Some account of the letheon; or, Who was the discoverer? / By Edward Warren.

  • Warren, Edward, of Palmyra (Me.)
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the letheon; or, Who was the discoverer? / By Edward Warren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    IV. 16. Account of Letheon, 1st ed., 38 pp. [March] 1847. Title: Some account | of | the Letheon; | or, | who was the dis- coverer? I [short rule] | By Edward Warren. | [short rule] | Boston: | Dutton and Wentworth, Printers, | No. 37, Con- gress Street. | 1847. Collation: 8°. Portrait, [1-3], 4-38 pp. Contents: p.[i] title; p.[2] blank; portrait of Dr. Morton facing p.[3]; pp.[3]-38 text. Note: The text, evidently composed in March of 1847, consists of series of dated letters, testimonials, and legal disposals from friends of Morton such as Gren- ville G. Hayden, William P. Leavitt, Thomas R. Spear, Jr., and Francis Whit- man, purporting to establish Morton's claim to the introduction of surgical an- esthesia against the claims of Charles Jackson and Horace Wells. The documents are interspersed with polemical comment, a statement by WarrenAand also with passages from the public and medical press, including J. Mason Warren's history of the discovery from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. The text ends about three-quarters of the way down the page (38), then below a short rule there are printed six lines, as follows: Letheon. Lest any one should object to this term, used at the beginning of this pamphlet. I would observe, that it is only used to avoid circumlocution. The same idea might be conveyed differently: as, for instance, A process for the pre- vention of pain in surgical operations; but the name given to the discovery in question answers the same purpose, and has the further recommendation of brevity. Portrait: The drawing of Morton made by W. Hudson, Jr., and lithographed by J. H. Peirce occurs only in this, the first edition of the tract, and because of its quality and rarity it has been used as the frontispiece for this catalogue. Copies: CtY-MHi (Dr. Cushing's copy, without wrappers); Clendening; MBM.