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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    I [Bxtract of d letter Jrom Z. B. Adams, M. D., of Boston.] It, is almost uniformly used, both in public and private practice, in dentistry, in midwifery, and in all surgical operations; also to caus§ muscular relaxation in ilie relation of hernia; lias been eminently suc- cessful in cases of convulsions after delivery, and in alleviating the ex- cruciating pain caused by the passage of calculi through the ureters. It is an exceedingly rare thing tt) hear of any dangerous or even serious eflfects from the use of either ether or chloroform. 'I'he good effects are almost incalculable. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. W. H. BissELL. Z. B. ADAMS. [Extract from a letter written by Dr. John Jeffries, physician to th6 ; Massachusetts General Hospital.'] For my opinion of the benefits bestowed upon the world by Dr. Morton, please ullow me to. refer you to a note addressed by me to the Hon. R. C. Wmthrop: . Dr. Morton, who visits Washington to seek some remuneration from Government for the benefit which he has conferred upon the country by the introduction of sulphuric ether, requests me to express to you my opinion (which I do most unreservedly) that the world is indebted en- tirely to Dr. Morton for the introduction of this agent to produce insen- sibility to pain, and that it is a physical blessing not second to any that ^ has been conferred upon suffering humanity. 1 sincerely hope that Dr. Morton will receive some remuneration for his very great benefaction. <'VVilh high respect, your obedient servant, JOHN JEFFRIES. Hon. R. C. WiNTHRop, ^'■Speaker of the House of Representatives.^^ Oliver W. Holmes, the distinguished poet, and a physician to the Massachusetts General Hospital, held the following language in an opening address of the Medical College, Boston: '•The knife is searching for disease; the pulleys are dragging back dislocated limbs; nature herself is working out the primal curse, which doomed the tenderest of her creatures to the sharpest of her trials; but the fierce extreinity of suffering has been steeped in the waters of for- geifulness, and the deepest furrow in the knotted brow of agony has been smoothed forever. Again, in a comuumication to the Hon. Isaac E. Morse, he says: It is a notorious and wholly undisputed fact that Dr. Morton in per- son instituted the first decisive experiments, at the risk of his reputation, and with a courage and perseverance, without which, even had the idea of the possibility of such effects been entertained, the.world might have waited centuries or indefinitely before the result was reached.