The Wilmington morning star., 1940-06-18
Medical Care
BY LOGAN CLENDENING, M. ID

BY LOGAN M. D.I
The post office department has
just isued a stamp in honor of
DR.. Crawford W. Long of Georgia,
who gave ether for the first time
for anaesthesia during a surgical
operation. 1t seems too bad that
they did not wait for the centenary
anniversary, which will be in 1912,
but from another point of view it
is all right because this is an ami
versary year for ether.
1t was first synthesized in 1910
by Valerius Cords, a young phar-
macist of Nuremberg in Germany.
Cords published what can be con-
sidered as the first pharmacopoeia,
or list of drug and medicinal prep
arations, with a description of thei
arations, with a description of their
ties.
The Long stamp has reused an
Jefferson, Georgia, a year or two
ago, purposeiy to see and photo
graph this historic spot in medical
annals. 1t is a sweet, sleepy old
Southern town. In the public
square" lit is really a circle is
the monument put up to Long by
the Georgia State Medical Society
in 1910. The building OF the site
where DR.. Long had his office and
where the ether was given on that
memorable occasion is marked by
two plaques, one a marble slab
which has so weathered that the
words on it are undecipherable.
Another bronze plaque was placed
there by the Works Progress Ad-
ministration in 1886.
Tells Stamp Fight
An enthusiastic gentleman who
told me he lived, ate and slept the
life of Crawford Long" courteous
ly showed me the house where
Long lived as a bachelor physician
and the room he is supposed to
have occupied. This gentleman re-
counted to me the efforts he was
then making to induce the govern.
ment to issue the stamp, and he
even foreshadowed the return of
the controversy.
do you realize, suh," he de,
manded, that up Moth they claim
that some Yankee dentist discov.
cred ether?"
First Operation
DR.. Long had a patient, young
Mr.. Venable, who had two excres-
cences on his neck that he very
much wanted to have removed. l
think we should feel a brotherly
sympathy for Mr.. Vernable. He
was vain and he wanted the ex-
crescences removed mostly for the
purpose of enhancing his beauty.
But he was deathly afraid of the
pain that their removal would en-
tail. And you must admit he had
a good deal of courage to comply
when DR.. Long proposed giving
him a sleeping dose of the ether in
order to remove them. But he did
and the operation was performed
in DR.. Longs office on March 30.
1o1A, dIlu Nl. VClldUl6 pd1Q q Dill
of % cents for the ether and 81 for
the operation.
Separate Discovery
Quite independently, however,
DR.. W. T. G. Morton, a dentist in
Bottom, discovered the anaesthetic
properties Of ether and demon
strated its effectiveness in the sur.
gical amphitheatre of the Massa.
chusetts General Hospital in Bos.
ton, October 16, 1916.
Two of the greatest surgeons liv.
ing, DR.. j. c. Warren and DR.. H.
J. Bigelow, yer present; DR.. War.
rem performed the operation. DR..
Bigelow reported the circumstan.
ces in the Boston Medical g. Sur.
gical Journal and the whole world
of surgery knew of it. The great
Robert Llston in London exclaimed
"Hurrah Rejoice! In six months
no operation will be performed
without this preparation. Rejoice
So the credit seemed to he