A MIRACLE OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 84, 2 January 1918, Page 8

A MIRACLE OF THE WAR

HOW A LAYMAN CONQUERED PAIN STORY OF A WONDERFUL ANAESTHETIC "How aro jou going to anaesthetic a wound twice the sixu of a btwsieaic by injection? What the wounded soldiers m Europo want is something vuli can slosh on uy tin; bucketful." /mil was the protest voiced by (jordon Kilwards, '-the Alan Who Conquered I'iiin," a few weeks after the world war broke out. How he found the solution, how he spent, nearly two years before European doctors or Governments would liscen to him, how lie has revolutionised the treatment of battle wounds, is vividly told by Edgar Ansel Mowrer in "Collier's."

Edwards was talking with his medical friends about allaying pain through some sort of local anaesthetic—"something you can spray on a raw surface' , he explained, just the opposite of die usual method of obtaining aiiaesthesis by injection. His friends shrugged their shoulders. .

But Edwards, a former engineer, and half accidental experimenter in medicine and pain allaying methods, already, after eighteen months' study tho inventor of a satisfactory solution to be used by injection, went back to his work. Later on he discovered a way in which his new solution could bo modified sn as to fit it for application to external wounds. However, though ho felt that his theories were correct, he wanted actual proof of what he believed. Ho inquired at tho big New York hospitals, and finally found an old woman with leg ulcers, and persuaded the reluctant doctor in charge to try his solution. When he next saw the doctor, the man was no longer sceptical. "Edwards," ho said, "leg ulcers are a scandal to the profession. Wo have never been ablo to do anything with them. But I have treated successfully twenty-five cases with your solution. The patients do not suffer at all, and. get well in no time." Tt was enough. He had only one course before him. He hurriedly named his solution "Nikalgin"—"victory over pain"—choosing Greek as a concession to the profession. Then he made up as much concentrated solution as he could carry, and |™ 1" England in November, 1914. Ihe reception Edwards received might have been foreseen by any one not so new as he to the healing profession," says the writer. "In a word, he was ignored. A wall of inditferencebland, cruel, unbelievable, when s,o many thousands of men were crying «loud in agony for want of pain allaj™ ing anaestaesis—rose before him vrhe'rw«r lie wont. It was the sairio in Frojice as in England, where everything was against him, but chiefly two facts: he w&s not a doctor and he was an American. 'Patent medicine faker! , was the least of the epithets applied. He stayed a week in London without gutting to demonstrate the value of his solution. And, indeed, during the eighteen succeeding months he remained for many a surgeon the 'nickel-gin fellow, that mad American engineer.' Finally he insured a letter from tho surgeon-geiibi-al and crossed the Channel to Franca. Tho battle of the Yser ,was on, and train after train of British' wounded was returning from Ypres. But that m«de no difference to the surg&oriS; who turned him out of Abbeville p.nd later out of Boulosrn'j. December found him in Paris, aiono and ignorant 'of the city, the French languago, and what he had better do."

A Chance to Prove It. Chance enabled him to give a, demonstration of his solution at ths large Hospital Bouffon, beforo some thirty surgeons, "ono of whom was a -very groat surgeon, indeed." "When Edwards entered the operating room and found Jiis august spectators waiting for him lie suddenly remembered with horror that leg ulcers were not war wounds and that he had really never tested iris solution at all. But he turned his attention to tho case. A soldier's hip and thigh had been scooped out by an exploding shell. The nurses bared tho enormous wound. The American rapidly soaked a great piece of cotton with nikalgin and applied it to the raw flesh. A kindly old surgeon drew tho patient's attention to another matter. After a few minutes the engineer removed ihe cotton." " 'Is anaesthesia •coiupleto?' the very great surgeon asked. " 'I behevo so. 1 "In a flash tho Frenchman had jabbed a bit of glass tubing into the very heart of tho wound, probing vigorously into tho live flesh. Tho doctors gasped. Edwards went white, then quickly (lushed with pleasure, for tho patient had not moved a muscle, tranquilly going on with* tho story of how he had como by his wound. He felt nothing at all! The very great surgeon, visibly disturbed, tried another case. The result was absolutely conclusive. Anaesthesin through nikalgin was established. The very great surgeon withdrew hastily, muttering 'Extraordinary, extraordinary!' with great rapidity." Success at Verdun. It is just as well not to count the suffering that might have been saved between December 11, 1914, and tho summer of 1916, when General Nivelle, then commanding the Second French Army, invited Edwards to visit the Vcrduu front and demonstrate liis solution. For in all that timo Edwards, almost penniless and dependent upon gifts from Americans for his supplies, tried in every way to bring bis discovery to the attention of the medical corps of France and England. At Verdun ho "revolutionised wound dressing for the surgeons of the Second Army."

"He reached the building late one CYoning. After dinner lie said to the staff: 'To-morrow bring all your worst casos of external wounds into tho operating room. I'll treat them each onco, and after that you can tako tho pressuro jets and the solution and do it yourself.' Never was brought together a more terrible collection of maimed, charred, and mangled living bodies than thoonc in the operating room the following morning. The surgeons, used to tho worst, grow pale at tho sight of somo of the cases. Edwards, the layman, had never imagined anything so awful. Twice during the morning's work ho nearly fainted; but he did not faint. After a few comparatively simple cases tho attendants wheeled forward a closely swathed figure half u|>right in a chair. It was a victim of liquid fire. Tho head was almost entirely enveloped in. gausie. The doctors had not dnred to put the patient to lied when he arrived the day before. When brought into the operating room ho sat propped up on cushions, oblivious to everything but sensation hecdloss of everything but the pain. '"Now, J. ask you, Jl. Edwards,' tho chief surgeon said slowly, 'what can you do with a caso liko that? That breast must he dressed or the man will dio of poisoning. Yet, with the nerves exposed as they are, if I attempt to remove that apron of gauze ho will dio of pain. Can you do anything for him? " 'I'll try/ Edwards answered, already doubtful of the task. "Gently ho began to spray tho chest, and for fully ten minutes moistened the gauze, until it dripped with solution. Then, while a nurse gently lifted the bandaged chin until the oyos

were fixed on Urn coiling, the shief surgeon began at the neck to pool down the gauze, whilo Edwards never ceased playing a stream of anaesthetic on to the raw flesh, "An inch! A Miracle! "The surgeons, perspiring, looked quickly at the patient. Ho had not moved. • Another inch! The surgeon, emboldened and fearful lost the momeutary eH'ect should pass, stripped away the gauzo from tho burn in a single movement. And those strange, frightened eyes never left the ceiling. The patient did not even realise that his wounds were being treated. Ho felt nothing. There was no sound in the operating room while the dressing proceeded. When it was over the attendants slowly wheeled away the rebaudaged liguro—back to life from the very vale of agony that slopes down into death. For if his wounds could be dressed aud the pain obviated he was saved.

"There is no need to describe the enthusiasm of tho surgeons, many of whom had had their nights turned to hell through brooding on the suffering they daily inflicted. Another soldier, with a suppurating hole through his thigh a foot long which necessitated tho passing of strips of gauzo through the tunnel, usually suffered agonies. This day he announced that he would rather (lied than undergo dressing another time.

" 'I promise .von it will not hurt a hit,' Edwards said earnestly. "The man looked up, and in his eyes the American read the infinite hostility of the long-deceived sufferer against tliose hale and hearty persons who take tho name of others' pain in vain. Yot such was the effect of nilcalgin that he permitted the surgeons to cleanse tho wound by sawing fresh gau/.o back and forth through it, and this without a, quiver. Until ho saw the fresh bandages in position, he refused to believe that the old ones hud been removed. "Leaving with the doctors of the Verdnn front all the solution he had on hand, Edwards returned to England. It was at Manchester a month later that a letter reached him from the chief surgeon of the Second Army, asking him to return, with more solution,, at once. The' letter continued in what to Edwards seemed immortal words: 'Wounds have healed normally without suppuration and with a total absence of all secretion.' ■> "Once more he mot the surgeon inspector. " 'How much solution ha Vβ yon brought?' asked the latter. " 'Twenty-live gallons—about a, hundred litres.' "The Frenchman tossed his hands in dismay. 'A. hundred litres will last one hospital only ten days. 'What shall we do when the.y are gone? What about the other hospitals? must have enough nikalgin to keep the entire army flooded. Whatever is useful in one military hospital is needed in all of them.'!

• _ "By December, 1916, his solution was in use on tho Somme front as well. ■ Nikalgin won admission into tho great military hospital of Paris. Val de. Grace, where an eminent Russian surgeon, a woman, took it up eagerly. Italy's medical men, seemingly less sluggish than those of France and England, are adopting it to-day.

"Every day testimonials reach him from the most varied sources. Most of them were written by surgeons, some of whom aro world famous. Somo of the letters are from soldiers, and their letters ore like tangible prayers, seeming withal to cry out at all who blocked Gordon Edwards."