Volume 7 - History of Anaesthesia Society

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now completing a gag for me which I believe will be a very useful instnnfgnt'. Surprisingly, he made no similar comnent in his second letter but one must assune that tk:e finished article incqrporated 'the modifications made by Sir William as Eor some years aso on's' and ' Fergusson' S ' gags 'became identical. The chosen eponym would often be made by instrument makers; as already noted, Fergusson's was the first to be marketed presumably by Messrs Mathews, who made the original model, and certainly by Krohne & Stressrman in 1879, and by Down Brothers in 1885 and both Eirms reinforced ergu us son's priority by listing his gag but not Mason's in their catalogues. However, the balance was restored in the sane year when Amold & Son listed aso on's gag, but not Fergusson's, while the dental surgeon A S Underwood (who lived at 11 B ford Square) also illustrated a Mason's gag made by C Ash in his book. Tl Then another claimant was supported, for, in Frederick Silk's book14 of 1888, there was a picture identical to that in Umlerwood's work but entitled with ironic justice 'Colenan's Gag'! - but I have found no further reference to this eponym. A more irripprtant confusion of nomenclature stems from ~ewitt's famous text book of 1893 in which the gag portrayed as 'Mason's' differed Erom the earlier design in one significant respect. Up till then, all illustrations of Mason's gag (and of Fergusson's) had shown the mechanism for securing the handles in the desired dejree of approximation as a nut on a threaded metal rod which was fixed to one handle and passed through the other. Xowever the mechanism winich Hewitt portrayed was quite different and consisted oE a hollow netal rectangle wnich slid over, and engaged in, ratchets on the arms of the handles. Thls now il~ar mechanism had been described by Hewitt two years previousl$'; an additional feature of his own gag and, as he correctly wrote: ' . . .this clip arrangement for keeping the jaws apart is superior to the ordinary screw as it is simpler to manage and takes but a second to adjust'. However, it is not clear from Hewitt's description whether this ratchet mechanism was conceived by him or whether, as I: suspect, it was devised by Messrs Rrohne C(r Stressanan, 1nstrumel.it Makers to the London Hospital wh: made the gag for him. The prime purpose of this gag - basically a Mason' - was to facilitate anaesthesia for operations on the nose and mouth for which purpose it ' . . . was Eurnished with metal tubes for the transmission of chloroform vapour to the back of the mouth'. ~ewitt's erroneously titled illustration of 'Mason's' gag (~ig.4) was perpetuated in later editions of his book - the last was in 1922 - and was thus very influential in publicising Mason as the originator of the gag: only in the Eirst edition did Hewitt mention Fergusson - and then only in the index as 'Fergusson's gag. - (see Mason's gag)'.
Fig.4 as on's' gag according to Hewitt (1893)15 Now known as ' Fergusson' S' In spite oE Hewitt's cavalier dismissal of Fergusson, the latter's gag was illustrated, as was Mason's, in the catalogue of Arnold & Son in 1895. The Mason shown therein was no. different Erom earlier examples and had the nut and threaded rod mechanism but ,the illustration of the Fergusson was the same as that for the ason on in Hewitt's book - that is it had the Krohne ratchet mechanism! I have Eound no satisfactory explanation for this change other than to assume that the captions of the two illustrations were inadvertently transposed: i.e. that the original intention had been to follow ~ewitt' s example and to label the gag with the Krohne ratchet as aso on's. Whether or not this asscnrption is correct, or whether there were also other reasons is imnaterial, as Arnold & Company's classification was soon followed. The 1901 catalogue of Krohne & Stresseman and of Down Bros both showed 'Fergusson's' gag with the ratchet and the otherwise identical ' aso on' S' unchanged with the nut and threaded rod: these descriptions were repeated in all later editions oE Do Brothers catalogue but were only slowly incorporated into text books.' Numerous instances could be quoted from the next thirty-five years where the two eponyms were indiscriminately applied to gags with either mechanism or even to quite different gags. Moreover, Fergusson was frequently spelt with one 'S' (this is an added confusion as Colemn'sl~~l gag had been made by Ferguson & Sons). However a consensus - was finally achieved so that a gag with a ratchet is now known as Fergusson's and one with a screw as aso on's. Many other variations of the original design have been described but only one is relevant to my theme of eponyms - that oE W R Ackland, the outstanding dental surgeon at Bristol whose many distinctions i serving on the General Medical Council. In 1896 Ackland descri!d well known 'modification of the jaws of Mason's and like gags but he did not - as is often stated - design a gag. It only remains to consider the question posed in my title - is Mason the correct eponym Eor the basic gag?
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Page 5: Page SESSION 1 -GREAT MD7 Dr Aileen
Page 8 and 9: Thanks to: Dr Keith Bell - Trade Ex
Page 10 and 11: there is considerable ambiguity in
Page 12 and 13: anaesthesia's gain was13urgery's lo
Page 14 and 15: These remarks drew an inmediate res
Page 18 and 19: Although the gag now known as Fergu
Page 20 and 21: JOHN SNOW'S GRAVE 'On the ~noming o
Page 23 and 24: References Kichardson, BW. John Sno
Page 25 and 26: than he should to student musical a
Page 27 and 28: Bryn, as I have mentioned, was alre
Page 29 and 30: No further surgery took place on th
Page 31 and 32: deep hypothermia in 1959 taking the
Page 33 and 34: 11 Rink EH. Hutton AM. Carnegie DM.
Page 35 and 36: ut unfortunately died on the eighth
Page 37 and 38: The spiral was covered in turn by c
Page 39 and 40: Figs 1 and 2 show that the original
Page 41 and 42: AlYAEFMESIA AND THE POSlURD Several
Page 43 and 44: stamp of that great scourge of char
Page 45 and 46: The 12th August, 1865 surely marks
Page 47 and 48: LOSING OUR FACULTIES Several instit
Page 49 and 50: The union between the Barbers and t
Page 51 and 52: It is clearly impossible in the spa
Page 53 and 54: eally in the 18801s, when technolog
Page 55 and 56: Dr C.G.Church, a member of this Soc
Page 57: Dr R.H.Jago Dr R.L.A.Jayaweera Sir

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