The invention of anæsthetic inhalation, or, "Discovery of anæsthesia." / by William J. Morton.

  • William J. Morton
Date:
1880
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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 situation that it almost seems as if he would topple over into discovery ; but he falls the other way. It seems almost inexplicable that he did not seize the towel, force the Anaes- thesia to the stage of stupor, perform the operation, and pro- elaim the discovery to the world. In doing this he would have at least proved the inherent power of ether, as we now know it. But he failed in the first step. Naturally, no other step followed, and this barren experiment remained meaningless to Dr. Long, and unknown to the world, except as an after-thought. Place Long, with his process, as he him¬ self describes it, in his hand, in Morton’s position in 1846, in a crowded amphitheatre of skeptical witnesses, and can any one believe that he would have been greeted as the u discov¬ erer of Anaesthesia”? Dr. Long admits that the publication of etherization did not bide his time • that he made nothing whatever Tcnown to the world. He could not, then^ as is claimed, have been “ a world's benefactor.” It now only remains to show, on his own admission, that the world got no knowledge of Anaesthesia from Dr. Long, and that on that ground alone it owes him no gratitude. He writes: “ While continuously experimenting with ether as cases occurred ” (there were intervals of more than a year be¬ tween some of his five cases), u with a view of fully testing its anaesthetic powers, and its applicability to severe as well as minor surgical operations ” [“ I had no opportunity of ex¬ perimenting with it in a capital operation ” *], “ others more favorably situated engaged in similar experiments, and con¬ sequently the publication of etherization did not bide my time. This was exactly Dr. Long’s misfortune. We have proved beyond a doubt that Dr. Long never pro¬ duced a true state of Anaesthesia, and now we have the proof that he never made any of his knowledge, such as it was, public. Dr. Long, then, gave the world absolutely nothing. u The publication of etherization did not bide his time.” He had not yet u fully tested the anaesthetic powers ” of ether. * Quotation in brackets taken from another place. 3 L.....