THE DISCOVERY OF ANAESTHESIA.

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YALEMEDICAL LIBRARY

HISTORICALLIBRARY


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THE DISCOVERY OF ANAESTHESIA.*Dr. W. T. G. MORTON AND HIS HEROIC BATTLE FOR A NEW IDEA.HOW PAIxX-

LESS SURGERY BEGAN FIFTY YEARS AGO.By Ei.izadeth Whitman Morton.

i]Y husband, whose full name was used to prescribe learnedly from an outfitWilliam Thomas Green Mor- of elder-tree vials and bread pills. Onton, was born in Charlton, one occasion he nearly caused the deathMassachusetts, August 19, of his little sister by pouring down her1819. The family house stood throat some extraordinary concoction ofon a farm of about one hun- his own, while she lay asleep in her cradle,dred acres, and was an old- The instruction he received was imparted

fashioned wooden structure with an im- in the schools of his native town and atmense stone chimney in the centre. It the neighboring academies of Leicesterwas shaded by old trees, and covered by and Northfield, where he studied hard forcreepers and climbing plants. It was a three years, leaving at the age of seven-typical New England farm-house, and the teen, when he went to Boston to beginboy grew up among wholesome surround- earning his living. Here he gained employ-ings, gaining a strength of body that ment in the publishing house of the editorserved him in the severe strain of later of the " Christian Witness, " James B. Dow,years. Curiously enough, even at an early whose beautiful wife took a great interestage his mind turned naturally toward med- in him and arranged that he should liveicine, and he was nicknamed " doctor " by with them. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dow

playmates, for whose imaginary ills he showed themselves staunch friends to the


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312 DR. MORTON'S EARNESTNESS AND INDUSTRY.young man, and recognized his unusual old homestead we lived inquite an historictalents. The friendship was maintained to mansion it was, where John C. Calhounthe end of l^r. Morton's life. Kind as had often visited my father's familyandthey were to him, however, he soon became brought me to Boston. My uncle Lemueldissatisfied, his duties allowing him little was then a classmate of Calhoun's in Yale,time for study, which was his great ambi- and later on a member of Congress fromtion. So devoted was the boy to books Connecticut. Two others of my Whitmanthat all his leisure moments were spent in ancestors, father and son, were graduatedreading. A few months of this busy life at Harvard, one in 1668, and the other inconvinced him that he could never be 1696. The son settled in Farmington ashappy in that way of e.xistence, and, uncer- one of the earliest ministers,tain what to do and homesick, he went Dr. Morton was one of those tremen-back to his father's house in Charlton. He dously earnest men who believe they havethen concluded to study dentistry, which a high destiny to fulfil. How many timesat that time had at-tained the dignity ofa respected profes-sion.His success wasrapid. In 1844, twoyears after his gradu-ation at the Balti-more College ofDental Surgery (thefirst dental collegeestablished in Amer-ica), he was earningfrom his profession anincome of about tenthousand dollars, be-ing already recog-nized as one of tliemost skilful dentalsurgeons in Boston.He had establishedhimself in Boston alittle before our mar-riage, I being a younggirl of seventeen, justout of Miss Porter'sschool at Farming-ton, Connecticut,where my father lived.For a year before,Dr. Morton had paidme attentions, which

DR. WILJ.IAMFrom a photograph taken in 1854 by Silsbee, Case &

Co., Boston, Massachusetts.

he said to me in themonths preceding hisgreat discovery: " Ihave a work to do inthis world, Lizzie! "Or, again: " Thetime will come when Iwill do away withpain ! " During ourearly married life,while he was makinghimself known as oneof the most skilfuldentists in Bostonand carrying on ane n o r m ous business,he found time in ad-dition to pursue hismedical studies at theHarvard MedicalSchool, in order totake a medical degree,for he had promisedmy mother to give updentistry. Everymorning he used torise between four andfive o'clock to gettime for what hecalled his seriouswork; and never shallI forget my sensa-tion as a young brideere not well received

by my family, he being regarded as a at sleeping in a room where a tall, gauntpoor young man with an undesirable pro- skeleton stood in a big box near the headfession. I thought him very handsome, of the bed. After the first successful usehowever, and he was much in love with of the sulphuric ether, the immense re-me, coming regularly from Boston to sponsibilities that came upon him, and thevisit me. I learned later on that from unceasing anxiety and annoyances, com-the first day he saw me he had determined pelled him to give up the study of medicineto marry me if he could, and after his and devote himself to ancesthesia. Thisdeath I found in an old diary of that was a great grief to him, because he was atyear an entry written just after my first that time within a few months of taking hismeeting with him, where he expressed his degree.


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DR. MORTON'S FIRST EXPERIMENTS. 313

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1 11I 2 3 4 5 6Dr. Henry H- J Bigelow. 3, Dr. J Mason Warren, 5.Dr. A. A. Gould 4. Dr. Jchn Collins W,irren. 6.7 Dr Geo. H.iyward. 8. Dr^S. D. To Dr MortonDr .Samuel Parkman.rnsenrl.DR. MORTON MAKING THE FIRST ITBI.IC DEMON.'^TR.ATION OF ETHERIZATION AI TIIF.

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSI'ITAL, BOSTON, OCTOBER 16, 1846.After a steel engraving published in "Trials of a Public Benefactor," by Nathan P.

Rice, M.D.; Pudney and Russell, Publishers, New York, 1859.

thoughts destined tolead to his discovery.Every spare hour hecould get was spent inexperiment. At Welles-ley, Massachusetts,where was our summerhome, there was a springwhich contained a num-ber of gold-fish, and Inoticed that my hus-band would often go toit, and I would see himcatching the fish andlooking at them intentlyas if studying them ashe held them wrigglingin his hand. Then heused to make e.\peri-ments nearly every dayon " Nig," a blackwater-spaniel, a good-sized dog that had be-longed to his father. 1was only a girl of eigh-teen at this time, andhad not the least idea of what he was trying alarmed, for, not satisfied with trying theto do; nor would I have understood the im- ether on bugs and animals, my husband be-portance of his experiments had he told gan experimenting upon himself. He sentnie. I only knew that his clothes seemed out his assistants offering a reward of fivealways saturated with the smell of ether, dollars to any person who would have aand I did not like it. One day he came tooth drawn while under the influence of hisrunning into the house in great distress (for pain-annulling agency. There were manyhe was always tender-hearted), leading the people suffering from aching teeth whichdog, which walked rather queerly, and needed to be extracted, and the five dol-said: lars was an object; but no one could be" Poor Nig; I've had him asleep a long induced to take the risk. Finally his twotime. I was afraid I had killed him," assistants allowed him to experiment"Do you put tfie fish asleep, too?" I upon them, but the result was not sat-asked, laughing. isfactory, because of impurities in the"I try to," he said, quite seriously, ether. Having detected this, my husband," but have not succeeded yet." with characteristic persistence, at onceI laughed again, thinking it was all a procured a supply of pure ether, and, un-

joke, but my husband became very grave, willing to wait longer for a subject, shutand said: himself up in his office, and tested it upon" The time will come, my dear, when I himself, with such success that for severalwill banish pain from the world." minutes he lay there unconscious. That

It was at this time also that he used to night he came home late, in a great statebottle-up all sorts of queer bugs and in- of excitement, but so happy that he couldsects, until the house was full of crawling scarcely calm himself to tell me what hadthings. He would administer ether to all occurred; and I, too, became so excitedthese little creatures, and especially to that I could scarcely wait to hear. At lastthe big green worms he found on grape he told me of the experiment upon himself,vines. and I grew sick at heart as the thought

I remember how Dr. Morton's friends came to me that he might have died therelaughed at these queer experiments, and I alone. He went on to say that he was re-am afraid I joined with them sometimes, solved not to sleep that lyght until he hadBut he continued on his way undaunted, repeated the experiment, and declared that,


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.V4 THE FIRST PATIENT WHO WOULD TAKE ETHER.drawn by the "painless method," whichwas what the doctor was now so eager todemonstrate. Discouraged, he was on thepoint of etiierizing himself once more, andliaving one of his assistants extract a toothfrom his own head, when there came a faintring at the bell.

It was long past the hour for patients,but there stood a man with his face allbandaged and evidently suffering acutepain. And strangest of all were his words."Doctor," he said, "I have the mostfrightful toothache, and my mouth is sosore I am afraid tohave the tooth drawn.Can't you mesmerizeme ? 'The doctor couldalmost have shouted

with delight, but, pre-serving his self-pos-session, he broughtthe man into his officeand told him he coulddo something betterthan mesmerize him.T hen he explainedhis purpose of admin-istering the sulphuricether, and the maneagerly consented.Without delay myhusband saturated ahandkerchief withether, and held it overthe man's face, forhim to inhale thefumes. The assist-ant. Dr. Hayden, whoheld the lamp,trembled visibly whenDr. Morton intro-duced the forceps intothe mouth of the manand prepared to pullthe tooth. Thencame the strain, the wrench, and the toothwas out, but the patient made neither signnor sound; he was quite unconscious.Dr. Morton was overjoyed at the result.Then, as the man continued to make nomovement, he grew alarmed, and it flashedthrough his mind that perhaps he had killedhis patient. Snatching up a glass of water,he emptied it full into the face of the un-conscious man, who presently opened hiseyes and looked about him in a bewilderedway.

ELIZAbElH W.From a photograph taken in Washington in 1862

kill the patient

"Well, it is out now," said the doctor,pointing to the tooth lying on the floor." No! " cried the man in greatest amaze-ment, springing from the chair, and, beinga good Methodist, shouting, "Glory!Hallelujah! "From that moment Dr. Morton felt thatthe success of sulphuric ether was assured.

Thenceforward he was unceasing in hisefforts to bring his discovery before the"medical world, and, after many discour-agements, he succeeded in inducing Dr.John C. Warren, senior surgeon in the Mas-

sachusetts CleneralHospital, to allowhim to visit the hos-pital and try his dis-covery upon a patientwho was about to beoperated upon.The night beforethe operation, mvhusband worked untilone or two o'clock inthe morning upon aninhaler he had de-vised, and then re-garded as essential tothe operation, al-though it has sincebeen discarded. Iassisted him, nearlybeside myself withanxiety, for thestrongest influenceshad been brought tobear upon me to dis-suade him from mak-ing this attempt. Ihad been told thatone of two things wassure to happen: eitherthe test would fail andmy husband would beruined. by the world'sridicule, or he wouldand be tried for man-

slaughter. Thus I was drawn in two ways;for while I had unbounded confidence inmy husband, it did not seem possible thatso young a man (he was only twenty-sevenyears old at this time) could be wiser thanthe learned and scientific men before whomhe proposed to make his demonstration.After resting a few hours, Dr. .Mortonwas off early in the morning to see the in-strument-maker, for there were still changesnecessary in the inhaler. 'From that mo-

|)R. MORTON.


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DR. MORTON PROVES HIS DISCOVERY. 31s

DK, ANU MRb. MORTON AND THbrK CHILDREN AT THEIR SUMMER HOME AT WELLESLEV.Drawn by Victor Perard from a photograph taken in 1856,

window, expecting every moment somemessenger to tell me that the patient haddied under the ether and that the doctorwould be held responsible! Two o'clockcame, three o'clock, and it was not untilnearly four that Dr. Morton walked in,with his usually genial face so sad that Ifelt failure must have come. He took mein his arms, almost fainting as I was, andsaid tenderly: " Well, dear, I succeeded."

In spite of these words his gloom ofmanner and evident depression made it im-possible for me to believe the good news.It seemed as if he should have been sohighly elated at having accomplished one ofthe most splendid achievements of the cen-tury, and yet there he was, sick at heart,crushed down, one would have said, by aload of discouragement. This was duenot only to bodily fatigue and the reactionafter his great efforts, but to an mtuitiveperception of the troubles in store for

this priceless boon he had conferred uponthe human race.Of the three men now living who sawthis first operation upon a patient under

the influence of ether, one is Dr. RobertDavis of Fall River. He was then a med-ical student in Boston, and he has givenme the description of what happened onthis memorable occasion. The amphithea-tre of the operating-room was crowdedwith members of the medical profession,doctors and students, all curious, and allskeptical, as to the outcome of the experi-ment to be made. All the great surgeonsof Boston were present, including the cel-ebrated Dr. Jacob Bigelow, whose son, Dr.Henry J. Bigelow, a young and enthusias-tic surgeon of about Dr. Morton's age,was a warm friend of Dr. Morton's, andperhaps the only man present who had faithin him. It must be said, however, thathe had more grounds for his belief than


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3i6 DESCRIPTION OF THE PUBLIC EXPERIMENT.The hour for the operation arrived and

Dr. Morton was not on hand. Five min-utes passed, ten minutes, and then Dr.Warren, the eminent surgeon, lookingaround with a smile on his face, shghtlysarcastic, suggested that, as Dr. Mortonwas not present, it might be well to let theoperation go on in the usual waj'. Thepatient had meantime been brought in, andwas lying on the operating-table deathlywhite, doubly apprehensive of what was tocome. At that moment Dr. Morton camein, breathless from haste, carrying theinhaler, which had just been delivered tohim by the maker and had nearly been thecause of the failure of the test.Without any delay, and with a coolnessand self-possession in strong contrast withthe general nervous tension of the assem-bly, Dr. Morton proceeded to administersulphuric ether to a human being, for thepurpose of destroying pain by forced an-aesthesia in a surgical operation, for thefirst time in the world's history. Pouringthe liquid into the inhaler, he lifted thelatter to the patient's nostrils, and heldit there for some minutes, allowing theman to breathe the fumes. Then, lookinginto his face intently, and feeling the pulse,he turned to Dr. Warren, who stood nearwith his surgeon's knife behind him, andsaid, in a quiet tone that sounded plainlythrough the silence:" Your patient is ready, doctor."Then in all parts of the amphitheatrethere came a quick catching of the breath,followed by a silence almost deathlike, asDr. Warren stepped forward and preparedto operate. The sheet was thrown back,exposing the portion of the body fromwhich a tumor was to be removed, an oper-ation exceedingly painful under ordinaryconditions, although neither very difficultnor very dangerous. 'l"he patient lay silent,witli eyes closed as if in sleep; but everyone present fully expected to hear a shriekof agony ring out as the knife struck downinto the sensitive nerves. But the strokecame with no accompanying cry. Thenanother and another, and still the patientlay silent, sleeping, while the blood fromsevered arteries spurted forth. The sur-geon was doing his work, and the patientwas free from pain, so it seemed at least;and all in wonder strained their eyes andbent forward, following eagerly every stepin the operation. Those in the front rowsleaned far over or knelt on the floor, so

the arteries fastened with ligatures, thegaping wound sewed up, then dressed andbandaged. Half an hour covered thewhole of it. During that time no cry orgroan escaped the patient, no indication ofsuffering.

Dr. Morton aroused the patient afterthe operation was completed, and said,"Did you feel any pain?" The patientreplied, " No." Then Dr. Warren, turningto the company, said in his impressive man-ner, "Gentlemen, this is no humbug."All pressed about Dr. Morton and con-gratulated him upon his success.Many successful operations followedquickly. The hospital authorities, though,refused to make further use of the dis-covery, on the ground that they did notknow the nature of the drug employed ininducing unconsciousness. My husbandat once offered to give them full informa-tion on this point; but opposition had beenaroused, and for several weeks operationsat the hospital were performed by the oldmethod of making the patient bear thetorture.

Partly with a view to keeping his discov-ery out of the hands of persons who mightuse it unwisely, and acting upon the adviceof Rufus Choate and Caleb Gushing, law-yers of national reputation. Dr. Mortonpatented his application of sulphuric ether;l)ut he never enforced the patent, for hishumanity was too great to keep back fromsuffering millions so precious an agency ofrelief. Yet he was criticised on all sidesfor taking out the patent, and cruel attackswere made upon him that cut him to theheart. At this time, it seemed to us whohad to bear the brunt of these attacksthat the value of this greatest of bless-ings, brought so suddenly and une.xpect-edly to the suffering, was lost sight of in theattempt to traduce the discoverer's char-acter and motive. Abuse and ridiculewere showered upon him by the publicpress, from the pulpit, and also by promi-nent medical journals, for presuming ordaring to claim that he could prevent thepain of surgical operations. In those daysI feared to look into a newspaper, for whatwife does not feel more keenly unjust as-persions on her husband than he for him-self ? Then, too, the world's wayjeal-ousy, malice, and envywas new to me.Soon there sprang up contestants to Dr.Morton's title of discovery: men whoclaimed as theirs the work


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/DR. MORTON AND GENERAL GRANT. 317

After the successful use of the sulphuricether at the hospital, it became necessaryto find a name for the new agent, andmuch discussion ensued. A meeting ofphysicians was called at the house of Dr.A. A. Gould, among those present beingDr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, ProfessorAgassiz, and Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, oneof Boston's most eminent surgeons, whohad encouraged Dr. Morton in his experi-ments at a time when many were in doubtor against him. Dr. Gould read a list ofnames that had been suggested, and onhearing the word " Letheon," my husbandexclaimed: " That is the name; I want thediscovery christened ' Letheon. " Otherswere of the same opinion, but finallythe suggestion of Dr. Holmes was ac-cepted, and the word " auEesthesia " waschosen.

In spite of various efforts that weremade during subsequent years to obtainrecognition from the United States govern-ment of Dr. Morton's services to the coun-try and to the world, nothing was everdone. This was, perhaps, the greatest sor-row of my husband's later years, a sorrowrendered all the more keen from the factthat other governments hastened to bestowupon him orders and decorations. Russiagave him the " Cross of the Order of St."Vladimir; " Norway and Sweden gave himthe " Cross of the Order of Vasa;" and theFrench Academy of Arts and Sciences senthim a gold medal, the Montyon prize.What he regarded as his greatest treasurewas a small silver casket containing onethousand dollars in money, and presentedby the trustees of the Massachusetts Gen-eral Hospital. This was given " in honorof the ether discovery, September 30,1846." The casket, medal, and decora-tions are now in the Historical Rooms inBoston, as well as many original docu-ments relating to the discovery, the medal,and the orders. In 1852 Dr. Morton re-ceived the honorary degree of Doctor ofMedicine from his original alma mater, theWashington University of Medicine, after-wards merged into the College of Physi-cians and Surgeons, of Baltimore, Mary-land.

During the war my husband served withGrant in the battle of the Wilderness, andwith General Burnside at Fredericksburg,and had abundant opportunity to demon-strate the value of his discovery in the

"' When there is any heavy firing heard, theambulance corps, with its attendants, stationednearest to the scene of action starts for the wounded.The ambulances are halted near by, and the attend-ants


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3'S DR. MORTON'S DEATH.Etherton Cottage for New York, to reply toan article that had recently appeared inone of the monthlies advocating Dr. Jack-son's claim to be the discoverer of sul-phuric ether. It was some time since any-thing of the sort had appeared, for medicaljournals the world over had admitted Dr.Morton's right to the discovery, and thisarticle agitated him to an extent I hadnever seen before. The weather was veryhot, and on Jidy ii he telegraphed me thathe was ill and wished me to come to him.I went at once, and found he was suffer-ing with rheumatism in one leg. Underthe treatment of the distinguished Dr.Sayre, my husband improved, and on^Vednesday, after dinner, he proposed weshould drive to Washington Heights andspend the night there at the hotel, as achange from the hot city. We startedabout eight o'clock in the evening. Dr.Morton himself driving.

After a little he complained of feelingsleepy, but refused to give me the reins orto turn back. Just as we were leaving thePark, without a word he sprang from thecarriage, and for a few moments stood onthe ground, apparently in great distress.Seeing a crowd gathering about, I tookfrom his pocket his watch, purse, alsohis two decorations and the gold medal.Quickly he lost consciousness, and I wasobliged to call upon a policeman and apassing druggist. Dr. Swann, who assistedme. We laid my husband upon the grass,but he was past hope of recovery. We sentat once for a double carriage, but it wasan hour before one came. Then two po-licemen lifted him tenderly upon the seat,I being unable to do anything from the con-dition I was in: the horror of the situationhad stunned me, finding myself alone witha dying husband, surrounded by strangers,in an open park at eleven o'clock at night.We were driven at once to St. Luke'sHospital, where my husband was taken inon the stretcher, and immediately the chiefsurgeon and house physicians gatheredabout him. At a glance the chief surgeonrecognized him, and said to me: " This isDr. Morton ? "

I simply replied, " Yes."After a moment's silence he turned to

the group of house pupils, and said:" Young gentlemen, you see lying beforeyou a man who has done more for human-ity and for the relief of suffering than anyman who has ever lived."

band, saying: "Yes, afid here is all iherecompense he has ever received for it."Dr. Morton died at the age of forty-

eight. He was buried in Mt. AuburnCemetery, near Boston, in the presence ofmany noted physicians of Boston. Overhis grave stands a monument erected bythe citizens of Boston, with this inscrip-tion, written by the late Dr. Jacob Bigelowof Boston:" William T. G. Morton, Inventor andRevealer of Anaesthetic Inhalation. Bywhom pain in surgery was averted and an-nulled. Before whom in all time surgerywas agony. Since whom science has con-trol of pain."

Dr. Morton's recreation was work on hisfarm at Wellesley, the town which is nowthe seat of Wellesley College. He wasalways a great lover of nature. People didnot interest him very much, and he caredlittle for clubs. Not long after our mar-riage he purchased from a brother ofEdward Everett a small place at Wellesley,then West Needham, where we went to livein the spring of 1846, having built a newcottage, and where several of our childrenwere born.My husband loved his children and madecompanions of them. He taught his boysto shoot as soon as they were large enoughto hold a revolver, and vied with them intarget practice until they became experts.My second son, Edward, possibly influ-enced by this early training, servedthrough the Zulu war in South Africa, as amember of the Cape Mounted Rifles, gain-ing the decoration of the Victoria medal.Two sons are practising physicians, andthe two daughters are married. Our homeat Wellesley was sold some years ago; apublic library has been erected upon thesite of our cottage, and the grounds are apublic park.

It has been a great pleasure to me toknow that within the last two years myhusband's name has been enrolled upon thebase of the dome in the new chamber ofthe House of Representatives in the StateHouse in Boston, among the selected fifty-three of Massachusetts'smost distinguishedcitizens. " The names have been selectedin such a way that each shall either markan epoch, or designate a man who hasturned the course of events." In the out-side walls of the new Public Library inBoston are thirty arches filled with memo-rial tablets, inscribed with


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THE DISCOVERY OF ANAESTHESIA.

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