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.

    45/52 (page 43)
    work, and worked resolutely. He gave ether successfully in severe surgical operations, he loudly proclaimed his deeds, and 6 compelled mankind to hear him.’ His claim was very clear.” Dr. Morton the true “ discoverer of anaesthesia ” / tests which prove this / finality of his contribution. Dr. Morton had faith in his convictions and in his results; he had the courage both to speak and to act; what he said, he proved. He demonstrated that sulphuric ether would pro¬ duce complete, safe, and repeatable insensibility to pain (be¬ fore unproven by ether or by any agent), that this state was applicable to surgery (before inapplicable), and this he made plain to experts and to the world. His contribution was in itself final; his effort brought all previous knowledge upon the subject to a focus; the past (up to 1846) had brought forth only aborted results; the future added but detail and substitution. His work by reason of its extent, its sufficiency, and its completeness, then first consti¬ tuted invention, by reason of its novelty and publicity was a veritable revelation. And his labors stand the true test of invention or discov¬ ery—that of a “consecutive and continuous history,” dating from the truth which he made evident. The world uses anresthetics to-day, not because Long or Wells or Jackson used them, but because Morton used them. His work and the beginning of the knowledge and the practice of anaesthetic inhalation are, therefore, not alone coincident in time, but are also inseparably related as cause and effect. He is, then, the true inventor and revealer of anaesthetic inhalation, the true discoverer of Anaesthesia, and his the exclusive honor. “He found,” writes Professor Henry J. Bigelow, “the practice of ether inhalation an amusement of chemical lecture rooms and schools; he left it the sovereign anodyne of the hu¬ man race in its moments and hours of agony. He found ether stupor as hazardously uncertain as was the narcotism produced by pouring down the opium £ a boire ’ of Canappe ; he left it as manageable and safe as the sleep that follows a dose of laudanum.” It is much to be regretted that Dr. Morton’s request, often