The operation began at 1 p…
source date: 1889
availability: public-domain

The operation began at 1 p. m., its time set by the sun, whose rays must fall upon the patient at the right angle. The day was hot, terribly hot. Elizabeth, standing under the skylight and drenched by the sunlight, was about to faint, when the woman’s husband put a wet sponge in his big Western hat, and clapped it upon her head. The operation was a long and difficult one. The sunlight left the woman’s body. Elizabeth took a large mirror from the wall and flashed the reflected light upon the incision where the doctor was work- ing. She had to change the angle of the glass as the sun dropped toward the horizon; the strain on her arms became a terrible ache; she trembled, the precious spot of light left its target at times, and the doctor swore tremen- dously. Four hours of time did that, the first operation in Silver City, consume — four terrible hours; but it saved the woman’s life.