Report : the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, to whom was referred the petition of Dr. William T.G. Morton, asking compensation for the discovery and gift to his country and mankind of the application of ethereal vapor as a safe and practical anaesthesia, or pain-subduing agent.

  • United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia.
Date:
[1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report : the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, to whom was referred the petition of Dr. William T.G. Morton, asking compensation for the discovery and gift to his country and mankind of the application of ethereal vapor as a safe and practical anaesthesia, or pain-subduing agent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    > 37th Congress, 3d Session. SENATE. I Rep. Com. No. 89. U / / 7 '•» ■ I L submitted the following The Committee on Military A fairs and the Militia, to whom was re- ferred the ■petition of D'. William T. G. Morton, ashing compen- sation for the discovery and gift to his coimti'y and mankind of the application of ethered vapor as a safe andpractical anaesthesia, or pain-subduing agent, have had the samevmder consideration, arruL report: j Aj ^ * i r I . r That at the time of the dleged discovery, in 1846, and for a long and indefinite period priorlhereto, means had been sought, and some- times with success, to reliq’e and even to destroy pam in surgical operations. For this purpse opium, Indian hemp, mesmerism, and nitrous oxide gas and alcolol were used, and all in their turn aban- doned, 'except that opium ij many cases, and mesmerism in a few, still continued to be used w.tli partial and imperfect success. But at that time there was not ary safe and certain means of producing anoesthesis known to. and usd by the medical profe,y. . >n. _ That in the years 1844, B4b, and 1846, the petit: lcr was exten- sively engaged in the pradice of dentistry in the city of Boston; that ho was at the same tins a student in the medical college of that city, and attendant on the ilinical lectures in the general hospital, and obtained his degree ali the Washington University, Maryland. In his private practice and |,t the hospital he witnessed much human suffering, and in the clinicaj lectures the means of relieving it were considered and discussed, aid Doctor Morton assisted in testing the efficacy of such as were triql in the medical class of which he was a member. Thus the status of icience on that subject became well known to him—as well what it hac(accomplished as what it lacked. Every - thing, indeed, had been abmdonea by the learned professors, and surgeons in that hospital, exept the use of opium in few specific cases. It was deemed probable that there was something in nature which would produce certaii, safe, and perfect ansesthesis, but it was also certain that it had not yjt been discovered. The petitioner was thus led to investigation and experiment. The effect of ether when applied to the part, in relievhg the pain of an aching tooth to which