Vol. 71, 1915 - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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26 THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL' JOURNAL.
pect of a "peach" crop, and he was never
convinced until the peaches were so plentiful
that they were not worth a cent in
the market; the frost is always a "killing
frost" with him, but "somehow or other
"he has managed to live.
The grocer across the way with two
thousand dollars invested, reports a very
good year and estimates his "savings" at
five hundred dollars or more, and your
"stock in trade" is brains not cash.
The blacksmith says that he does not
know what his earnings were, but that he
is contented and happy, and why should
he not be ? A little home paid for, a wife
that is a helpmeet indeed, and children
that "round up" at an even dozen, then
too, they have all been well during the
Cold was the next method of anesthesia
year and have plenty to eat. Learn from used. .Thomas Batholimus first called
him and his many lessons, contentment, attention to the use of cold to reduce sensibility
in the 16th century. In 1807 Ear-
happiness, and no infringement on nature's
laws, twelve bright faced children
rey, Napolean's surgeon, reported that
bespeak the fact, look at the mand-broad amputations done on the batlefield at
shouldered, tall, with muscle as hard as very low temperatures — (19c) the sensability
of the parts was entirely gone. In
iron, and nerve unshaken, with an eye
as an X-ray we see a heart pumping pure 1886 Benj. Ward Richardson put cold on
untainted blood full of red corpuscles a practical basis by the invention of the
bright sunlight that God has given you
and substitute for it in your palaces the
foul air of furnaces, and the gleam of
artificial light, no wonder that your
health gave way, your nerves unstrung,
and your stomach refuses to receive the
pure food of the fields and forests, be
content good blacksmith, though your
trade is black your heart is white, and
you not only represent the "bone and
sinew" of the land but the brain and
brawn as well, from your ranks come
Presidents and other men who are called
great, and your calling is no disgrace, go
on playing your "anvil chorus" and
serving God, and you will at the last day
join "the great chorus" of good men made
perfect, who sing Hosanna to the King.
Local Anesthesia.'''
By F. D. Austin, M. D., Charlotte, N. C.
The desire to alcviate pain is as old as
man; its fulfillment has had to wait long.
(Braun). Previous to the introduction of
cocaine but little had been accomplished
in attempting to produce local anesthesia
for surgical operations. The Egyptians
were said to have possessed certain
applications for this purpose, but investigation
has shown them to have been more
superstition than actual fact. (Mitchell).
*Read at Seventh District Medical Society,
December 7th, Concord, N. C,
Compression of nerve trunks was probably
the earliest method to be of any real
service. Originating in antiquity, it was
.practiced by the Arabs, revived by Pare
in the 17th century, and throughout succeeding
ages one sees it cropping out
anew in some special tourniquet or pressure
pad only to be again abandoned. It
survives now in the form of the Esmarch
elastic bandage, which, it is true, will
produce anesthesia of the distal part of
a limb. The uncertainty of the anesthesia
and the length of time necessary to
produce it, the actual pain of the pressure
itself, and the danger of gangren and motor
paralysis render it unsafe and not
practical.
go to, you pale, puny, and ill-shaped being,
you shut out the fresh pure air and cess acts as a terminal anesthetic, and is
Ethyl Chloride Spray. The freezing pro-
complete in a few seconds. Prolonged or
extensive freezing is apt to cause severe
sloughing, and therefore its field of usefulness
is very narrow, and in nearly all
cases the injection of the local anesthetic
is much to be preferred. Both pressure
and cold, however, act as aids in producing
and prolonging the anesthesia
produced by drugs.
Electricity is used as a local anesthetic,
and as a means of driving drugs into the
tissues to produce local anesthesia. The
effect is probably more that of suggestion
than of actual anesthesia.
Besides the physical means of producing
local anesthesia medical literature
speaks of hundreds of drugs claimed to
produce local loss of sensation. Local
anesthesia through the physiological action
of drugs was made possible in 1853
by Alex. Wood, who invented the Hypo
Syringe. For many years drug after drug
was used but none was found to be quite
satisfactory till cocaine was introduced in
1884 by Koller.
Cocaine for years was used almost universally
as the local anesthetic, and is
used today by a number of surgeons. It
is used in 1-10 per cent, to sat solutions,
and even the pure crystals with and
without andrenilin, depending on the location
it is to be used. The local
effect of cocaine is ideal, but the systematic
effect is too often disastrous to the