The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-01-22
EVANGELS OF MERCY.
Great Men Who Have Helped to Con.
quer Physical Pain.

race more, ne aQQeQ, tudu lue sleoAH
engine, telegraph, steamship or cot
ton gin.
America, now fifty years after the
death of the discoverer of anesthesia,
which made painless surgery posi-
BILE, is just beginning to do proper
honor to William T. G. Morton. He
vas a Boston dentist, who, science
now agrees, first proved the possibill-
ties of applying anesthesia to capital
surgical operations.
Doctor Morton, like many other
pioneers, reaped more censure than
honor during his lifetime for his dis
covery. Another man disputed the
honor with him, bringing on squab-
bic, which, to say the least of it, was
undignifed, and his native land, the
United States, paid him only in neg
lect and humiliation.
Doctor Morton was born August
19, 1919, at Charlton, Mass. He
graduated from the Baltimore Dental
college in 1912. There was sown the
seed that has resulted in such inca;~
culable benefit to the world. the
young student saw the suffering caus-
ed by tooth extraction. An idea that
in some way it should, and could,
be prevented came to him. From
that time. it might be said, DR.. Nor
toms entire life was spent in expert
menting with and perfecting anestEe-
Sia
He began the practice of dentis-
try in Boston and entered the Har-
ward Medical school, but never grad
uated as a doctor of medicine. BY
chance he found that sulphuric ether
had anesthetic qualities. Then he
practically devoted all his time to ex-
perimenting. He began to study the
Importance of chemistry in the prac-
tice of medicine with DR.. Charles T.
Jackson.
He experimental on his water
spaniel and nearly killed him. All
sorts of animals were given small
doses of sulphuric ether. He even
used fishes and insects. His collec-
ton of bottles and strange smelling
chemicals spread over every room in
his pleasant cottage at Wellesley.
Then Mrs. Morton threatened to de-
lay for time the great discovery,
1t was all right, she reasoned, for
her husband to fill his Office and labo-
ratory with such accessories of his
profession. She even excused him
for continually smelling of sulphuric
ether and other chemicals. But she
reGelled when her home began to
take on a drug store odor.
Other men than Morton had
thought of anesthesia before. Sur
geons and scientists all dreamed Of
it; but classed it as being as impro-
bable as aerial navigation. Ether
had been discovered in 1918. In
1886 some experiments towards It's
ing it as an anesthetic were made.
Two years later DR. Crawford w.
Long used it in some minor surgical
cases; but, apparently dropped it.
Horace Wells, another dentist, had
t. 9th extracted while under the inf
uence of nitrous oxide; but when he
tried public clinic the patient
screamed and it was deemed
failure
Finally Doctor Mortor decided to
experiment on himself. He soaked
handkerchief in ether and held it to
his nose Upon awakening he found
that he had been insensible for seven
or eight minutes without bad effect.
The same day stout, healthy man,
suffering great pain with the tooth
ache. came to his office. DR.. Morton
proposed that he take ether during
the operation of removing the tooth.
He accepted and the tooth was re-
moved without pain.
DR.. Morton communicated his sue
cess to surgeons. They discussed the
best way to bring it to the atteIt ton
of the medical profession and the
public. 1t was decided that the CRU
cial test would be a public deracn-
stration in surgical case.
October 16, 1S46, the anesthetic
was used in a surgical operation. DR..
John c. Warren performed the opera
ton. Doctor Morton was the anes-
thetist. Then DR.. Morton's long
fight to prove his theory was over.
Anesthesia was a fact
But Doctor Morton soon found
that the world could be harsh to its
benefactors. Doctor Jackson, his
first colleague wrote to the French
Academy and claimed all the credit.
DR.. Mason Warren defended Doctor
Morton Tho controversy orow n,,itc