Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/847

NAME MORTON 825 MORTON had scarcely prepared his friends for the sad event, when it was announced on the fifteenth of May, that Morton was no more. It was too true, he had left vacant among us a place that cannot soon be filled. Peacefully and calmly he had gone to his eternal rest, hav- ing accomplished so much in his short space of life, and yet leaving so much undone that none but he could do as well." "Dr. Morton was considerably above the medium height, of a large frame, though some- what stooping, with a fine oval face, promi- nent features, bluish-gray eyes, light hair, and a very fair complexion. His countenance usu- ally wore a serious and thoughtful expres- sion, but was often pleasingly lighted up with smiles during the relaxation of social and friendly intercourse. His manner was com- posed and quiet, but always courteous, and his whole deportment that of a refined and cultivated gentleman." (G. B. Wood.) Dr. Morton, according to Meigs, was a member of the following societies : The Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil- adelphia ; Philadelphia Medical Society ; Col- lege of Physicians of Philadelphia ; Massachu- setts Medical Society (honorary) ; American Ethnological Society, New York ; Medical Society of Sweden; Academy of Science and Letters at Palermo ; Royal Society of North- ern Antiquaries at Copenhagen ; Academy of Science, Letters, and Arts de Zelanti de Arce- reale; Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow; Medical Society of Edinburgh. A list of his principal papers and published works is given by C. D. Meigs in his memoir. Charles R. Bardeen. Memoir of S. G. Morton, G. B. Wood. Read before the College of Physicians of Philadel- phia. Nov. 3, 18S2. Phila., 1853. Lecture on S. G. Morton, W. R. Grant, Deliv- ered introductory to a course on anatomy and physiology at Pennsylvania College, 1852. Memoir of S. G. Morton, C. D. Meigs. Read before the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Nov. 6, 1851. Memoir of S. G. Morton. H. S. Patterson, in Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind." Philadelphia, 1854. Morton, William Thomas Green (1819-1868) William Thomas Green Morton, the first to demonstrate the use of ether as an anesthetic in surgery, was born in Charlton, Massa- chusetts, August 9, 1819, and died of apoplexy in New York City, July IS, 1868. at the age of forty-nine. Leaving his father's farm when seventeen, he came to Boston, but, not succeeding in business, studied dentistry in Baltimore in 1840 in the College of Dental Surgery. In 1842 he settled at Farmington, Connecticut, in the practice of dentistry, and there he met Horace Wells (q. v.), who had already em- ployed laughing gas successfully in the extrac- tion of teeth. In 1844 Morton opened an office in Boston and gave especial attention to the manufacture of artificial teeth. In order to render his work complete it was necessary that the roots of old teeth should be removed: as this was a painful operation few would submit to it, and Morton set about devising means to lessen the pain. He tried stimulants, even to intoxication, opium, and mesmerism, but in vain. Feeling the need of more medical knowledge, he entered his name as a medical student with Dr. Charles Thomas Jackson of Boston (q.v.). Jackson had previously experi- mented with some perfectly pure sulphuric ether, inhaling it mixed with air, to the extent of losing consciousness. He showed some to his pupils, and demonstrated how to inhale it Morton took some himself and then adminis- tered ether on a folded cloth to a man named Eben H. Frost, September 30, 1846, producing unconsciousness, during which a firmly rooted bicuspid tooth was extracted. Communicating the result of this and other successful experi- ments to Dr. John Collins Warren (q.v.) he persuaded Warren to let him administer ether at the Massachusetts General Hospital to a young man named Gilbert Abbott, having a superficial vascular tumor of the left side of the neck, just below the jaw, and accordingly the first.operation was performed there by Dr. Warren with Morton as anesthetist, October 16. 1846. the tumor being removed successfully while the patient remained unconscious. On the following day. Dr. George Hayward (q.v.) removed a fatty tumor of considerable size from the shoulder of a woman while she was etherized. The operation occupied seven min- utes. This most important discovery revolution- ized surgery and conferred one of the great- est possible blessings on the human race. Like all other great discoveries, it met with the bitterest opposition from the profession and Morton suffered almost unparalleled persecu- tion. He made the mistake of patenting his discovery in the United States as "Letheon" in November, 1846, and the following month in England, offering, however, free rights to all charitable institutions, hoping by his patent to protect himself and secure a fair compensa- tion. Morton's shrewdness, his attempts to keep the nature of the anesthetic a secret and to give no credit to Jackson brought upon him poverty and unending trouble. The gov- ernment appropriated his discovery to its own use without compensation, disregarding the