Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

26 results found

anesthesia

(Encyclopedia)anesthesia ănĭsthēˈzhə [key] [Gr.,=insensibility], loss of sensation, especially that of pain, induced by drugs, especially as a means of facilitating safe surgical procedures. Early modern medic...

Morton, William Thomas Green

(Encyclopedia)Morton, William Thomas Green, 1819–68, American dentist and physician, b. Charlton, Mass., studied at Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. He practiced dentistry in Boston, for a time with Horace We...

curare

(Encyclopedia)curare kyo͝orärˈē [key], any of a variety of substances originally used as arrow poisons by Native South Americans in hunting and in warfare. The main active substance of curare, tubocurarine, is ...

Long, Crawford Williamson

(Encyclopedia)Long, Crawford Williamson, 1815–78, American physician, b. Danielsville, Ga., M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1839. He practiced in Jefferson, Ga. In 1842 he excised a tumor of the neck using ether anes...

Simpson, Sir James Young

(Encyclopedia)Simpson, Sir James Young, 1811–70, Scottish physician, M.D. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1832. He became (1839) professor of medicine and midwifery at Edinburgh. For a while he employed ether anesthesia in c...

procaine

(Encyclopedia)procaine prōkānˈ [key], anesthetic drug, commonly called novocaine, that gives prolonged relief from pain (see anesthesia). It is used as a local anesthetic and in rectal and other surgery. It is m...

anesthesiology

(Encyclopedia)anesthesiology ănˌĭsthēˌzēŏlˈəjē [key], branch of medicine concerned primarily with procedures for rendering patients insensitive to pain, and for supporting life systems under the strains o...

Warren, John

(Encyclopedia)Warren, John, 1753–1815, American surgeon, b. Roxbury, Mass.; grad. Harvard, 1771; brother of Joseph Warren. A leading surgeon of his time in New England, he served in the Revolution and was a found...

hospital

(Encyclopedia)hospital, institution for the care of the sick, maintained by private endowment or public funds or both. General hospitals minister to all types of illness, while special hospitals are concerned with ...

cyclopropane

(Encyclopedia)cyclopropane, C3H6, a gaseous hydrocarbon. It is a cyclic alkane, its three carbon atoms being joined together in a ring. The angle between successive carbon-carbon bonds in the ring is only 60°, muc...

Browse by Subject