The invention of anæsthetic inhalation, or, "Discovery of anæsthesia." / by William J. Morton.

  • Morton, William J. (William James), 1846-1920.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The invention of anæsthetic inhalation, or, "Discovery of anæsthesia." / by William J. Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    greatest boon : the world is not a poor patient. But, again, physicians do take out certain patents. Those who set their knowledge down in books copy-right their works, are paid for the product of their brains, and are protected in an exclusive right to the results of their labor. This is no less than a pat¬ ent. But, after all, discussion upon this point, as regards Dr. Morton, is neither here nor there, for at the time of the dis¬ covery he was not a member of the medical profession,* and therefore was not amenable to its code of ethics; he was an experimenter, and entitled to different views. His real inten¬ tion was to protect his invention during its infancy, to keep it within control until its use had become established, to pub¬ licly verify his right to it, and properly to derive some profit from the gift of what was his own to give. In certain re¬ spects it was fortunate that the application of the ether at the outset was protected by a patent. At the time of its an¬ nouncement its marvelous power was discredited; it was in¬ haled from an instrument then considered essential to success ; many, even under skillful direction, failed to carry the inhala¬ tion further than the exhilarating stage,f and, had it been used indiscriminately before its capacity and its dangers had been fully tested by scientific authorities, there is but little doubt that some accident occurring in ignorant and unskillful hands would, for the time at least, have delayed its general use. As against the Government, the case is a remarkable one. There is no question of taste or propriety here. If Dr. Mor¬ ton violated the code of medical ethics (an artificial code at best), in taking out a patent, the Government which gave the patent violated the very soul of ethics, which is honesty; struck at the root of all ethics, by itself using without any repayment the article and its application—the process, whose exclusive control and ownership it had guaranteed on its * The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon him in 1849. \ “ I placed some sulphuric ether in the instrument, and gave it to a gentleman to inhale; thh effect was to cause him to laugh heartily, but there was nothing like sleep. What should be done in such a case ?”—Extract from a letter from a well-known physician of Philadelphia, dated November 12, 1846.