Anaesthetic agents : the respectful notice, protest and memorial of W.T.G. Morton, M.D., discoverer and patentee of etherization : addressed to His Excellency the President, the honorable Secretaries of the Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior, touching the use of his discovery in the public service in violation of his vested rights under the letters patent of the United States.

  • Morton, W. T. G. (William Thomas Green), 1819-1868.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anaesthetic agents : the respectful notice, protest and memorial of W.T.G. Morton, M.D., discoverer and patentee of etherization : addressed to His Excellency the President, the honorable Secretaries of the Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior, touching the use of his discovery in the public service in violation of his vested rights under the letters patent of the United States. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    sensibility to surgical operations, no apprpximation was made, fo.it, until it was discovered in Boston that sulphuric ether would produce total insensibility. Now it has been the practice in all enlightened countries to reward important discoveries in a very liberal manner; I do hope that an American Congress wiltDi^t fail to follow the example. The use of these agenis have become sQCftuimon and general through; out Europe, that a late distinguished Professor of Philndelphia, during, a visit to Europe, was constantly asked, if it was possible any surgeons in America could be foimd opposed to them.. I have no hesiiallon in staling that not only is pain avoided, but many lives saved b}' their use, for tlie nervous shock, in consequence ofserious operations, not wnirequentlv ends in death. This is avoided by ansesihesia. * « ♦ It would be just and proper to make him a liberal pension for it. It would not only be an incentive and stimulus to further discoveries iii this extensive field of science, but redound to the credit of the Govern- ment, here and abroad. ».^ V, Very truly, your friend, . .. HUGH H. McGUIRE, Hon. Chas. J. Faulkner. -l^'of. Surgery. Jacob Higelow, M. I)., President of the Academy of Arts and Sci- ences, Professor in Harvard University, and Physician to Massachu- setts General Hospital, in a letter to Hon. W. H. Bissell, says: It is considered by myself, and by the more intelligent part of my medical friends, as the most important medical discovery of the present age. In an article published in the Medical and Surgical Journal of July 7, 1847, he says: ''In the case of Dr. Jackson, if he did make the discovery in 1843, as asserted, or even later, he stands accountable for the mass of human misery which he has permitted his fellow-creatures to undero-o, from the time when he made his discovery, to the time when Dr. Morion made his. In charity, we prefer to believe, that up to the latter period he had no definite notion of the real power of ether in surgery, having seen no case of its application in that science. [Letter from Professor Simpson, the discoverer of Chloroform.'] Edinburgh, November, 19, 1847. My Dear Sir: I have much pleasure in offering, for your kind acceptance, the accompanying pamphlet. Since it was published we have had various other operations performed here, equally successful. I have a note from Mr. Liston, telling me also of its perfect success iri London. Its rapidity and depth are amaziu*. In the Monthly Journal of Medical Science for September, 1 have a long article on etherization, vindicating your claims over those of Jackson. ^