The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-30
TO-DAY IS 10th ANNIVERSARY OF GREAT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Wisdom does not always dwei, in great cities, and science and learning may have their habitat far from the busy haunts of men. Not long ago one of the greatest of British physi- clans. visiting in the United States, declared that he found the American masters of the healing art, not in New York or Chicago or San Francisco, but in a hospital in a little Northwestern village This reminds us that the greatest triumph of medical science in all the ages was due to a country doctor of Georgia, Crawford William son Long.
 Jefferson is the county seat of Jack son county, in the northwestern part of Georgia. It is a mere village, and was only a speck on the map when, seventy years ago to-day, March 30. 1842, Dr. Crawford W. Long there per- formed the first surgical operation without pain to the patient, in the history of the world. Anesthesia had been dreamed of since men first began to seek relief from pain and disease. but it had remained for the country practitioner of the Georgia hamlet to realize the dream.
 Ether was the agency used by Dr. Long, who discovered its possibilities quite by accident. Sulfuric ether was then considered merely a source of
 
 given at which young people inhaled the gas, and Under it's influence per formed Imaginable antics. Dr. Long. when young man, attended one of those 'tether sociables,'' and, inhaling too much of the gas. stumbled and fell injuring himself quite severely. He felt no pain at the time, however. and this circumstance led him to believe that ether might be useful in dead- ening pain during surgical operations. On March 20. 1842, James M Ven able, young man of Jackson county,
 presented himself at Dr. Longs office for treatment for tumors on his neck. removed by the knife, fearing the pain, but on this day Dr. Long suggested ! that the operation be performed after Venable had placed himself unde- the | influence of ether. The patient con- scented, and inhaling the gas quickly passed into oblivion. The keen blade l in the steady hands of the trained sur geon performed it's work quickly, and when Venable came back to conscious ness he declared that he had felt not l the slightest pain, and refused to be- l lieve that the growth had been cut out | until given ocular assurance. Not .nng after he had a second tumor re-
 moved, also painlessly. Dr. Long an- 1 nounced his epocha1 discovery to the
 medical world, and slowly it was taken ! up. Since then the knowledge of an- esthesia has made great strides and
 new and improved methods arc con- stantly being discovered
 1 History is filled with. the exploits of l those who have taken human life, and | the world is dotted with monuments ir | their honor. Where is the monument | to Crawford Williamson Long, whose sword was a surgeons scalpel, and wrose tremendous victory was in ban- l ishing from the bedside of the sick ! and suffering the grim specter Oi ] agony? There is none-un]ess it is
 every hospital in the world, where hapless victims no longer writhe and | scream as the knife cuts into theil quivering flesh.
 1 The saviors of the world build theil | own monuments.