disastrous experience in business he was sent to Baltimore in 1840 and
began the study of dentistry. In 1841 he entered the dental office of
Horace Wells as student and assistant, becoming a partner in 1842. In
1843 partnership was dissolved, Wells removing to Hartford, as before
stated. Morton, ambitious for a medical degree, entered his name as a
student in the office of Charles T. Jackson, in 1844, and the same
year matriculated in the Harvard Medical School, though he never
graduated. Having learned through Wells of the latter's successful use
of nitrous oxide gas, but not knowing how to make it, he sought the
advice of Dr. Jackson, who informed him that its preparation entailed
considerable difficulty, and inquired for what purpose he wanted it. On
Morton's replying that he wished to use it to make patients insensible
to pain, Jackson suggested the use of sulphuric ether, as Marcey had
suggested it to Wells two years previously, saying that it would
produce the same effect and did not require any apparatus. Jackson
also told Morton of the ether frolics common at Cambridge among the
students. That same evening, September 30, 1846, Morton administered
ether to a patient and extracted a tooth for him without pain. The
next day he visited the office of a patent lawyer, for the purpose of
securing a patent upon the new discovery. This lawyer ascertained that
Jackson had been intimately connected with its suggestion, and came
to the conclusion that a patent could not safely issue to either one
independently of the other. But Jackson being a member of the State
Medical Society, against whose ethical code it is to patent discoveries
that pertain to the welfare of patients, and fearing the censure of
his colleagues, agreed at once to assign his right over to Morton,
receiving in return a 10 per cent. commission upon all that the latter
made out of it. Morton, as a dentist, having no more compunction then
than dentists have now upon the securement of a patent,--in other
words, being actuated by no fine ethical scruples,--secured the patent,
and then called upon Dr. J. Mason Warren, one of the surgeons in the
Massachusetts General Hospital. Warren promised his coöperation and
appointed the 16th of October, 1846, for the first public trial. Upon
this occasion the clinic room was filled with visitors and students,
when Morton placed the young man under the influence of his "letheon,"
as he called it then; after which Warren removed a tumor from his neck.
The trial was most successful. Another took place on the following
day, and on November 7th an amputation and an excision of the jaw were
made, both patients being under the influence of letheon and oblivious
to pain. At this time the nature of the anesthetic agent was kept a
secret, the vapor of ether being disguised by aromatics, so as not to
be recognized by anyone present.
True to the highest traditions of their craft, the staff of the
Massachusetts General Hospital now met and declined to make further
use of a drug whose composition was thus kept secret. It was then that
Morton revealed the exact nature of it as sulphuric ether, disguised
with aromatic oils. In a report made by the commissioner of patents, it
was set forth that:
"For many years it had been known that the vapor of sulphuric ether,
when freely inhaled, would intoxicate as does alcohol when taken
into the stomach, but that the former was much more temporary in its
effects. But notwithstanding the records of its effects to this
extent, which were familiar to so many, no surgeon had ever attempted
to substitute it for the palliatives in common use previous to surgical
operations. That, in view of these and other considerations, a patent
had been granted for the discovery."
In 1846 an English patent was obtained.
Morton soon began the attempt to sell office rights, as do the dentists
of to-day, while the medical profession was then, as ever, antagonistic
to patents, holding them to be subversive of general good. His patent
was soon opposed and then generally infringed upon. Litigation followed
without end, and the government stultified itself by refusing to
recognize the validity of the patent issued by itself. And so, without
any compensation to the discoverer, ether soon came into general use
in this country as abroad. While receiving many congratulations from
friends and humanitarians, Morton's success aroused the jealousy of
some of his professional brethren, among them one Dr. Flagg, who
commenced a terrible onslaught upon the new application of ether and
its promoter. By his machinations a meeting of Boston dentists was
called and a committee of twelve appointed to make a formal protest
against anesthesia. This committee published a manifesto in the
_Boston Daily Advertiser_, in which all sorts of untoward effects
and unpleasant results were attributed to the new anesthetic. This
proclamation was spread broadcast, and did Morton, for the time, very
much harm. Equally obstreperous was Dr. Westcott, connected with the
Dental College in Baltimore. He made fun of Morton's "sucking bottles,"
as his inhalers were dubbed; and in various of the medical and secular
journals of the day, bitter, often foolish and absurd, attacks were
made. The editors of the _New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal_
said:
"That the leading surgeons of Boston could be captivated by such an
invention as this, heralded to the world under such auspices and upon
such evidences of utility and safety as are presented by Dr. Bigelow,
excites our amazement. Why, mesmerism, which is repudiated by the
savants of Boston, has done a thousand times greater wonders, and
without any of the dangers here threatened. What shall we see next?"
These and similar statements created a very strong prejudice against
Morton, who, in December, 1846, sent to Washington, to a nephew of
Dr. Warren, to endeavor to urge upon the government the advantages
of employing ether in the army during the Mexican war, then in
progress. The chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery reported
that the article might be of some service for use in large hospitals,
but did not think it expedient for the department to incur any
expense by introducing it into the general service; while the acting
surgeon-general believed that the highly volatile character of the
substance itself made it ill-adapted to the rough usage it would
necessarily encounter upon the field of battle, and accordingly
declined to recommend its use.
In January of 1853, Morton demonstrated at the infirmary in Washington,
before a congressional committee and others, the anesthetic effect of
ether, which he continued through a dangerous and protracted surgical
operation. This was the result of a challenge to compare the effects
of nitrous oxide and those of ether, the advocates of the former not
putting in an appearance.
The balance of Morton's life seems to have been spent in continued
jangles. The government, having repudiated its own patent, was
repeatedly besought by memorials and through the influence of members
of Congress to bestow some testimonial upon or make some money return
to Morton for his discovery. Several times he came near a realization
of his hopes in this respect, when the action of some of his enemies
or the termination of a congressional session, or some other accident,
would doom him again to disappointment. The pages of evidence that were
printed, the various reports issued through or by government officers,
the memorials addressed from various individuals and societies, if all
printed together, would make a large volume; but all of these were
of no avail. Morton spent all his means, as he spent his energies
and time, in futile endeavor to get pecuniary recognition of his
discovery, but was doomed to disappointment. He seemed alike a victim
of unfortunate circumstances and of treachery and animosity upon the
part of his opponents. Especially did the fight wage warm between
him and his friends and Jackson. Plots to ruin his business were
repeatedly hatched and his life was made miserable in many ways. Mere
temporary sops to wounded vanity and impaired fortune were the honorary
degrees and the testimonials that came to him from various institutions
of learning and foreign societies. In 1850 both Morton and Jackson
received from the French Academy prizes valued at 2,500 francs each.
Finally, Morton fell into a state of nervous prostration, suffered from
anxiety and insomnia, and in a fit of temporary aberration exposed
himself in Central Park, New York, became unconscious, and was taken
to St. Luke's hospital, dying just as he reached the institution, on
the 15th of July, 1868. In Mount Auburn cemetery, in Boston, there
stands a beautiful monument to William T. G. Morton, bearing this
inscription: "Inventor and revealer of anesthetic inhalation, before
whom in all time surgery was agony; by whom pain in surgery was averted
and annulled; since whom science has control of pain."
Again, in the Public garden in Boston there was erected, in 1867, a
beautiful monument to the honor of the discoverer of ether, upon whom
at that time they could not decide. Upon the front are these words:
"To commemorate that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to
pain, first proven to the world at the Massachusetts General hospital,
in Boston, October, A. D. 1846." Upon the right side are the words:
"'Neither shall there be any more pain.'--Revelations." Upon the left:
"'This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in
counsel and excellent in working.'--Isaiah." And upon the other: "In
gratitude for the relief of human suffering by the inhaling of ether,
a citizen of Boston has erected this monument, A. D. 1867. The gift of
Thomas Lee."
Summing up, then, the claims of our four contestants in the light of
a collected history of the merits of each, it would appear that Wells
first made public use of nitrous oxide gas for limited purposes, but
failed to introduce it into general professional use. That Long, in
an isolated rural practice, a few times used ether, with which he
produced probably only partial insensibility to pain, and that he had
apparently discontinued its use before learning of Morton's researches.
That Jackson made no claim to the use of the agent on his own part,
but simply of having suggested it to Morton. And, finally, that
Morton quickly accepted the suggestion, made careful and scientific
use thereof, but especially, and above all other things, first
_demonstrated_ to the world at large the capability and the safety
of this agent as an absolute, reliable and efficient anesthetic. So,
though Morton permitted his cupidity to run away with finer ethical
considerations, and attached a higher pecuniary than humanitarian value
to sulphuric ether, he, nevertheless, must be generally credited with
having, to use the modern expression, "promoted" its introduction,
and having shown to the world at large what an inestimably valuable
therapeutic agent had been added to our resources for the control of
pain.
The synthetic compound known as chloroform was discovered independently
by three different observers between 1830 and 1832. These were
respectively Guthrie, of Sackett's Harbor, N. Y.; Soubeiran, of France,
and Liebig, of Germany. The honor of introducing it to the profession
as an anesthetic for surgical purposes is universally accorded to James
Y. Simpson, then of Edinburgh.
Yet claim was at one time advanced in favor of Surgeon-Major Furnell,
of the Madras Army Medical Corps, who in the summer preceding the
announcement of Simpson's brilliant discovery experimented with what is
known as chloric ether, which is not an ether at all, but a solution of
chloroform in alcohol. It is said that he found that it would produce
the same results as sulphuric ether, with less unpleasant sensations,
and suggested its use to Coote, a well-known London surgeon. However,
such claims as those made in favor of Furnell are no more entitled
to recognition than are those of Wells or Long in the matter of
the introduction of ether to the public; for although individual
observations were favorable to the compound, it never came to public
notice on this surmise.
Sir James Y. Simpson was born in 1811, took the degree of doctor of
medicine in 1832 and advanced rapidly in his professional career until,
in January, 1847, he was appointed one of her majesty's physicians in
Scotland. Having already obtained a large reputation, particularly in
midwifery and gynecology, he directed his special attention toward the
use of anesthetics in childbirth, and he had quickly recognized the
value of sulphuric ether when introduced the previous year. He sought,
however, for a substitute of equal power, having less disagreeable odor
and unpleasant after effect. Upon inquiry of his friend Waldie, Master
of Apothecaries Hall of Liverpool, if he knew of a substance likely to
be of service in this direction, Waldie, familiar with the composition
of chloric ether, suggested its active principle chloroform; with
which Simpson experimented, and, upon the 4th of November, 1847,
established its anesthetic properties. These he first made known to
the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh in a paper read November
10th. Three days later a public test was to have been made at the Royal
Infirmary, but Simpson, who was to administer the chloroform, being
unavoidably detained, the operation was done as heretofore without an
anesthetic, and this patient died during the operation. You can readily
see that had this occurred under chloroform it would have been ascribed
to the new drug, which would then and there have received its death
blow. As it was, the first public trial took place two days later and
the test was most successful.
One would think that such a boon as Simpson had here offered to the
world would have been gratefully--not to say greedily--accepted by
all. Simpson's position was such as to give the new anesthetic every
advantage that his already great reputation could attach to it, and it
became at once the agent in common use in midwifery practice. But the
Scotch clergy of his day still possessed altogether too much of the old
fanatic spirit of the church of the middle ages. One is never allowed
to forget, in scanning the history of medicine, how bitterly the church
has opposed, until recently, every advance in our science and our art.
It was in A. D. 995, for instance, that the son of one of the Venetian
Doges was married, in Venice, to a sister of the emperor of the Eastern
Roman Empire. At the marriage feast the princess produced a silver
fork and gold spoon, table novelties which excited both amusing and
angry comment. But the Venetian aristocracy took up with this new table
fad, and forks and spoons as substitutes for fingers soon became the
fashion. But the puissant church disapproved most strongly even of this
arrangement, for priests went so far as to say, "to use forks was to
deliberately insult the kind Providence which had given to man fingers
on each hand." It was this same spirit that led the Scotch clergy to
attack Simpson most vehemently and denounce him from their pulpits as
one who violated the moral law, for they said: "Is it not ordained in
Scripture, 'in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children?' and yet this
man would introduce a substance calculated to mitigate this sorrow."
We of to-day can scarcely imagine the rancor with which these attacks
were made for many months. Finally, however, these fanatic defenders
of the faith were routed by a quotation from the same Scriptures in
which they claimed to find their authority; for Simpson, most adroitly
turning upon them with their own weapons, called their attention to
the first chapter of Genesis, in which an account of Eve's creation
appears, and reminded them that when Eve was formed from the rib of
Adam, the Lord "caused a deep sleep to fall upon" him. So weak was
their cause that with this single quotation their opposition subsided
and within a week or two the entire Scotch clergy was silenced. Sir
James Simpson received from his own government that which was never
accorded to Morton: that is, due recognition of the great service
he had rendered humanity. He died in 1870, and upon his bust, which
stands in Westminster Abbey, are the following words: "To whose genius
and beneficence the world owes the blessings derived from the use of
chloroform for the relief of suffering."
It is scarcely necessary that I delay you now with an account of all
of the other ethereal anesthetic agents which have from time to time
been advocated since the memorable days to which I have devoted most
of my time to-night. Two only are at present ever thought of--namely,
bichloride of methylene and bromide of ethyl!--and these are used by
only a few, though each has its advantages. It is well known that
nearly all of the ethers have more or less of anesthetic property,
coupled with many dangers and disadvantages. Sulphuric ether and
chloroform hold the boards to-day as against any and all of their
competitors.
Nitrous oxide gas, as already mentioned, was known to and used by
Wells, in Hartford. With the advent of ether this gas fell at once into
disuse, to be revived some fifteen years after the death of Wells,
mainly through the use of Dr. G. Q. Colton. Since this time its use
has been quite universal, although confined for the main part to the
offices of dentists. Its great advantages are ease of administration
and rapidity of recovery, making it especially useful for their
purposes, while the difficulties attendant upon prolonged anesthesia by
it makes it less useful for the surgeon.
I will spend no further time upon it nor upon the subject save to do
justice to modern anesthesia by a very different method and by means of
a very different drug, which is to-day in so common use that we almost
forget to mention the man to whom we owe it. I allude to _Cocaine_ and
its discoverer, Koller.
Cocaine is now such a universally recognized local anesthetic that
there is the best of reason for referring to it here--the more so
because it affords another opportunity to do honor to a discoverer, who
has rendered a most important service to not only our profession, but
to the world in general.
This principal active constituent of cocoa leaves was discovered about
1860 by Niemann, and called by him cocaine. It is an alkaloid which
combines with various acids in the formation of salts. It has the
quality of benumbing raw and mucous surfaces, for which purpose it was
applied first in 1862 by Schroff, and in 1868 by Moreno. In 1880, Van
Aurap hinted that this property might some day be utilized. Karl Koller
logically concluded from what was known about it that this anesthetic
property could be taken advantage of for work about the eye, and made a
series of experiments upon the lower animals, by which he established
its efficiency and made a brilliant discovery. He reported his
experiments to the Congress of German Oculists, at Heidelberg, in 1884.
News of this was transmitted with great rapidity, and within a few
weeks the substance was used all over the world. Its use spread rapidly
to other branches of surgery, and cocaine local anesthesia became
quickly an accomplished fact. More time was required to point out its
disagreeable possibilities, its toxic properties and the like, but it
now has an assured and most important place among anesthetic agents,
and has been of the greatest use to probably 10 per cent. of the
civilized world. To Koller is entirely due the credit of establishing
its remarkable properties.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected, but the
variations in spelling, punctuation, accents and hyphenation remain
as in the original.
Chapter IX
The paragraph originally read: "This recognition of our profession was
accorded much more unstintingly nearly two thousand years ago, at a
time when it was much less deserved, when Cicero wrote (_De Natura
Deorum_) "_Homines ad inibus dando._" (Men are never more godlike than
when giving health to mankind)."
The missing line in the Latin quotation has been restored.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.