humanity, more of real interest and care in their patients, and more consideration for their comfort and welfare; while, in all that pertains to fertility of invention, to originality of performance, and accuracy of work, they, as a rule, excel. Divested of glamour, American surgery, both general and special, is ahead of most of that which one can see abroad, and the therapeutics of the American profession certainly surpass those of any other nationality. No one need feel, then, that it is necessary to go abroad for any{299} purpose, unless it may be that polish and wide range of general information that necessarily come from travel and observation among other nations and peoples. In practical medicine, then, as in practical living, America leads the world. CHAPTER XII. THE HISTORY OF ANÆSTHESIA. _Anaesthesia and Analgesia. Drugs Possessing Narcotic Properties in use since Prehistoric Times. Mandragora; Hemp; Hasheesh. Sulphuric Ether and the Men Concerned in its Introduction as an Anaesthetic--Long, Jackson, Wells, and Morton. Morton's First Public Demonstration of the Value of Ether. Morton Entitled to the Credit of its Introduction. Chloroform and Sir James Simpson. Cocaine and Karl Roller._ It is{300} not, perhaps, generally understood that we owe the term _anaesthesia_ and the adjective _anaesthetic_ to the genius of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who suggested their use to Dr. Morton. The term _anaesthesia_ is applied to the artificial loss or deprivation of all sensation, which may be either local or general. It should be distinguished from _analgesia_, which means simply freedom from pain, consciousness being retained. In this respect local anaesthesia is really local analgesia, although the terms are confused in this regard. Anaesthesia, in its present sense, is truly a modern discovery, which is to be credited to the United States. In its less restricted sense, however, it is a condition brought about by numerous drugs,--intoxicants, narcotics, etc.,--some of which have been more or less in use for centuries. Anaesthesia is also a condition which may be produced in the hypnotic sleep,--a fact well recognized by the ancients, although the attention of scientific men was scarcely drawn to the fact until the days of the notorious Mesmer. The substances which may produce loss of consciousness may be taken intentionally or unintentionally, and maybe taken into the stomach, beneath the skin, or, when gaseous, through the lungs, in which absorption of the same into the blood is very speedy. It is not at all unlikely that the curious effects ascribed to some of the ancient oracles were due{301} to the inhalation of gases arising from natural springs or produced from other sources.