Historical memoranda relative to the discovery of etherization, and to the connection with it of the late Dr. William T. G. Morton / prepared by the Committee of citizens of Boston chosen to raise a Morton Testimonial Fund.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical memoranda relative to the discovery of etherization, and to the connection with it of the late Dr. William T. G. Morton / prepared by the Committee of citizens of Boston chosen to raise a Morton Testimonial Fund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    if not supported by ample evidence, were of no value in es- tablishing so important a discovery. If Dr. Jackson knew all about the capabilities of ether to relieve human suffer- ing, why did he allow humanity to remain in pain for five years, and this, too, when, by proclaiming his discovery, he was sure of immortal fame ? Dr. Jackson’s “ inferences ” were, in fact, nothing more than suggestions such as Sir Humphry Davy made a half-century ago about nitrous-oxide gas. Dr. Morton, on the contrary, in coming forward, as he did, with the medical profession generally opposed to him, assumed a fearful moral and legal responsi- bility. The report of the operations under ether spread every- where with great rapidity. Able surgeons throughout the civilized world used etherization with entire success, and proclaimed their belief in it, as one of the greatest boons ever vouchsafed to man. The name of Morton may, there- fore, most propeidy be placed “ in all time ” by the side of the names of Jenner, Morse, Stephenson, and of other great benefactors of our race. It is unnecessary to review all the evidence in regard to Dr. Morton’s claim ; but the Committee cannot refrain from reproducing the concise, and, as it seems to them, unanswer- able statement, made in a letter to Hon. R. C. Winthrop, Jan. 26, 1848, by Dr. Id. J. Bigelow, who, more than any other, was conversant with the facts.* Boston, Jan. 26, 1848. Dear Sir, — I believe most fully that Dr. Morton deserves any reward Congress may grant to the discoverer; because, although many American Journal Dental Science, p. 24, 1S49.