Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It
The fates of the men involved in the first use of anesthesia in  surgery in Boston, on October 16, 1846 and its aftermath read  like a tragedy by Aeschylus or Racine. Fenster, a columnist for  American Heritage and a contributor to the New York Times, ably  renders the three main characters, who typify that common  19th-century American combination of brilliance, ambition and  mental instability. Charles Jackson, related by marriage to  Ralph Waldo Emerson, was more renowned for his geological  studies than his medical practice. Horace Wells had been the  first to use nitrous oxide in dentistry. William Morton, who  designed the delivery device for the ether and administered it,  had enjoyed a long career as a con man. After their "unwilling  collaboration," they argued about who actually made the  discovery and should reap the financial rewards. Jackson, who  claimed that Samuel Morse stole the idea for the telegraph from  him, was supported by Emerson in his Atlantic Monthly. He spent  his final years in a mental institution. Wells was championed by  the Connecticut legislature. Later, addicted to chloroform, he  committed suicide in jail. Morton failed in his efforts to  patent a mixture of ether and oil of orange. After some years  unsuccessfully lobbying Congress to reward him, he collapsed in  Central Park in 1868 and died en route to a hospital. Fenster  jumps between the figures' backstories somewhat confusingly, and  her occasionally laughable rhetorical devices would give a high  school yearbook editor pause. Nonetheless, this extensive book  will attract fans of the history of medicine and 19th-century  Americana. Photos and illus. (Aug. 5) Forecast: A 25-city national radio campaign coupled with author  appearances in New York City, Boston and Philadelphia will give  this book the exposure necessary to sell its 25,000 initial  printing.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.