A statement of the claims of Charles T. Jackson, M.D : to the discovery of the applicability of sulphuric ether to the prevention of pain in surgical operations / By Martin Gay...

Martin Gay

Date:: 1847

Credit: A statement of the claims of Charles T. Jackson, M.D : to the discovery of the applicability of sulphuric ether to the prevention of pain in surgical operations / By Martin Gay... 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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$I, George O. Barnes, of Plymouth, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, depose and say, that in the fall of 1846 I was a student in chemistry with Dr. Charles T. Jackson ; that in the month of September I was at work in the back room of Dr. Jackson's laboratory when Mr. W. T. G. Morton passed through the room, as I supposed to go into the house which adjoins the laboratory. He soon returned, having in his hand an India rubber bag belonging to Dr. Jackson. As he went into the apparatus or glass room, I heard Dr. Jack- son ask Morton what he wanted to do with the bag. He replied that he had a refractory patient who would not allow him to take out her tooth, and that he wished to act on her imagination so as to induce her to submit to the operation ; that he meant to fill the bag with air, meaning, as I under- stood, atmospheric air, which would give it a formidable appearance. He then asked how he should go to work to distend the bag. The lungs or a pair of bellows, said Dr. Jackson, can do that. But, continued Dr. Jackson, your proposition, Morton, is very absurd ; the patient will not be deceived in that way; you will produce no result, and will be denounced as an impostor.— I don't know that, replied Morton : I think with this bag under my arm, well blown up, that I could make her believe any thing. While saying this, he placed the bag under his arm, and, pressing the bag with his elbow several times, illustrated the manner in which he would operate. If I could once get her mouth open, said Morton, I would have her tooth out. Why, said he, a man once bled to death by the mere force of im- agination. As he was proceeding to give an account of this experiment, Dr. Jackson interrupted him, and said, Pooh ! you don't credit such a story as that, surely! I advise you to have nothing to do with this idea of using atmospheric air b$