Starting at the end: "... I the incandescent moment ruined for a servant girl Himself and Gained immortality .. .
"The great moment" ( Preston Sturges, 1944) is a classic that is often spare TV for holiday periods, especially at Christmas, we assume that because of the message solidarity with the film culminates in an uplifting line similar to "Captains Courageous" ( Victor Fleming, 1937) or to "Wonderful Life" ( Frank Capra, 1946).
The script by Sturges was based on the novel "The Triumph Over Pain" , of René Fullop-Miller (1891 - 1963) writer, sociologist and professor at American Austro-Hungarian origin. In 1908, Fullop have studied chemistry at the University of Vienna , applying more Later in his account of knowledge gained there on the nitrous oxide, the chloroform the ether and other anesthetics .
Serve as a preamble these brief historical notes. In the thirteenth century, Paracelsus and Raymond Lulli found the narcotic effects produced by mixing sulfuric acid with hot alcohol. In 1540, Valerius Cordus published in his book " Artificiosis extractionibus " the discovery of ether sulfuric acid, which he called sweet vitriol (sweet vitrioli oleum).
Two sig the later, in 1730, August Siegmund Frobenius named this substance such as ether. E n 1772, Joseph Priestley discovered nitrous oxide or laughing gas , and the Scottish obstetrician James Y. Simpson widespread use of chloroform from 1842.
between, Michael Faraday himself had written which when inhaled ether vapors mixed with common air occurred similar to the suction effect of nitrous oxide.
The action of this film revolves around the adventures and misadventures of William Thomas Green Morton (1819 - 1868), the Boston dentist pioneered the use of sulfuric ether as an anesthetic in dentistry.
If we pay attention to history, Dr. Crawford W. Long began using ether as an anesthetic before Morton. Using this substance, March 30, 1842 operated for a tumor in the neck of a patient named William Venable , but did not publish his experiences until 1849. On September 30, 1846, Morton succeeded in extracting a tooth without pain to the patient Eben H. Frost . And so much and said the fame ...
Dr. Crawford Williamson Long
WTG Morton always tried to keep secret the method of obtaining discovery, who by the way called "Letheon" , named after the mythological water the river of forgetfulness; sought to exploit a monopoly and the patent for the device for inhalation of anesthetic gas.
device Letheon to inhale before a portrait of WTG Morton
The Professor Dr. Charles T. Jackson
Most of these historical figures appear in this classic Paramount ...
The starring role went to the gallant Joel McCrea, a giant (in the figurative sense and reality - 191 cm -) of the classics of western a figure of the stature of Randolph Scott, for example, located this time in front of a cast of excellent supporting actors like William Demarest , embodying the suffering and later devoted Eben Frost or Julius Tannen transformed into the angry, alcoholic Dr. Charles T. Jackson .
The opening scene takes place in the pawnshop in Boston during the winter of 1868. An elderly merchant and violinist plays a commemorative silver medallion dedicated to "the benefactor of mankind, with the gratitude of mankind." Although currently we can not recognize, it is Eben Frost, the first dental patient allegedly t REATY successfully accomplished through the sulfuric ether. Once recovered precious prize, he left a house in the snowy countryside, intending to return it to Morton Elizabeth (Betty Field ) the widow of Dr. WTG Morton.
The opening scene takes place in the pawnshop in Boston during the winter of 1868. An elderly merchant and violinist plays a commemorative silver medallion dedicated to "the benefactor of mankind, with the gratitude of mankind." Although currently we can not recognize, it is Eben Frost, the first dental patient allegedly t REATY successfully accomplished through the sulfuric ether. Once recovered precious prize, he left a house in the snowy countryside, intending to return it to Morton Elizabeth (Betty Field ) the widow of Dr. WTG Morton.
While she complains bitterly of the ingratitude and injustice suffered by her husband, especially by the medical establishment, the old Eben the consoles saying that one day there will be a street and a hospital recalling his memory. Indeed, there is now in the greater Boston metropolitan area a Morton Avenue and Taunton (Massachusetts ) a Morton Hospital and Medical Center ...
There is a beautiful monument in the Boston Public Gardens entitled "Good Samaritan Monument to Ether" , where a statue of the good samaritan picking up a girl in her lap rests on four columns filled with allegories about defeat and subjugation of pain. But no mention about Dr. Morton ...
In flashback mode , know the history of William Morton and his famous discovery. In fact, there was a persistent struggle between the Boston dentist and his rivals for patent Letheon, simple grinding sulfuric ether could be obtained easily at any pharmacy specialist, as well as the device for inhalation of the substance. Nevertheless, the Dr. John C. Warren (played by veteran Harry Carey ), the renowned surgeon and professor at Harvard who relied on Morton when using this anesthetic in their speeches, proposed to the U.S. Congress a special recognition for their work. But those cases granted $ 100,000 by the government never were endorsed by President Franklin Pierce , and Morton ended his days on his family farm, forgotten section of success and wealth.
goes without saying that poor Morton had everything to lose. We are in the years immediately preceding the Civil War terrible . Was litigating against the military surgeons, who had found the ideal anesthetic ether for use in the amputations that so often had to carry wounded soldiers combat, and also face the powerful American Medical Association (AMA), which was not willing to open doors which they considered merely a dentist, a greedy and selfish sacamuelas Boston.
Betty Field and Joel McCrea are Lizzy and William Morton
After seeing dismissed their claims in court, in a scene full of humor, Morton himself attacked the inhalers industrial supplies glass to the government. Flying through the air bottles and cane in hand shoot down all counters and shelves in its path.
Morton's widow tells him to watch how others Eben Frost claimed paternity or their contributions to the discovery of anesthesia: the Dr. Charles Jackson, Dr. Horace Wells the ( Louis Jean Heydt), the Dr. Crawford ...
With his mastery of experienced filmmaker and playwright, Preston Sturges William Morton tells how you contact Charles Jackson at a tavern called "Costello's" . Days ago, coinciding with a toothache Horace Wells who suffered because of a huge abscess, Jackson had spoken a few drops can numb the tooth nerve ... The ironic Harvard professor asks if he tested clove oil. Visibly angry, Morton reveals she had worked with clove oil, menthol camphor ... Even with whiskey, brandy or gin! ...
regard to cloves (Syzygium aromaticum or Eugenia caryophyllata ) point out that their oil is rich in eugenol , a phenolic derivative that is not unique to this plant, but mixed with zinc oxide is the compound eugenolato zinc, used by dentists to fill cavities and analgesic, anesthetic and disinfectants (in this case three times more potent than phenol ).
Eugenia caryophyllata
Meanwhile camphor and menthol, to be absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes , provide a feeling of coldness that was used as a local anesthetic (although mild and transient). Both also have antimicrobial properties.
Cinnamomum camphora
Jackson says that the only way to desensitize a nerve is by cold, and this may achieved with ice or using a substance with low boiling point, for example a few drops of hydrochloric ether .
half drunk Professor Morton refers to clever to Burnett's Pharmacy , establishment that really existed in Boston at the time we are talking about.
To learn more about the historical image of the pharmacy, located on the same street in which Morton had his own practice, we recommend visiting link:
A curiosity. In the film, the old Burnett (Jimmy Conlin ) Morton asks if you need the ether for the treatment of asthma . In addition to recreational use (esoteric and aphrodisiac), the ether beads have been used in medicine as an antispasmodic in the digestive tract (in aerofagia and bloating) and therapy auxiliary flare-ups, still sold in Mexico , Guatemala and Honduras .
After buying a pint (just over 473 ml) of hydrochloric acid and other ether sulfuric ether, Morton comes home and starts studying in a treaty of therapeutic effects of these substances: "ether vapor is inhaled into spasmodic asthma, in chronic catarrh, in whooping cough and dyspepsia. It boils at 35 ° C, but not boiling warns ..."
The bottle of sulfuric ether remaining on the table near the hearth, warms up and bubbling, the cork jumps and releases a vapor release sleepiness causes dental student. When his wife Lizzie finds him lying on the floor of the room, think Morton has come home drunk, while he swears that these effects are not due to alcohol intake.
As our hero discovers that the cause of his stupor due to inhalation of fumes sulfuric ether, the Dr. Horace Wells enters the fray. Hartford dentist ( Connecticut) went to the Harvard faculty to demonstrate the effects of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic in dentistry. In the film, as he had warned Dr. Jackson, the experiment turns out to be a resounding failure.
Dr. Horace Wells
After that failed attempt, Wells tries again Morton consulting with a patient who went there desperate for dental pain. After being unconscious for several hours while the two dentists feared the worst, she wakes up without pain and recounts his experience as pleasurable.
Morton Faraday know the opinion of the narcotic that causes breathing air with a mixture of sulfuric ether, similar to those caused by nitrous oxide. And then decided to try "Nig", the little cocker his wife's pet. As the animal slips away, is forced to experience himself. After inhaling ether, Morton is passed a hand with a metal skewer, without pain.
A as in the experiment of Wells, the first use of sulfuric ether one of his patients ends in a fiasco. By mistake, Morton gives inhale Eben Frost suffered a sample of sulfuric ether without rectification, the same used as a solvent. The patient develops an unusual paradoxical reaction, with a sudden and uncontrollable excitement, going crazy and destroying everything in its path. Dr. Jackson tells Morton that sulfuric ether should be rectified as it is prepared exclusively in the pharmacy of Burnett. That simple advice to Morton and Jackson become partners in the business of anesthesia.
Massachusetts General Hospital
During the filming of the movie is built on the Paramount studios ( Hollywood - California ) a replica of the facade of this landmark hospital in the mid-nineteenth century, built through the efforts of Dr. James Jackson (1777 - 1867) and Dr. John Collins Warren.
Morton and Frost went to those facilities seeking just convince the veteran Dr. Warren about the benefits of sulfuric ether anesthesia. The theaters of that era have been reflected in many traditional pictures, mere lack of asepsis amphitheaters, where patients were operated without any anesthesia. While Eben Frost fainted during one of them, Dr. Warren asked his assistant smelling salts of ammonium carbonate to revive him.
In closing, for those wishing to delve deeper into the knowledge of this unjustly devalued work of Preston Sturges, and yet very fruitful as a reminder of the history of anesthesia, here are these two great links:
http://thecinema.blogia.com/2009/090401-the-great-moment-1944-preston-sturges-.php
CURIOSITY AN ADDED: A LITTLE MORE OF MEDICINE AND FILM ...
The Dr. Hanaoka Seishu (1760-1835) was a physician and surgeon Japanese author of "A Surgical Casebook" , an exquisite collection of paintings done by him in the portraying patients operated, with details of its pathologies, mainly tumors.
addition to his artistic talent, has the merit of having discovered and used an oral anesthetic, a power which enabled him removed painlessly until deep tumors. Born in Wakayama prefecture to the present, to the 22 years he moved to Kyoto to learn traditional Chinese medicine and surgery based on Western techniques. Compliments 25, was forced to return home to take over the family business, starting to exercise a kind of eclectic medicine combining the two current therapies.
An example of the manuscript of Hanaoka Seishu
prepared a formulation he called "Mafutsusan" or " Tsusensan ", a combination highly toxic plants such as the Korean Asagao - Chosen Asagao ( Datura alba), Japanese Aconite ( Aconium japonicum), dong quai (Angelica dahurica ), Norwegian Angelica (Angelica decursar) and Ligusticum wallichii ; Arisaema japonicum. However, this mixture did not contain opium derivatives, whose analgesic properties began to be known then by European physicians.
The plants were crushed into a paste, boiled in water and administered orally to patients who were undergoing surgery. The narcotic effects of this unique anesthetic could last up to 24 hours of time sufficient to dissect many kinds of tumors previously inoperable.
anesthetic effects, narcotic and paralyzing were due to the combination of drugs such as scopolamine (an antagonist of acetylcholine and inhibitory neurotransmission), certain alkaloids atropine, aconitine and angelic toxin.
On this character, there is a curious film titled "Women of Seishu Hanaoka" ( Yazuso Masumura, 1967), which shows both the wife and mother of offered as medical guinea pigs for research.
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