Inventions in the centuryDoolittle, William H. (William Henry)
History
Inventions in the century
Doolittle, William H. (William Henry)
Inventions
_Electro-chemical Methods._--Space will only permit it to be said that
these methods are now employed in the production of a large number of
elements, by means of which very many of them which were before mere
laboratory specimens, have now become cheap and useful servants of
mankind in a hundred different ways; such as aluminium, that light and
non-corrosive metal, reduced from many dollars an ounce a generation
ago, to 30 and 40 cents a pound now; carborundum, largely superseding
emery and diamond dust as an abradant; artificial diamonds; calcium
carbide, from which the new illuminating acetylene gas is made;
disinfectants of many kinds; pigments, chromium, manganese, and
chlorates by the thousand tons. The most useful new chemical processes
are those used in purifying water sewage and milk, in electroplating
metals and other substances, in the application of chemicals to the fine
arts, in extracting grease from wool, and the making of many useful
products from the waste materials of the dumps and garbage banks.
_Medicines and Surgery._--One hundred years ago, the practice of
medicine was, in the main, empirical. Certain effects were known to
usually follow the giving of certain drugs, or the application of
certain measures, but why or how these effects were produced, was
unknown. The great steps forward have been made upon the true scientific
foundation established by the discoveries and inventions in the fields
of physics, chemistry and biology. The discovery of anaesthetics and
their application in surgery and the practice of medicine, no doubt
constitutes the leading invention of the century in this field.
Sir Humphry Davy suggested it in 1800, and Dr. W. T. Morton was the
first to apply an anaesthetic to relieve pain in a surgical operation,
which he did in a hospital in Boston in 1846. Both its original
suggestion and application were also claimed by others.
Not only relief from intense pain to the patient during the operation,
but immense advantages are gained by the long and careful examination
afforded of injured or diseased parts, otherwise difficult or impossible
in a conscious patient.
The exquisite pain and suffering endured previous to the use of
anaesthetics often caused death by exhaustion. Many delicate operations
can now be performed for the relief of long-continued diseases which
before would have been hazardous or impossible. How many before suffered
unto death long-drawn-out pain and disease rather than submit to the
torture of the knife! How many lives have been saved, and how far
advanced has become the knowledge of the human body and its painful
diseases, by this beneficent remedy!
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