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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    THE INVENTION OF ANAESTHETIC INHALATION, OR “ DISCOVERY OF ANESTHESIA.’5 “ The invention all admired, and each how he To be the inventor missed, so easy it seemed, Once found, which yet unfound most would have thought Impossible.” Milton. That a new “ discoverer of Angesthesia 55 has been discov¬ ered, at this late date even; that extraordinary and novel claims for him have been recently brought before the medical and general public with energy and persistency by a special advocate ;*that, in short, the Ether controversy, long since con¬ sidered as a res adjudicata. has been again reopened, forms in itself a sufficient apology for presenting a fresh review of the subject in a manner which shall include the claims made for this third and latest after-claimant. And whether this * Dr. J. Marion Sims, “Virginia Medical Monthly,” May, 1877, and subsequent editions of reprints. A third position assumed by the same writer, who, in 1861> following the lead of Parker, Mott, Francis, and hundreds of others of the best- known physicians of this city, appended his name to the memorial stating that? “ for this discovery, the first great triumph of placing in the hands of the profes¬ sion an agent capable of rendering the patient safely and at will utterly insensible to the stroke of the surgeon’s knife, the world is indebted to Dr. W. T. G. Morton, of Boston ” ; who again, in 1873, said in a public address, “ To my mind it is as clear that Wells was the discoverer of Anaesthesia as it is that Columbus was the discoverer of Amei’ica ” ; and who now, in 1877, thinks “ that Long was the first man to intentionally produce Anaesthesia for surgical operations,” and was therefore “ the true discoverer of Anaesthesia.”