The Portland daily press., 1896-07-08
DR. M0RTON'S DISCOVERY.
How He Came to the Use of Ether in
Surgery.

ments on Dogs and Fish and the First
Case in Which He Used Ether in q
Clinic-Recollections of Fifty Years
Ago.
At the time of our marriage my hus-
band. DIR. William 4. @. Morton, wRs "a
years old, writes Mrs. Elizabeth Whit
N an Morton in the New York Sun, and
I remember that his mind already was
occupied with thoughts destined to lead
to his great discovery. Every spare
hour he could get was spent in expert
lnent. AT Wellesley, Mass. where was
our summer home, there was q spring
which contained number of goldfish,
and noticed that my husband would
often go Go 1t, and I would see him
catching the fish and looking at them in
tently as he held them wriggling in his
hand. Then he used to make expert
ments nearly every day on "Nig" black
water spaniel, q good sized dog, that
had belonged to his father. was only a
girl of eighteen at this time and had
not the least idea what he was trying to
do. nor would / have understood the i'm
portanoe of his experiments had he told
me. l only knew that his clothes seemed
saturated with the smell Of ether, and
IAdid not like it. One day he came run
ming into the house In great distress,
for he was always tender hearted, lend
ing the dog, which walked rather queer
ly, and said: Poor Mig, I've had him
asleep long time. I was afraid I had
killed him."
Do you put the fish asleep tooP" I
asked, laughingly.
/ try to-" he said, quite seriously,
=" but have not succeeded yet.
/ laughed again, thinking it was all a
joke, but my husband became very grave
and said: THE time will come, my
dear, when will Danish pain from the
world''
1t was at this time also that he used
to bottle up all sorts of queer bugs and
insects. until ths house was full Of craw-
ling things. He would administer
ether to all these little creatures, and
especially to the big green worms he
found on grapevines.
/ remember how DR.. Morton's friends
laughed at these queer experiments, and
am afraid joined with them some
times, but he continued on his way I'M
daunted, frequently saying 81 shall
succeed; there must be some way of
deadening pain.
AS he began to near success I became
alarmed, for, not satisfied with trying
the ether on bugs and animals, my hus-
band began experime nting upon himself
One day he told me that he mad put him.
self to sleep for eight minutes that time
having elapsed when he looked at his
watch after regaining consciousness.
After that my vivid Imagination pic
tured him killing himself some day, and
was haunted by dread whenever he
left the house that he would never re-
turn alive In vain my husband at
tempted to quiet my fears, which were
increased by the words Of my friend q
who declared that DR.. Morton would end
by killing himself or someone else, and
begged me to look out for him.
After DR.. Morton had concluded from
his experiments upon lower animals
that it might really be possible to put
people to sleep with the agency he had
discovered, he sent cut his assistants
offering reward Of to any person who
woula have tooth drawn while under
the influence of his pain annulling agen-
cy. There were many people suffering
from aching teeth that needed to be ex-
traoted, and the IS was an object, but
no one could be induced to take tho risk.
Finally his two assistants allowed him
to experiment upon 6hem, but the result
was not satisfactory. because of impuri-
ties in the ether. Having detected this,
my husband, with characteristic persist
ance. at once secured a supply of pure
ether, and, unwilling to wait longer fol-
q subject, shut himself up in his office
and tested it upon himself with such
success that for several minutes he lay
there unconscious.
That night DIR. Morton came home late
iAt "a B Acoo nucUo VA CAClUClASAU3 DuU 6l
happy that he could scarcely calm him.
self to tell me what had occurred, and l,
too, became SO excited that I could
scarcely wait to hear. at last he told
ne of the experiment upon himself and
| grew sick at heart as the thought came
to me that he might have died there
alone. He went on to say that he WAS
resolved not to sleep that night until he
had repeated the experiment, and de-
clared that, late as it was, ne must still
find a patient. Returning to his office
he could find no one who could be in
duoed to have tooth drawn by the
painless method" which was what the
Doctor was now SO eager to demonstrate.
Discouraged he was on the point OF ether
izing himself once more, aud having one
of his assistanst extract a tooth from his
own head, when there came faint ring
at the bell.
1t was long past the hour for patients,
but there stood man with his face ali
bandaged and evidently suffering aouue
pain. And strRngest of all were his
words:
Doctor" he said 81 have the most
| frightful toothache, and my mouth is
| so sore l am afraid TO have bhe tooth
! drawn. Can't you mesmsrize mo?"
The nootn co,1Id aIruoct hovo