THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



617 



Beoxze Medallion in Mejioey of Ceawfokd W. Long. 



plexy, it is said while enraged at the 

 attempts made to deprive him of the 

 credit of the discovery. Long toolc no 

 part in these controversies, but in 1849 

 presented a statement to the Medical 

 Society of Georgia, with affidavits in 

 regard to the use of ether in 1842, fol- 

 lowed by seven or eight surgical opera- 

 tions before Morton's success in intro- 

 ducing anesthetics everywhere. The 

 question of priority is thus much in- 

 volved, but it appears evident that Long 

 first used ether for surgical purposes, 

 though, as a country practitioner, he 

 had no means of making public his dis- 

 covery and perhaps did not fully realize 

 its importance. It seems, at all events, 

 that the use of anesthetics in surgery 

 is one of the great advances in science 

 which may fairly be attributed to the 

 United States. 



VOL. LXXX. — 41. 



THE SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM OF 

 THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPH- 

 ICAL SOCIETY 



The American Philosophical Society, 

 founded in Philadelphia by Franklin 

 for the promotion of useful knowledge, 

 is the oldest of our scientific societies 

 and at the same time appears to be the 

 most vigorous of those that cover the 

 whole range of the sciences. The meet- 

 ing held in Philadelphia at the end of 

 April was quite notable for the number 

 and value of the communications. They 

 not only gave reports of important 

 original investigations by the authors, 

 but were in most cases presented in a 

 manner comprehensible and interesting 

 to those who are not specialists. It is 

 of course impossible to give an abstract 

 in two or three paragraphs of nearly 



