the uterus very large. I compressed it down, and had the nurse inject ergot and brandy, and in a remarkably short time the blood stopped flowing. I held onto the uterus an hour and then the womb regained its wonted tone, so there was no more hemorrhage. The mother did well and made a good recovery, although it was slow.

In the management of the second stage of labor, after the head has presented for any length of time, say from thirty minutes to an hour, with no apparent progress, I give chloroform and apply the forceps, and make traction at each pain and give a small quantity of chloroform at the beginning of each pain. I ask the patient to tell me when she feels the pain coming and I give the anesthetic with instructions to take several deep breaths, and in this way it very naturally lessens the severity of the pain. I remove the forceps as soon as the head engages under the public bone and allow nature to finish the labor. I give the chloroform in all my labors in the last stage before the birth of the head, and I know that it saves the strength of the mother, and does not injure the child or tend to post-partum hemorrhage. I know I give an anesthetic now oftener than ten years ago and I know it is appreciated by my patrons.

Of late years I have not given ergot at all. I was taught to give a dose of ergot as soon as the child was born, but I failed to see it was of any use, and might produce harm, as I thought it did in one case where I had hourglass contraction of the womb before I got the placenta, and had to forcibly dilate the contraction and peel off the placenta, and it was a difficult piece of labor.

I am not certain that it was caused by the ergot but I thought it was, and since then I have used it only in cases

of post-partum hemorrhage, after the delivery of the placenta. I always deliver the placenta before I leave the bedside of the woman. After the child is delivered, the cord tied and cut, and the child given to the attendant, I place my hand on the abdomen to ascertain the size and contractility of the womb. I hold on to the uterus and as soon as there is any pain I squeeze it to press the placenta out and if I cannot deliver it in this way inside of thirty minutes, I begin to investigate as to the cause, and give chloroform and introduce my hand into the womb and if necessary peel the placenta off, and deliver in that manner, and I never feel that I have done my duty, until the placenta is in the slop jar. As to the use of the band for the woman, I use it for a few days in most cases, but I do not consider it of much use in most cases except for a few hours to support the abdomen.

My forceps and hands I endeavor to have perfectly. clean and then I go ahead and do whatever is necessary, use the forceps or turn as necessity requires. I always intend to have in my bag a pair of forceps and catgut, chloroform or ether or both, and a hypodermic syringe, a finger brush, and carbolized vaseline, and be always ready to encourage and help the suffering mother.

The object of this short history of cases, is to excite the other members of the society to report their cases and to encourage discussion.

The Discovery of Ether.

By W. J. Aldrich, M. D., St. Johnsbury.

Just 40 years ago to-day in the city of Boston, there was enacted a drama that not only startled the medical profession, but aroused the world. It was the proving of the power of Ether over pain-the production of anæsthesia for surgical operations.

To prevent or diminish pain in surgical operations is an object so desirable that from time immemorial efforts. have been made to attain it. Homer mentions the anæsthetic properties of Nepenthe; Herodotus refers to the practice of the Scythians of inhaling the vapor of a certain kind of hemp to produce intoxication. The employment of mandragora to produce anaesthesia is alluded to by Pliny. It also appears from an old Chinese manuscript that a physician named Hoatho, who lived in the third century, gave his patients a preparation of hemp, whereby they were rendered insensible during the performance of surgical operations. The soporific properties of mandrake are alluded to by Shakespeare, who makes frequent mention of anaesthetising draughts. It appears that Augustus, King of Poland, underwent an amputation while rendered insensible by a narcotic.

But the practice of anesthesia had never become general, and physicians in all ages appear to have regarded it with disfavor.

Coming down to more modern times, in 1800, Sir Humphrey Davy, while experimenting on nitrous oxide gas, discovered its anæsthetic properties, and suggested that it might be employed in surgery. His suggestion, however, remained unheeded for nearly half a century until Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford, Conn., in 1844, underwent in his own person the operation of tooth extraction while rendered insensible by nitrous oxide gas. After further experiment he became satisfied that teeth could be extracted under its influence without pain, and he undertook to establish a practice of painless dentistry in Boston, but on account of the unfortunate failure of an experiment the project was abandoned.

The first record we have of the inhalation of the vapor of sulphuric ether was that of Dr. Pearson of Birmingham, Eng., who used it for the relief of asthma and other lung affections. In 1805, Dr. Warren, of Boston, used it in the same manner for relief in the later stages of consumption. In 1818, Faraday, while experimenting with ether discovered that it possessed anæsthetic properties similar to those of introus oxide gas, and this same property was demonstrated by several American physicians about the same time.

To us, looking back upon the experiments and observations of these early investigators, it seems marvelous that the wonderful utility of their discoveries was not immediately recognized and turned to practical use, but they appear to have been regarded in the light of mere scientific curiosities, or subjects fit only for lecture room experi

ment, rather than as facts capable of being applied to the treatment of disease, and it remained for Dr. William T. G. Morton, a dentist of Boston, to demonstrate the usefulness of ether and give to suffering humanity the greatest boon in the world's history.

The story of Dr. Morton's early experiments and the final proving of his discovery, is told by his widow in a recent article, and I am indebted to that narrative for many facts here mentioned.

Dr. Morton was one of those tremendously earnest men who believe they have a high destiny to fill, and he would often say to his wife that he had a great work to do in the world. For a long time prior to his discovery his spare time was spent in experiments on bugs and other insects, and even his faithful dog, but a time came when he wanted a human subject, and his assistants were sent out offering a reward to any person willing to have a tooth extracted while under the influence of ether, but no one could be found who was willing to assume the risk. Unable to to find a patient, he shut himself in the office and tested it upon his own person, with such success that he lay unconscious for several minutes.

So great was his joy at this success that he was determined not to sleep until he had repeated the experiment. Here Fortune seemed to favor him, for he had barely. reached his office when there entered a man with his face all bandaged and evidently suffering acute pain, asking to have the offending molar pulled and inquiring if the Docter couldn't mesmerise him while it was done. The Doctor could have shouted for joy, but, retaining his self-possession, he explained the inhalation of ether and assured the sufferer that it was better than mesmerism. To make