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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PEOGRESS OF SCIENCE 



CBAWFOBD WILLIAMSON LONG 

 AND THE USE OF ANES- 

 THETICS IN SUEGEBY 



On March 30, 1842, in the village of 

 Jefferson, Georgia, Dr. Crawford W. 

 Long administered ether to Mr. James 

 Venable and, while he was completely 

 anesthetized, removed a small tumor 

 from the back of his neck. On the 

 seventieth anniversary of the day, exer- 

 cises in honor of Long were held in the 

 Medical School of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, from which he graduated 

 in 1839. Addresses were made by Pro- 

 fessor J. William White, of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, and by Professor 

 J. Chalmers Da Costa, of the Jefferson 

 Medical College, and a bronze medal- 

 lion designed by Professor E. Tait 

 Mackenzie, of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, was unveiled by one of the 

 three daughters of Dr. Long who were 

 present at the ceremony. 



Thus somewhat late official recogni- 

 tion has been given at the University 

 of Pennsylvania to one of the advances 

 in the medical sciences, which make an 

 epoch in their development. At the 

 close of the second of an important 

 series of lectures on medical research, 

 published above. Professor Eichard M. 

 Pearce, of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, calls attention to the new era in 

 surgery introduced by the use of anes- 

 thetics. This not only saves immeas- 

 urable suffering, but it makes possible, 

 and comparatively safe, operations that 

 could not be undertaken if the patient 

 could move and struggle. Professor 

 Pearce does not attempt to assign credit 

 for the discovery of anesthetics, though 

 he properly attributes its introduction 

 to the world to the administration of 

 ether by Dr. W. T. G. Morton, a den- 

 tist, for an operation performed by , 



Dr. J. C. Warren at the Massachusetts 

 General Hospital on October 16, 1846. 

 Like scientific progress in many other 

 directions, the use of anesthetics has 

 had a long history, and we must speak 

 of various advances rather than of a 

 single discovery. The anesthetic effects 

 of nepenthe, mandragora and hemp were 

 known in antiquity, and it is said that 

 surgical operations under them were 

 performed in the time of Pliny, in 

 China and in the middle ages. Sir 

 Hmnphry Davy in 1800 announced the 

 discovery of the anesthetic properties 

 of nitrous oxide, and wrote, "it may 

 probably be used with advantage in 

 surgical operations." Ether had been 

 known for centuries, and in the first 

 part of the nineteenth century its vapor 

 and nitrous oxide gas were used for 

 spasmodic asthma and to relieve pain. 

 They were also used for their intoxi- 

 cating effects, and it was under such 

 conditions that Long noted their anes- 

 thetic properties. 



Somewhat more than two years after 

 the operation by Long, Dr. Horace 

 Wells, a dentist of Hartford, Conn., 

 had a tooth extracted while rendered 

 insensible by nitrous oxide, and two 

 years later, as noted above, ether was 

 used by Dr. Morton. Dr. Wells and 

 Dr. Morton had been in partnership, 

 and both had been pupils of Dr. C. T. 

 Jackson, the distinguished chemist and 

 geologist of Boston, who in 1841 had 

 experimented with both nitrous oxide 

 gas and with ether, using them for the 

 relief of pain. Morton patented ether 

 in 1846 under the name of letheon, and 

 a bitter controversy followed, in which 

 Jackson, Wells and Morton were in- 

 volved. Wells became insane and com- 

 mitted suicide. Later Jackson also 

 became insane. Morton died from apo- 



