Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/848

NAME MORTON 826 MOSHER patent. Other claimants for the credit o£ the discovery of anesthesia, C. T. Jackson and Horace Wells, Morton's partner in dentistry, who had used nitrous-oxide for teeth extrac- tion in 1844, came forward, and the Paris Academy of Medicine divided the Monthyon prize of 5,0U0 francs equally between Jackson and Morton, the latter refusing to take a share, claiming that all the credit was his. Washington University, Baltimore, conferred the degree of M. D. on Morton in 1849; Con- gress investigated his claims and a committee, composed of physicians, reported, after hearing the evidence on both sides, that he was en- titled to the merit of the discovery. Separate bills, appropriating $100,000 for the discovery of practical anesthesia, were introduced into Congress during three sessions of that body, but always failed of passage. His business was broken up and he was reduced to the direst poverty. In 1852 he received the large gold medal, the Monthyon Prize in medicine and surgery. Encouraged by the prominent physicians and citizens of Boston, where ether was first used, a plan for a national testi- monial was instituted in 1856-1857, and Morton was given full credit for the discovery. In 1858 a similar appeal was made in New York, and in 1860 the medical profession of Phila- delphia signed a testimonial to the same effect, but with no other result than to give him honor without money emoluments. To save his home from a sheriff's sale in 1858 he in- stituted suit against a surgeon in the Marine Hospital Service for infringing his patent, and got a verdict in the United States Circuit Court. Naturally, this did not increase his popularity with the medical profession. He had married Elizabeth Whitman of Farraington, Connecticut, in 1844, and when he died in poverty in 1865 she had difficulty in supporting herself and her son. Dr. Morton published "Morton's Letheon" (cautioning those who attempted to infringe on his legal rights), Boston, 1846; "Remarks on the Proper Mode of Administering Sul- phuric Ether by Inhalation," 1847, etc. W.LTER L. BURR.JiGE. Surgical Memoirs. J. G. Mumford, 1908. Trials of a Public Benefactor, N. P. Rice. 1859, Portrait. History of Medicine in the United States to the vear USSO, F. R. Packard, 1901. Hi'storical Material for the Biog. of W. T. G. Morton. Benj. Perley Poore, Wash., 1856. Practitioner, London, 1896, vol. Ivii. Portrait. For Bibliography of ether anesthesia, see Hist. Harv. Med. Sch. T. E. Harrington, 1905, vol. ii. 631-6,?5. . The introduction of Surgical Anaesthesia, R. M. Hodges, Boston, 1891. therapeutist of New York City, son of Dr. Morton, died ?.t Miami, Florida, of heart disease, March 26, 1920, at the age of 74. Moses, Thomas Freeman. (1836-1917) Thomas Freeman Moses, physician and edu- cator, was born at Bath, Maine, June 8, 1836, the son of William Vaughan Moses and Sarah Freeman, his wife. He was descended from Elder Brewster, who came over on the May- flower. After graduating from Bowdoin Col- lege in 1857 Thomas studied at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, received an A. M. from Bowdoin in 1860 and an M. D. from Jefferson in 1861. Then he studied in Paris, France, for a year, returning to enter the United States Army in 1862 as acting assistant surgeon. From 1864 to 1870 he prac- tised at Hamilton, Ohio, and then accepted the position of professor of natural science at Urbana University, Ohio. After the year 1886, he was in addition president of the Uni- versity, resigning both offices in 1894. Two years later Dr. Moses moved to Waltham, Massachusetts, and there passed the rest of his life, contributing papers to scientific so- cieties. He translated from the French Emile Seigey's "The Unity of Natural Phenomena." Dr. Moses married Hannah Appleton Cranch of Washington in 1867 and they had four sons and a daughter. He died at his home iu Waltham, November 21, 1917. Vv'ho's Who in America, vol. ix. B.jston Transcript, Nov. 23, 1917. Mosher, Jacob Simmons (1834-1883) This chemist and legal physician was born in Coeymans, New York, March 19, 1834. His father was of English, his mother of German descent. In 1SS3 he entered Rutgers College, where he displayed most remarkable ability, but, owing to various circumstances, he left that institution near the close of his junior year. Shortly afterwards he accepted the position of principal of Public School No. 1, at Albany, but in lSti2 entered the Albany Medical Col- lege, from which he graduated in 1863, having made a record in scholarship which has rarely been equalled since. His thesis, "Diabetes," was clever and original. While still in his student days he became instructor in chem- istry and experimental philosophy in the Albany Academy, and in 1865 was advanced there from the instructorship to the professor- ship of the same subjects. The year 1864 saw him surgeon to the Army of the Potomac, and later he was as- sistant medical director for the state of New York. The professorship of chemistry and medical jurisprudence in the Albany Medical
 * Dr. William James Morton, a pioneer electro-