THE ZOIST. No. XIII. APRIL, 1846. I. Accounts of more painless Surgical Operations. "While still a mere child, he (Lord Bacon) stole away from his playmates to a vault in St. James's Fields, for the purpose of investigating the cause of a singular echo which he had discovered there; and, when a little older, he amused himself with very ingenious speculations on the art of legerdemain, at present flourishing under the title of mesmerism.”— Life of Lord Bacon, in the Lives of the Lord Chancellors. By JOHN LORD CAMPBELL, A.M., F.R.S.E. Vol. ii., p. 269. "In the diary of the famons Elias Ashmole, under date 23rd October, 1682, we find this entry: My Lord Chancellor Finch sent for me to cure him of his rheumatism. I dined there, but would not undertake the cure.' On calculating the Lord Chancellor's nativity, I presume it was ascertained that the aspect of the stars was unfavourable. If he joined Dryden in such vagaries, need we be much astonished when we find grave characters believing in mesmerism at the present day?"—Life of Lord Nottingham, in ditto. Vol. iii., p. 422. I. Two removals of Cancer from the Breast, in America. In The Zoist for October last (No. XI.), I recorded the removal of a lady's cancerous breast in the mesmeric state, without any pain, on the 20th of January, 1845, by Dr. Dugas, Professor of Physiology in the Medical College of Georgia. The whole breast, weighing sixteen ounces, with the tumor in it as large as a turkey's egg, was cut away with two elliptical incisions, each eight inches in length; the integuments were dissected in the usual manner, and the wound was left open for about three quarters of an hour while six bleeding blood-vessels were tied. The patient gave no indication whatever of sensation, but remained all the time in a sound mesmeric sleep. The placidity of her countenance was unaltered, the natural blush of her cheeks undiminished; so that, had the several eminent physicians present observed her without knowing that an operation was performing, none of them would have suspected such a thing: and, on her being awakened to her natural state after having been dressed again in her sleep, she was not aware that the operation had been performed, was anxious that it should not be delayed as she wished to return home from Augusta city, and for a short VOL. IV. B time fancied that Dr. Dugas was joking when he assured her that the operation was over. She became convinced only on carrying her hand to the part and finding that the breast was no longer there. "She remained apparently unmoved for a few moments, when, her friends approaching to congratulate her, her face became flushed and she wept unaffectedly for some time." What can be the cerebral composition and organization of the medical man who can read this and not be deeply affected; and, at the same time, not feel almost ashamed at belonging to a body of men, the very great majority of whom proudly scoff at mesmerism as a thing totally unfit for their condescending notice for a single moment, and whose highest medical society-the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London-so vociferously scouted a history presented to them of a similar operation that, after bestowing all the contempt of which they were capable upon the subject, the patient, the mesmeriser and the surgeon, they would not allow a syllable to remain upon their minutes that might divulge to posterity the disgraceful fact that such a communication had been received and listened to by them!-a madness, and a conceit, and a hard-heartedness, equal to that of the council of University College, who, without the decent courtesy of a previous deliberation with me or any intimation to me, peremptorily forbade any patient to receive the benefit of mesmerism in their hospital, and desired their secretary only to shew me their resolution, in abject obedience to Mr. Wakley who had declared that they should take this measure—had declared that mesmerism should be no longer employed in any hospital. "Do you read what is said in the Lancet ?" said Mr. William Tooke, one of the council and of the committee of management and treasurer of the hospital, to a friend of mine to justify their doings.* What can be the cerebral - J. Taylor, - H. Waymouth, C. Wood. Sir I. Goldsmid made a great stand for mesmerism, and afterwards moved that I should be requested to withdraw my resignation, and was supported by Lord Brougham, Mr. Tooke, and Mr. Bishop. Mr. W. Crabb Robinson would have joined him, but was absent. composition and organization of that man, and him a husband, a father, a brother, and getting his living on the ground of professing to relieve the sick of their sufferings, who unblushingly rose in the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, and moved and carried, without one dissenting voice, the erasure of the minutes, even containing no account, but only a very short allusion to the detail of the painless amputation;* and protested that he would not have the pain of poor wretches under surgical treatment lessened or prevented, because it was a good thing, a wise ordination of the Almighty. Yet this good man goes about taking money for prescribing opium and other anodynes, and, with sympathy in his looks and tones, professes to patients his great anxiety to lessen their sufferings. Does he not endeavour to frustrate this wise provision in tooth-ache, rheumatism, cancer, &c., instead of telling patients to thank God for their agony as it "A secretary read as minutes of the preceding meeting merely that such a paper had been read; no abstract being given according to the established custom of the society."-See my pamphlet entitled Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations without pain in the Mesmeric State, &c., p. 59. "Dr. Copland rose to oppose the motion (the routine motion of the chairman for confirmation of the minutes) on two grounds,-the character of the paper, and the publication of it by the authors without the permission of the society. He would allow no trace to remain that such a paper had been read.' The president stopped his arguments on the first point, as the paper had been discussed at a previous meeting and thanks been voted for it. The deadly hostility of Dr. Copland to mesmerism is well known. But to-night he was particularly unwise. He protested that the paper ought not to have been read, because the author was not a medical man!-As though knowledge was ever to be despised from any source. Why one of the authors was a surgeon, though neither was a fellow of the society. I have heard papers read at the meetings of the College of Physicians (of which he rejoices to be a fellow) by persons not medical, once by the very reverend Dean of Westminster; and the society has of course no law as to who may be authors of papers and several members of the society are not medical men. On this point he was set right by more than one member. He then contended that, if the account of the man experiencing no agony during the operation were true, the fact was unworthy of their consideration, because pain is a wise provision of nature, and patients ought to suffer pain while their surgeon is operating; they are all the better for it, and recover better! Will the world believe that such folly was gravely uttered? This will be remembered as a doctor's speech in 1842, when the doctor himself shall be forgotten. In due consistency, Dr. Copland, when he is about to have a tooth extracted, of course goes to a clumsy dentist and begs the man to give him all the pain he can. In due consistency, he of course gives his patients that physic which he thinks most likely to pinch them well, because they must be all the better for being twisted with sharp pain while it is operating; the agony must do them good, and make them anxious to take his physic again. "So the virtuous indignation of a large majority condemned the minutes to non-confirmation,-a most ridiculous proceeding, since, from reporters being admitted, the whole proceedings of the previous meeting were already published in the various journals, and recorded more publicly than they would have been in the minute-book of the society, which nobody sees but the secretary when he writes in it and the president when he signs his name."-Same Pamphlet, pp. 59, 64. does them good? Dr. Copland for shame! You profess to believe in a "wise provision" and the Bible, and in your Bible you read that, before the Almighty performed what was really a surgical operation upon Adam," took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof," HE made "a wise provision," HE spared the human being-the patient—all suffering, by what was tantamount to mesmerism,-HE " caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept."* The barefaced assertion that the agony of surgical operations does people good is disproved by the fact that the most painful operations are not better recovered from than the less painful, and that all the operations performed in the mesmeric state have been well recovered from; many better than is usual in ordinary circumstances. The next generation of the medical world will point back to the present as a sad specimen of untutored, unregulated lower feelings mastering intelligence, manliness, and humanity. The unfortunate lady, from whose case my feelings compelled me to digress, suffered a return of her disease, and was operated upon again with no more sensation than on the first occasion. The following account is from the same Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, published in Augusta city. The number was for September, 1845, Vol. I., No. 9, p. 508. Extirpation of a scirrhous tumor, the patient being in the Mesmeric state, and evincing no sensibility whatever during the operation. By L. A. Dugas, M. D., Professor of Physiology, &c., in the Medical College of Georgia. "Mrs. Clarke, the lady whose mamma I removed in January last, enjoyed for several months afterwards an unusual degree of health. In the month of May, however, she began to suffer almost daily with slow fever, and perceived a small induration in the adipose tissue surrounding the region formerly occupied by the breast. This soon assumed the form of a distinct tumor, which was increasing in size with some rapidity, and was becoming painful, when, in the early part of June, I advised Mrs. C. to have it extirpated. To this proposal she readily consented, remarking very philosophically, that she would rather have such a tumor removed every six months, than permit it to remain and grow on her. There was no evidence of disease in the axilla. "I now requested Mr. Kenrick to ascertain whether he could still mesmerise her, and, if she were susceptible, to • Genesis ii. repeat the operation a few days, so that we might test her sensibility in that state. Mrs. C. was readily put into the mesmeric state, and found to be entirely insensible during its continuance. Deeming it unnecessary to repeat the tests, I determined to operate on the 13th June, several days sooner than was expected by either herself or her friends. The operation was performed in presence of Professors L. D. Ford and Jos. A. Eve, Drs. L. Kennon and J. F. Hammond, the Rev. Mr. Alfred Ford and Mr. F. J. Martin. The patient was mesmerized at 9 o'clock, a.m., and the extirpation effected at about 10 o'clock, by making a semilunar incision along a portion of the circumference of the tumor, turning over a flap, and dissecting away the indurated mass and surrounding tissues, making up the volume of a hen's egg. "During the operation, Mr. Kenrick, being blind-folded to avoid the unpleasant spectacle, sat by the patient, with her hands in his. Mr. K. avers that Mrs. C. evinced no uneasiness by grasping his hands, that her fingers did not twitch, and in short, that her hands remained perfectly passive. Prof. Ford, whom I had requested to note the pulse and respiratory act particularly, informs me that there was no appreciable change in their character and frequency before, during, and after the operation. The countenance of the patient and the hue of her cheeks presented no change whatever, nor was there the least indication of sensibility detected during or subsequently to the operation, by those who were present and anxiously watching the result. There was neither twitching of the pectoral muscle when touched with the sponge, nor tremor of the lower jaw. Indeed the patient slept on as quietly as an undisturbed infant, through the entire operation. "The wound was left open about half an hour, a small vessel ligated and the ordinary dressing applied. The patient was permitted to sleep on, and awoke spontaneously at a quarter-past 1 o'clock, p.m., in the presence of Dr. Ford, the Rev. Mr. Ford, Mr. Kenrick and myself. Dr. Kennon arrived a moment afterwards. She appeared entirely unconscious of what had been done, and was much surprised as well as gratified, on being informed that the operation was over. She stated that she had not suspected our design, and had no recollection of having experienced the least uneasiness during her nap. "I will add on this occasion, as I did on reporting the former case, that the above statement has been submitted to all the professional gentlemen present, and that they fully concur in its accuracy. This is perhaps the only instance on record in which a serious and painful operation has been twice |