Elton romeo smilie, the not-quite discoverer of ether anesthesia
Like William T.G. Morton, Elton Romeo Smilie (1819-1889) was raised in Massachusetts, attended medical school in New England, practiced dentistry there, strove for clinical invention, and moved to Boston. In October 1846, both announced that inhaled ethereal preparations achieved reversible insensibility in surgical patients. Smilie published a report in the Boston Med Surg J 3 wk before Bigelow used that forum to broadcast Morton's Ether Day. Smilie's preparation was an ethereal tincture of opium, and, as he mistakenly believed the opium to be volatile and important, he ceded priority to Morton for ether anesthesia. The two authors collaborated on chloroform, but Smilie soon headed off in the Gold Rush to California. It is tempting to speculate that Charles T. Jackson and Morton were indebted in part to Smilie. Copyright © 2009 International Anesthesia Research Society.