Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-11-11
FoUu IN the Hall of Fame

wv electors of the New York Univer-
eity Hall of Fame most of the i'm
mortals probably agree, if ever they give an
earthward glance to such drolleres, that it
is better to be rejected than chosen. Who,
would you guess, are among the latest of
the illustrious not to be admitted past those
portals where sit the solemn electors dis
pensing fame pretty much as Salvation
Army lassies distribute doughnuts? Uncle
Remus," Walt Whitman, James A. Mcneil
Whistler, Joseph jefferson, Samuel Adams,
John Paul Jones and William Penn
The outlooming name amongst the chosen
is Mark Twain who assuredly deserves an
elysium with the rarest of American spirits.
But with what grimace must he, keen-eyed
and laughter-loving soul, suffer himself to
be pedestalled by them who cannot see their
| country's romantic first admiral or her most
charming and altogether greatest teller of
folk tales? 1t was we'll to admit Saint Gau-
dens, as the eleCtor did. but it was eyre
giously stupid to leave Whistler out And
how in the name of truth did they come to
enshrine William Thomas Green Morton as
the discoverer of the anaesthetic quality of
ether9
BY all means give Morton his due; he did
much to bring about the general use of ether
for surgical operations, and it may be that
he lighted upon that divine Lethe just as
the English physician, Dr. C. T. Jackson is
said to have done, through experimentation
quite independent of it's first discoverer Far
be 1t from us to reopen an outworn and
now useless debate but we cannot forbear
quoting paragraph from that impartial au-
thority, the New International Encyclope-
dia:
Long experimental upon himself, and in
American surgeon probably the first to
use ether anaesthesia in surgery. He
born in DanielsvilIe, Georgia, was
graduated from Franklin College, Penn
sylvania, in 1885, and from the medical
department Of the University Of Penn
sylvania in 1889. Having learned from
from pupil, Wiltshire, of the insensi-
bility produced in apothecaries' clerks
by inhaling ether vapor for amusement,
Long experimental upon himself and in
March, 1912, administered ether to
James Venable and during the patients
Inconsistencies excised tumor from
his neck. In the same year, and in 1916,
Long operated upon three other patients
under ether, but did not report his cases
or publish his observations The knowl-
edge of his operations did not spread
beyond his own locality In 1916
(some four years after Longs decisive
experiment, it will be observed) Nor
ton>~at Jackson's suggestion, made his
first public demonstration and :, pub
lished his repeated successes to the
world. In 1902 the Georgia Medical AS
ISOLATION began to collect funds with
which to erect statue Of Long in the
Capitol at WASHINGTON, as the discover
er Of Anaesthesia."
Surely, this is the irreducible minimum of
fact and Of fair play to an American whom
mankind Is forever indebted. Had the cleo
tors of the Hall of Fame looked duly into
the matter they hardly would have rejected
the Columbus of the blessed discovery to
crown it's Amerigo Vespucci But after ALL
it is as Milton says,
Fame 81 no plant that grows on mortal SOIL
Nor in the clustering foil
Set off the world, nor in broad rumor lies.
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes
And perfect witness Of all-judging Jove;
AS he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of SO much fame in heaven exepct thy need"