1 68 THE MAIN CURRENTS OF ZOOLOGY 



opportunity to demonstrate his discovery on a 

 patient about to undergo a severe surgical operation 

 (removal of a tumor of the neck) at the Massachu- 

 setts General Hospital. In this case, the results of 

 the administration of ether were satisfactory and this 

 new method of painless surgery was communicated 

 to the medical world. It was at first received with 

 incredulity but speedily won recognition both in 

 America and in Europe. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 

 supplied for the new method a singularly appro- 

 priate name, calling it anaesthesia, and the agents 

 producing this insensibility to feeling, anaesthetics. 



The honor of this achievement belongs to Dr. 

 Morton (Fig. 27), but other claimants arose. The 

 bitter controversy over priority and credit for the 

 discovery was long drawn out. Dr. Charles T. 

 Jackson, the chemist of Boston, made a determined 

 effort to secure for himself credit for the discovery or, 

 at least, equal recognition with Morton. His ad- 

 herents got the matter considered by Congress and a 

 committee of the House of Representatives voted 

 him the credit. More judicious consideration of his 

 claims leads to the conclusion that his connection 

 with the discovery was incidental. It is true that he 

 experimented with ether, and, not knowing that 



