Letters : [received from Augustus A. Gould and others in response to a request for "information in regard to the connection of Dr. C.T. Jackson and Mr. W.T.G. Morton with the ether discovery of the anaesthetic effects of sulphuric ether"].

Date:
[1852?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters : [received from Augustus A. Gould and others in response to a request for "information in regard to the connection of Dr. C.T. Jackson and Mr. W.T.G. Morton with the ether discovery of the anaesthetic effects of sulphuric ether"]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Warren Club, at Dr. Warren's house, on Thursday after the 16th of November, 1846, declare to Dr. Warren that Mr. Morton was administering ether under his (Dr. J.'s) directions, and whether or not Dr. J. did request Dr. W. to have the ether tried in a capi- tal operation (amputation), and whether or not Dr. W. objected to Mr. Morton's administering the ether, and requested Dr. J. to administer it himself. Answer. As to precise dates, I cannot be positive; but I recol- lect the occasion and the conversation referred to very distisctly. Dr. W. and myself were conversing about the operation he had done at the hospital under the influence of the ether administered by Dr. Morton. I remarked that Dr. Jackson had something to do with the matter (alluding to the employment of ether.) Dr. W. immediately turned to Dr. J., who was near him, and said, Dr. J., I understand that you know something about the article administered by Mr. Morton, (it had been supposed that some substance wad combined with ether.) Dr. J. replied, Yes, it is sulphuric ether—I told him of it; and also made some jocose remarks about M.'s employment of it. Dr. W. then said there was to be another operation at the hospital the next day (or next but one,) and asked Dr. J. to come and administer it instead of Mr. M., expressing also some reasons why he should prefer him. Dr. J. replied that he could not, as, in the first place, he should be out of the city; and, secondly, he had yielded to M. the en- tire right of administering it. This is the true import and spirit of the conversation, though the words used may not be precisely those employed at the time; and this was the manner in which the conversation originated. I did not hear Dr. J. declare that Mr. M. was administering ether under his directions ; nor did I hear him request Dr. W. to have it tried in a capital operation; and Dr. W.'s language expressed a preference for Dr. J. rather than an objection to Mr. Morton. As it is not unlikely that. Congress may take some action in favor of the discoverer or discoverers of the anaesthetic properties of ether, and as I have perhaps been as familiar with the sayings and doings of the claimants as any other person, andi probably more so, it may not be improper for me to state what seem to me the essential facts in the case. The following important points will, I think, be very generally if not unanimously admitted by those in this vicinity who have been most familiar with the history of etherization. 1. Dr. Jackson proposed the use of sulphuric ether by inhala- tion to Dr, Morton. 2. He specified the use of rectified ether. 3. He gave directions as to the manner of administering it. 4. He gave assurances of its safety.