--no irritation, suffocation, nor
depression. We heartily commend it to all as the anaesthetic of the
age." Dr. Morrill, of Boston, administered Mayo's anaesthetic to his
wife with delightful results when "her lungs were so badly
disorganized, that the administration of ether or gas would be
entirely unsafe." The reputation of this anaesthetic is now