Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Ether

Episode Date: September 7, 2018

People talk a lot of mess about drugs being dangerous, and they're right. But did you know that ether frolics, a delightfully named drug party, inspired a powerful anasthetic? It's true! Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Hello, this is Justin Macquarie, America's favorite center of podcasting. I just want to let you know that we recorded this episode live in Atlanta and there's a weird audio issue where there's a when things get a little bit loud. There's a popping noise and it is kind of annoying but we didn't want to deny you this episode so We hope you can still enjoy it and we'll be back with you pop-free next week. Bye. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright! What time is it about? It's books!

One, two, one, two, three, four! I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it.

I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. But we choreographed that whole dance back stage and you just let me do my half. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Saul Bones, a mayoral tour of Miss Guyton Medicine. I'm your co-host Justin McAroy. I'm Sydney McAroy. It's fine. I figured this went out. It's fine. I'm Sydney McElroy. What? What? What? What? What?

It's fun. I figured this went out. It's fun. We're married, so legally half of that was mine. So you see. Well, but then half of yours was mine. Okay, all right. Doctor accountant didn't realize you're a doctor of maths.

Hey. Hey, it's great to be back. accountant didn't realize you're a doctor of mass. Hey. Hey, it's great to be back. Yes, yes. The beautiful Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia. Once again. I lived in Georgia. Yes, we've heard that last time.

Yeah, very short for like five years. That's not short in the grand scheme of things. Well, I was really... Our trial was four, so... I was really little, but I mean, I basically... I lived in Wakecross, Georgia. All right. I told you.

I told you somebody would be from Wakecross. I said, I'm sorry. I said, I'm sorry. Wakecross rules, I've heard somebody would be from White Cross. Somebody said I'm sorry. I wonder. White Cross rules, I've heard a lot of great stories about it. There was a swamp, it was cool. And other great things, some people here live in White Cross, there's a great thing in White Cross.

It was great, I mean, I was like, like four to nine. So, I mean, I don't remember a lot, but I loved it. It was good. No, I always wondered if it was named that because it's way cross. Like, you know, way cross. It's way cross, Georgia. Because it's way, it is a cross. I don't know. I have many happy maps.

If you can, to maps.google.com. And so what are we talking about tonight, Sid? Well, I always try to find for our live shows, I always try to find something that will connect to where we are. And we've done shows here before. So there's only so many things we talk about. We did a soap. Yeah, we talked about coke.

Yes. We celebrated Coke. And not Brad's drink. Not Brad's drink. That's bad. That's great. We talked about the CDC. So I had to find something that would be connected to Georgia,

but it took me a while to get there. And so we're going to start off talking about ether. Yeah. Somebody here. Some ether fans. It's an youth fan of ether. There was an audible yes. Finally, ether.

Justin, do you know what ether is? When your MP is low. LAUGHTER I don't. My people. I know. My people. That's what the MP stands for, my people.

LAUGHTER Uh, it refills your mana. It's for your mana, said. So, no. It's a cl- it's actually a class of organic compounds. You excited now? It's, if you have an oxygen atom, and it's connected to two alkyl groups, or two alkyl groups. There's 2700 people here.

What we call ether is usually diethyl ether. That's what we, when we talk about ether, that's usually what we're referring to. That's C2H5 with a 2 and then an O is the chemical formula. Just in case you want to know. You know, we encourage kids to get into STEM, but we don't really think about the repercussions, doing this is what happens, folks, is the outcome. It's neat.

OK. The name comes from the Greek for upper air, because we also talk about like the ether, right? Like the poetic ether That's not the science What we think of as ether diathlete ether we're talking about what we used to use for a long time for anesthesia We don't use it so much today although it is used sometimes

But this is where it intersects with medicine. Now, if you were to come into contact with ether, it's a liquid. It's a colorless liquid. It's very flammable, so be very careful. But it also smells nice. You're kind of creating a honey pot right now. We're all year round.

It's kind of a trap for me. Like, highly fambles, smells good. Do you want to check it out? Also, as we discovered, either all the way back in 1275, but we figured out that it could get us kind of messed up. Yes. In the 1500s, our buddy Paracelsus was actually one of the first ones who figured out

that this ether stuff is. Now Paracelsus, real quick, is it either one that people can go to mackerewremarch.com and get a t-shirt with his visage on it right now that says, I am different, let this not upset you. You can just buy that now. That's right. That's shipping now.

Just back where you marched.com. That was good. It's a very smooth. Yeah, thanks. I just, you never noticed it. He said, he called it a sweet vitriol. And he talked about ether. He said, it quiet saw suffering without any harm

and relieves all pain, quenches all fevers, and prevents complications in all diseases. It doesn't do that. But what he was noticing is what people started to figure out pretty quickly is that it kind of gets you high or kind of drunk, somewhere in between, but people like that. Now, he noted that in chickens. He never thought to really apply that to humans. He just noticed that chickens were high, I guess.

He knew that the chickens had had their suffering quieted. That dude was very in tune with chickens, eh? He just loved chickens. That dude was very in tune with chickens, eh? He just loves chickens. And so you know, if you drink ether, because you can. I mean, I'm not saying do it. I'm just saying can. You can drink anything, sis.

I mean, it's fair. You can should drink ether, like not bad. No. I mean, it will, so similarly to alcohol. I'm like ordering on eBay right now. No. You have to legally tell me. Don't do that, don't do that.

It will get you kind of drunk, but also it will make you hallucinate some and feel a lot of euphoria. Yes. So it's a pretty, it's an intense narcotic, I would say. I mean, I don't know. But that is my understanding. I think it's in fear and loathing in Las Vegas. I think they talk about it.

Like the ether, like e-names, like a big list of drugs, and at the end, he's like, but the ether is the thing you really got to watch out for, because that'll really mess you up. OK. So this is ether. You can drink it. Is it dangerous?

Yes. It's very volatile. So I was reading, like, what can it do? Yes, it's very volatile. So I was reading like, what can it do? What can cause hiccups? Oh, well, okay. We're gonna have some hiccups. It can also rupture your stomach. And it boils, so it's going to be,

it's a liquid, it's gonna become a gas at 95 degrees Fahrenheit. So in your bodies, it's a gas, like it happens. Whoa. You're above that. That seems less than ideal. So it's already a gas inside you. It was very popular in the 1800s because as the temperance movement started to take over

and everybody was like, oh alcohol is really evil. I shouldn't drink alcohol. I'll drink ether instead. So there were certain, especially certain parts of the world. In Ireland, it became very popular. Like there was one point, like by 1890, about 17,000 gallons of ether was being drunk each year. People were really into ether.

There were parts of like Poland where it was very popular. And you could mix it in different ways. So people would drink it with just a little bit of water, if they just wanted it straight, just like some ether and water. You could mix it with some like sugar and cinnamon and cloves. And it was enjoyed by like all classes.

Like miners would take it with their coffee. That's nice. Into the mines. Which actually became a huge problem after a while because there were all these miners who were really messed up on ether who were mining. And then among the upper classes they would do, like there was one cocktail that I found that was like you take a strawberry and you cut it and then you put some drops of ether in your strawberry and then you drop it in champagne and and you drink it, and go on a fun trip

with your fancy buddies. What do you either? I did. I almost never feel like playing the top uns, but I feel like we missed all the good stuff. I feel like we missed all the good stuff. I feel like we missed all the good stuff. It's like, does you miss being able to be like,

plop, and then someone's like, Jeremiah, is that bad for you? And you can look at them and they're like, I she miss being able to be like, plop, and then someone's like, Jeremiah, is that bad for you? And you can look at them and they're like, I have no way of knowing. It's 18 whatever, you knows, anyway. Someday they'll talk about it on a podcast. What's a podcast? Who cares? I'm Benjamin Franklin.

Did he say that? This is the room where it happens. It was actually, it was sold in pubs. Like you could go up and order a beer or a glass of either a pint of ether. Can you imagine that? And then you could also inhale it, of course. So like people were drinking it, but you could inhale it, which it will work much faster if you inhale ether, but then it goes away faster too. So I know.

With very few exceptions so far, this feels like sitting in our and our do get in commercial for the fact that we're bringing back ETHER. Like and look under your chairs because it's back. You get ETHER and you get ETHER and you get ETHER. I saw a few of you look under your chairs. Thank you very much. It's great because it's going to get to medicine, I promise. But what I love about it is the idea that we found this thing and we were like, oh, this feels so good.

I want it to be medicine. Let's make it medicine. That should be, that's the alternate time of solvents. I want it to be medicine. That's so human we do that, right? We're like, I love beer. It's got to be good for me. I'm going to find a study that says it's good.

Coffee's good now, right? Coffee's good. I love. It's got to be good for me. So I thought, I love this quote. Oliver Wendell Holmes was a big fan of using ether. And he gave this big speech at Harvard at a graduation. I thought, I love this quote, Oliver Wendell Holmes was a big fan of using ether. And he gave this big speech at Harvard, at a graduation.

And what he said about either was, the mighty music of the triumphant march into nothingness reverberated through my brain and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me an archangel for the moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has

sought in vain to solve fleshed upon me in a sudden revelation. So if you go to kickstarter.com, forward slash, ether two. So as everybody was enjoying ether, it was a natural fit for people who made patent medicines. So medicines that weren't really medicines, but people sold and pretend like they were medicines because we didn't have rules back then. So you could just say, this is medicine.

It's got some alcohol or some ether or some marijuana or some heroin. I don't know. Whatever. It'll make you feel good. People got on that ether train and started selling Hoffman's drops, which were one part ether to three parts alcohol. And initially, like everything were marketed

for menstrual cramps. So they were like, here, just take this. You'll be fine here. This is all through medical history, right? Sorry. But they were so popular that people started using them for everything. They were like, well, I want some of those off-mins drops. You seem to feel great.

So I want some too. And that was the same with Dr. Kelly's remedy, which was, it was just ether. It was remedy, which was, it was just ether. It was just, here's some ether. But they were incredibly popular medicines for whatever ale do. The medicines, the medicines that ask you lift my cards before the mouth. And as its recreational use grew, its medicinal use was growing too, and people were trying

to find new ways to use it. And as doctors started to realize that the volatility of it so it could very easily go from liquid to gas form, it could maybe be helpful for stuff that was wrong with your lungs. I don't know, because it now it's a gas. That's as far as I can figure the reasoning went. Like, well, now it's a gas. You can inhale that. So let's use it for asthma.

Let's use it for colds. Let's use it for a cough, for pertussis, for whatever. If it's wrong with your lungs, we'll probably use ether for it. And so it became a really popular cure all for a while. Yeah, I mean, I'm already on board. I was already taking it, a lot of it, heaps of the stuff, but now that it'll fix my pertussis,

I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Now, I'm promised I'm gonna get to work and next to Georgia. We're about to get there. So the rest of the world was just partying high on ether. The US was kind of slow to catch up with this. For a while, it really wasn't being used recreationally the way it was everywhere else.

But there were a few places in the US where it started to be very popular, specifically in the South. And among elite socialites, it was very popular and among the academic elites, it became very popular to instead of getting drunk, have these ether parties or ether frolics as they came to be known. And especially among medical students. It was, you had a long week of studying and you had exams

and you were just worn out, and so they would all go on an ether frallic. Or you would just drink some ether and hails some ether, and it was the same as getting drunk with your buddies, except everybody was drinking ether. And this is where we enter Dr. Crawford Long. Who has hair tonight? that's so cool. Dr. Crawford long as you may have already guessed is was from Georgia.

It was born in Danielsville, Georgia in 1815. Daniels here. Love your bill, dude. He went to the University of Georgia, which was then known as Franklin College. At the age of 14, and he... Okay, we're just gonna breeze on past that, huh? I mean, I don't think that was as uncommon. Okay, he do, Gideon.

He do, Gideon. And then he went to study under a doctor grant of Jefferson, Georgia. Yeah. He went and learned medicine under him. Anyway, he studied other places that aren't Georgia. You probably don't care about that. But then he came back.

He came back to Jefferson and he started, he basically bought the practice from his mentor and started working as a physician there. He was also, by the way, Doc Holliday's cousin, which is always just like mentioned as a side note, which I find very cool, like Doc Holliday. Yeah, the Doc Holliday. The Doc Holliday, this is his cousin.

I don't think he was as good at cards. I don't know. So, Dr. Long observed the medical students. As far as I can tell, he did not participate. I have no evidence that he produced... You gotta love that guy, D. Thief or Frog, huh? Well, you all seem to be having a fine time. Don't mind me.

I'll be in the corner. Taking cobiocinotes. But please enjoy your frolic. I'm fine. I've got a tonic water. That's it, dude. You don't know this, but Justin right now is this is my grandpa Dan. That's what he's doing. It's not, I mean, I just have the one voice for that.

It's my grandpa Dan. Your grandpa Dan fits into an archetype that I just and explain. It was technically from Alabama, I will just say. Justin. Justin explained to me what the cloud is. You're right, OK, that is Grandpa Dan, sorry. So Dr. Long was at an ether frallic and he was watching all these med students party and he noticed that a lot of them in addition to tripping were also actually tripping and

falling and hurting themselves but didn't seem that upset about it. They were falling down a lot and then jumping right back up and, ha ha laughing and they had cuts and bruises and nobody seemed to notice. And he thought, maybe there's something in this that makes you resistant to pain. Right? Yeah, the ether. What? So, so he decided to check his theory out.

So he had a patient, James Venable, who had a big cyst in his neck, and he wanted Dr. Long to remove it. And so he decided I'm going to try to give you some of this ether before we remove this cyst and see if... Because surgery up till then, and we've talked about this before, and you probably could guess, surgery without anesthesia was horrible. It was very painful and very fast out of necessity because it was so painful. And a lot of patients just couldn't make it through the awful procedure. And so there were a lot of smart doctors

working on the idea of how can we make surgery less painful. So he thought, well, maybe I'll give him some ether. And we'll see how it works. So on March 30, 1842, he removed the cysts from Benavable's neck and he used ether while he did it. And after it was all over, he said, how are you and he went, I'm fine, I didn't feel anything. I feel great.

I've been hallucinating this entire time. By chance, have any more of that ether. I am God-gathering stuff. I am Gaga for this stuff. Now this is a huge breakthrough and he should have gotten a ton of attention for this, but he didn't because he didn't publish it because he was very careful and he said, you know, I think this worked, but I want to try it maybe a few hundred more times. I'm going to be very patient with this, and I'm just gonna wait and see,

maybe somebody else is using it. I'll start asking around, because I don't wanna, I don't wanna start saying it works unless I'm really sure that it works. So he kinda sat on his hands, and he kept doing surgeries with ether, and they were successful, but he kept waiting to publish.

And that is a big mistake, as anybody in the science world knows, if you've come up with a big breakthrough, you should probably jump on that, because what happens if you don't, well, a dentist does it first. So a dentist, Dr. William Morton, had also been experimenting with the idea

that maybe ether could be used as an anesthetic, and he had used it a few times during some tooth extractions and had had some success. So he had urged a surgeon friend of his, Dr. John Warren, to try it. Let's do it during a surgery. A tooth extraction is one thing. Let's do it when we're cutting somebody open

and see if it really works. And so, Dr. Warren agreed, and on October 16th, 1846, so much later, Dr. Warren used ether to anesthetize Edward Gilbert Abbott, who also had a tumor in his neck, a lot of neck surgeries here. But he did this at Massachusetts General Hospital, and after, there's some big fans here. And after he did that, he said, hey, was there any pain? And the patient was like, no, it was fine. And he said, gentlemen, this is no humbug.

Either's the way to go. And he published and became a huge sensation because he was the one who published it. And after that, there was this huge battle to decide who came up with either first because he published this. And then like two other doctors were like, wait, no.

Dr. Charles Jackson, Dr. Horace Wells were like, no, I published, no, I did this first and then that's finally when Dr. Crawford long was like, well, actually. I did this several years ago and so what ensued what was known as the Ether Wars? LAUGHTER Georgie Lucas is back. LAUGHTER What's it?

That's what you got? They kind of filled in the rest. It's like you're just doing Ether Wars. Not Star Wars anymore. You get it. But what happened is that Massachusetts got a lot of the credit because they did, as soon as they published, they started doing the tons of surgeries there using ether because they had this operating theater

that became known as the ether dome. Mad Max is back. And so they started doing tons of surgeries there. And it kind of got, like it got the lead of, you know, everybody agreed like this is the place. This is where Ether started. This was the guy who came up with it. This dentist invented it and this surgeon did it and this is why we have Ether today.

They actually, they did a recreation of that surgery in the year 2000 where they had a bunch of like actual surgeons in period costumes in the operating theater there at Mass Gen, like, and a guy with a fake tumor made out of latex on his neck, and recreating and taking pictures like, look, look. Like the first. Watching people take ether and larping surgery.

Do you all know how to party or what? So, poor Dr. Long, by the time he actually published in 1849, his an account of the first use of sulfuric ether by inhalation as an anesthetic, it was too late, everybody else was jumping on it too. And so it took him a long time to get any notice for that. He kind of gave up on that. I mean, he kept using ether, but as far as getting the credit for it, because like Congress was giving like a $200,000 prize to whichever of these doctors could say, like, no,

I came up with it first. And he finally just threw up his hands and said, you know what, I'll just go back to practicing. So he went to Athens and he practiced medicine in Athens. And he did, actually, he probably was one of the first doctors to use ether during childbirth. For like, for like the pain of labor. He was probably one of the first doctors to say like,

are you hurting here? This might help because he delivered a lot of babies. And so he did that. He did join the Confederate Army. Ah. I know here it's kind of like, mix. Or we come from that's not great. But I understand a lot of her feelings. No, that's obviously not. We're from West Virginia, so we kind of like, we kind of like double-succeeded.

We seceded from your secession, so. Alright, so it's kind of like who's seceded first. We're not going to get into it. Don't worry though, it was like the last great thing we really did since then we've been like digging up fossil fuels and voting for rich New Yorkers who doped us. Billy Crystal went to Marshall for a year and played softball. Anyway, eventually Long did get some credit for because he did. He came up with this discovery ether.

He probably really was the first doctor to use it successfully. And eventually he got credit for that and was recognized. And we know that because he got like a, there's a county named after him, correct, Long County. I'm not making that up in your state, Georgia. I believe he got a county, he got a stamp, he got a hospital, he got like a statue. There's a museum in Jefferson.

If you want to visit, it's $5 for adults. It's three if you're an anesthesiologist, though. So, so check that out. Finally, getting them a break. Money's tight for those cats. $2 is going to stretch. And according to his website, he is known as the father of painless surgery or the father of modern anesthesiology, according to his website.

So, so eventually got his due.iology according to his website. So, so he eventually got his due. And... According to his website? According to his website. No, but this is what I found most intriguing. So the day he did that surgery in March 30th is Doctor's Day, which I know because every March 30th, the hospital I work at gives me a gift certificate to a local restaurant for like $25. So I know. I know. Apple please, here we come. That's an honor of this, of Dr. Crawford Long

and his ether and his neck cyst. Not tumor. That was the other guy. Do we still use ether? Very rarely. Ether is rarely used today because the flammability was a big issue. Big problem. As you can imagine, and so we found things that weren because the flammability was a big issue. Big problem.

As you can imagine, and so we found things that weren't so flammable to use. It is still used in places where resources are limited. Sometimes using ether appropriately is a really good skill to have. So you will still find it used throughout the world, but most of the time now. It is still used recreationally. Specifically, I found this recipe among a specific group of people most of the time now. It is still used recreationally. Specifically, I found this recipe among a specific group of people who live in parts

of the Ukraine, where they pour some either over milk with sugar and orange juice in a shot glass, and then you drink it. So you would say you're probably on a one, two, three, four. Every list the FBI has at this point, probably like illegal ether cocktails you crave. I do it this episode and I'm looking like recreational uses of ether cocktails.

For reasonably priced ether on eBay. Either for fun. I feel back because you brought your hope here and you've barely been able to let me let me I'll vamp for the end. That's the end of the episode. Thank you so thank you so much for coming Cobb Energy Center for the Performing Arts. And Lanna thank you for having us. We will be back after a brief intermission with my brother my brother may make sure you submit your questions. Thank you for having us. We will be back after a brief intermission with my brother, my brother, may make sure you submit your questions. Thank you to the taxpayers for using our song,

Medicines is the intro and algebra program. Sitting together, special thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Georgia. Atlanta. Thank you. Thank you for having us. I don't know. If there are any left in lobby, we got some promotional cards for our book that's coming out October 9th. You can pre-order it now by going to bit.ly4thslash

the Saul Bones book. And if everybody in this room would just buy six or seven. It would be just a big hit. That is gonna do it for us folks. So until next time, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. As always, don't, drill a hole in your head! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Alright!