Report : the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, to whom was referred the petition of Dr. William T.G. Morton, asking compensation for the discovery and gift to his country and mankind of the application of ethereal vapor as a safe and practical anaesthesia, or pain-subduing agent.

  • United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia
Date:
[1863]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report : the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, to whom was referred the petition of Dr. William T.G. Morton, asking compensation for the discovery and gift to his country and mankind of the application of ethereal vapor as a safe and practical anaesthesia, or pain-subduing agent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    lie applied it in 1844, with a knowledge o‘ the use of its vapor in college experiments, suggested the idea t> him that the vapor of ether might furnish the much-desired and ong-sought preventive of pain. Accordingly, during the summer ofl844 he tried experiments on animals, and continued the investigatioi until he succeeded, in rendering himself entirely unconscious by m experiment on himself in 1846, and became satisfied that it might oe used with safety. He endeavored to prevail on his students to suimit to the experiments, but they having heard accounts of occasbnal fatal effects in col- lege experiments, refused to inhale it t* the extent he desired. Chance at length threw in his way the meins of trying and standing by and witnessing its effect on a human bang, who was undisturbed by any preconceived opinions, whether hoies or fears. On the 30th of September, 1846, a stroig, robust man came into his office and asked to have a tooth extraced, and as he was unwil- ling to suffer pain, desired to be mesmerizid. He was told that there was a better preventive, and he consent© to have it applied. Doc- tor Morton administered the vapor of su’phuric ether, and the tooth was extracted without any expression, am, as the patient declared, without any sensation, of pain, and without any injurious consequence. Doctor Morton made numerous other suicessful experiments, which satisfied him of its safety and efficacy. I was almost immediately in- troduced into the medical hospital, atDoitor Morton’s request, where, with a short interruption within the first nonth, it has been since con- stantly used with entire success. Havin' verified his discovei-yj, he applied for and obtained a patent under the great seal of the United States. This was determined on as the lest means of publicly veri- fying his right to the discovery, and of taeping this new and mysteri- -ous agent out of unskilful hands; but ii order to extend its benefits to the utmost limits of safety, he at one: gave free permission of its use to all public institutions which doctor Warren, senior sur- geon of the medical hospital of Bostoi, saw fit to name. He also invited all reliable members of the medbal faculty to receiye instruc- tions and join in testing its value. All if those who now contest his right knew of his intended application before it was made, and, so knowing, approved it. The specificatioi, which the granting words of the patent cover, declares a preferene for “the vapor of sulphuric ether to those of muriatic or other kiids of ether, but adas that “any such may be employed which wil properly produce the state of insensibility, without any injurious ©nsequences to the patient.’' This, of course, includes chloric ether, <r chloric ether concentrated into chloroform. The sulphuric etlierwas preferred, because it is equally efficient and much more safe than chloric ether or chloro- form. This patent, in the opinion of your conmittee, ought to put forever at rest, between the United States and the petitioner, and between all who knew and approved of the applcation for the patent and the petitioner, all question as to the right if discovery of the thing pat- ented. But, independently of this, thire is ample evidence in the papers accompanying this report that tie petitioner was the first and original discoverer of the vapor of ether as a safe and practical an- aesthetic agent.
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