The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-24
THE PUNISHMENT OF: PAIN.
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
DISCOVERY OF ANAESTHESIA.

| The fiftieth anniversary of the first pub
lie demonstration of the surgical anaes-
thesia. which occurred in the Massachu-
sets general hospital. at Boston. will be
observed to-day with appropriate ceremo-
MES. Ii was on the 10th of October, 1876,
that DIR. w. T. G. Morton placed a young
man under the influence of ether while a
painful operation was performed on him.
! Besides Dr. Morton, there were present
! Dr. H. J. Bigelow, DR.. ]. c. Warren, DR..
]. Mason Warren, DR.. S. D. Townsend
and Dr. c. +. Hayward Most of these
| gentlemen were skeptical of Morton S
promises and feared some dire disaster
would be the result, but when the opera
| ton was over they could not help ac-
lSnowledging the Importance of the dis
covery.
In a few weeks of the announcement a
very heated controversy ragged as to
whom was due the credit of the discovery.
The other claimants We're DR.. Charles t.
Jackson, who afterwards died in an asy-
lum, and DR.. Horace Wells, who brought
his life to a tragic close in New York
Jail.
The matter was subsequently made a
committee, whose conclusions were that
DR.. Morton was the discoverer of rhe
method of alleviating pain in surgical
operations.
Some interesting light is thrown on the
Incidents of DR.. Mortons life leading Up
to the discovery in a paper by Mrs. Nor
ton, the Doctors wife, which was pup
lished in a recent number of McClure's
Magazine. 1t is reproduced in part be-
low:
DR.. Morton was one of those tremen-
dously earnest men who believe they have
a high destiny to fulfill. How many
times he said to me in the months PEE
ceding his great discovery: Il have a
work to do in this world, Lizzie Or,
again: '"The time will come when I Will
do away with pain" During our early
married life while he was making him
self known as one of the most skillful
dentists in Boston and carrying on an
enormous business, he found time in ad-
dtion to pursue his medical studies at
the Harvard Medical school, in order to
take a medical degree, for he
had promised my mother to
give up dentistry. Every morn
ing he used to rise between and O o'clock
to get time for what he called his serious
work; and never shall 1 forget my sensa>
ton as a young bride at sleeping in a
room where a tall, gaunt skeleton stood
in a big box near the head of the bed
After the first successful use of the sui
phuric ether the immense responsibilities
that came upon him and the unceasing
anxiety and annoyances compelled him TO
give up the study of medicine and devote
himself to anaesthesia. This was a great
grief to him, because he was at that time
within few months of taking his degree.
At the time of our marriage DR.. Morton
was "a years old, and as 1 have said, his
mind was already occupied with thoughts
destined to lead to his discovery. Every
spare hour he could get was spent in ex-
pertinent. At Wellesley, Mass, where was
our summer home. there was a spring
which contained a number of gold fish,
and 1 noticed that my husband would
often go to it, and l would see him catch
ing the fish and looking at them intently
as if studying them as he held them
wriggling in his hand Then he used to
| make experiments nearly every day ON
| Mig" a black water spaniel, a good
sized dog that had belonged to his father
l was only a girl of IS at this time, and
had not the least idea of what he was try
| ing to do, nor would have understood the
Importance of his experiments had he
| told me. l only knew that his clothes
| seemed always saturated with the smell
| of ether, and did not like It, One day he
came running into the house in great dis
| tress Qor he was always tender-hearted),
/ leading the dog, which walked rather
| queerly, and said:
Poor Mig; I've had him to sleep a long
| time. I was afraid had killed him."
do you put the fish asleep, too?"
| asked, laughing.
Il try to-" he said, quite seriously, "but
have not succeeded yet"
1 laughed again, thinking it was all a
| joke, but my husband became very grave,
| and said:
1.-The time will come. my dear, when I
will Danish pain from the world"
| II was at this time also that he used to
bottle up all sorts of queer bugs and in
sects, until the house was full of crawling
! things. He would administer ether to all
| these little creatures, and especially to the
| big green worms he found on grape vines
1 remember how DR.. Mortons friends
| laughed at these queer experiments, and
am afraid 1 Joined with them some
| times But he continued on his way I'M
daunted. frequently saying: II shall sue
coed; there must be some way of deaden-
ing pain
AS he began to near success 1 became
| alan med for, not satisfied with trying
! the ether on bugs and animals. my hus-
| band began experimenting upon himself.
| He sent out his assistants, offering a re-
ward of five dollars to any person who
| would have a tooth drawn while under
the influence of the pain-annulling agency.
! There were many people suffering from
aching teeth which needed to be extracted,
| and the five dollars was an object; but no
one could be induced to take the risk
| Finally his two assistants allowed him to
experiment upon them, but the result was
not satisfactory, because of impurities in
the ether. Having detected this, my hus-
band, with characteristic persistence, at
once procured a supply of pure ether, and,
unwilling to wait longer for a 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 he came home late. in great state
of excitement, but so happy that he could
scarcely calm himself to tell me what had
occurred; and l, too became so excited
that 1 could scarcely wait to hear. At
| last he told me of the experiment upon
himself and l 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
declared that late as it was, he must still
find a patient. Returning to his Office. he
could find no one who could be induced to
| have a tooth drawn by the painless
method" which was what the doctor was
now so eager to demonstrate. Discourage
| ed he was on the point of etherizinp hin,