a long story short, the man was anæsthetised and the tooth extracted with perfect success.

From that moment Dr. Morton felt that the success of ether was assured, and thenceforward he was untiring in his efforts to bring his discovery to the attention of the Medical profession. After many discouragements he at last succeeded in inducing Dr. Warren, senior surgeon in the Massachusetts General Hospital, to allow him to try his discovery on a patient who was about to undergo an operation.

Dr. Robert Davis, now living at Fall River, was then a medical student, and witnessed the operation, and it is to him that we are indebted for a description of what transpired on that memorable occasion.

The amphitheatre was crowded with physicians and students, all curious, all skeptical as to the success of the operation. All of the eminent surgeons of Boston were present, including the celebrated Dr. Jacob Bigelow. The hour for the operation arrived and Dr. Morton, who was detained at the instrument maker's with his inhaler, was not on hand. Five minutes past-ten minutes, and then Dr. Warren, the eminent surgeon, looking around with a sarcastic smile upon his face, suggested that as Dr. Morton was not present, the operation had better go on in the usual way.

At that moment Dr. Morton came hurrying in, and with a coolness and self-possession in strong contrast to the nervous assembly, he proceeded to administer the vapor of sulphuric ether to a human being to produce anæthesia for a surgical operation for the first time in the history of the world. As soon as anæsthesia was complete he turned

to Dr. Warren and calmly said, "Doctor, your patient is ready."

In all parts of the great amphitheatre there came a quick catching of the breath, followed by a silence almost like death as Dr. Warren stepped forward and prepared to operate. The sheet was thrown back, exposing that part of the body from which a tumor was to be removed, an operation exceedingly painful under ordinary conditions, but neither very difficult nor very dangerous. The patient lay silent with eyes closed as if asleep, but every one present fully expected to hear a shriek of agony ring out as the keen knife descended into the sensitive nerves. But the stroke came with no accompanying cry, and then another and another, while the severed arteries spurted forth their crimson blood. The tumor was removed, the wound closed with sutures, bandages applied, and the operation was done, and through it all no sign of consciousness or pain was exhibited by the patient. In a few minutes he revived from the ether, and Dr. Warren asked if he felt any pain, to which he replied that he did not. Then turning to the assembly Dr. Warren, in his impressive manner, said, "Gentlemen, this is no humbug."

The paths of a discoverer lead but to disappointment and chagrin, and such proved to be the case with Dr. Morton. There sprang up around him those who claimed priority of discovery, and one Dr. Jackson declared the whole idea was borrowed from him. Be that as it may, the fact remains that ether anesthesia was never applied in surgery and never received the attention of the medical profession until its utility was so ably demonstrated by Dr. Morton.

In view of the greatness of the discovery and its world wide application, it would seem but just that the government of his own country should make some recognition of so eminent a service, but in spite of the efforts that were made during subsequent years, nothing was ever done. This was perhaps the greatest sorrow of Dr. Morton's declining years, a sorrow rendered all the more keen by the fact that other governments hastened to bestow upon him orders and decorations. Russia gave him the cross of the Order of St. Vladimir; Norway and Sweden gave him the cross of the Order of Vasa; and the French Academy of Arts and Sciences gave him a gold medal. But the thing he prized most was a small silver casket from the Massachusetts General Hospital containing one thousand dollars. These are all he received, except the everlasting gratitude, not only of his fellow-countrymen but of suffering humanity everywhere.

Dr. Morton died in his 84th year and was buried in Mount Auburn cemetery near Boston, in the presence of many noted physicians. Over his grave stands a monument erected by the citizens of Boston, bearing this inscription, written by the late Dr. Jacob Bigelow :

"Dr. William T. G. Morton, inventor and revealer of anæsthetic inhalation. By whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled. Before whom in all time surgery was agony. Since whom science has control of pain."

The Value of Cimicifuga Racemosa in Pregnancy and Labor.

By F. C. Kinney, M. D., Greensboro.

I do not remember, as a medical student, ever having my attention called, either by lecture or in text book, to any special value of black cohosh in obstetric practice, but the "Medical Record" of August 29th, 1885, contained an extract of a paper read before the "Chicago Gynecological Society," by Dr. J. S. Knox, which I read with great interest.

The more so, perhaps, as but a day or two after I read this article, I had been consulted by a gentleman, whose wife was then six months pregnant, who, in two previous confinements, had long, difficult labors, resulting in forceps delivery and bad lacerations.

This gentleman asked me if there was "nothing to be given to make child bearing easier" for his wife. I counseled him about her dress, diet, habits, regulation of bowels and kidneys and asked him to call next day when I would have something ready for him. I again read the article referred to, and decided to give the cimicifuga a trial in this particular case. I accordingly made this

mixture:

R. F. E. Cimicifuga Racemosa, oz,i.

Comp. Syr. Sarsaparilla, oz,iii.

M. Sig. Teaspoonful at night on retiring.

This experiment, for it was neither more or less, was tried to relieve the patient's mind for she "knew she would have just such another time" as she had before.

Her first labor resulted in death of child and a bad laceration. Her second child survived the ordeal, but her perineum was again ruptured. This prescription was taken faithfully during the last three months of her third pregnancy.

Let me now introduce the conclusions arrived at by Dr. Knox, from his clinical observations of a large number of cases treated with the cohosh.

"Ist. Cimicifuga has a positive sedative effect upon the parturient woman, quieting reflex irritability. Nausea, pruritis and insomnia, so common in the last six weeks of pregnancy are always rendered less distressing, and often disappear under its administration."

"2d. Cimicifuga has a positive anti-spasmodic effect upon the parturient woman. The neuralgic cramps and irregular pains of the first stage of labor are ameliorated. and often altogether abolished. In fact during the first indiscriminate use of the drug in all cases, says Dr. Knox, I had the mortification with a few women of terminating the labor so precipitately and without prodromic symptoms as to be unable to reach the bedside before the birth."

"3d. Cimicifuga relaxes uterine muscular fiber and the soft parts of the parturient canal, by controlling muscular irritability, thus facilitating labor and diminishing the risk of laceration.”