Cambridge Sketches

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He devised a plan for combining life insurance with a savings bank, by
which the laboring man could obtain a certain amount of insurance for his
family (or old age) instead of interest upon his deposits. This was an
admirable idea, and if he had undertaken to carry it out in the prime of
life he might have succeeded in realizing it; but he was now upwards of
seventy, and his friends concluded that the experiment would be a risky
one, as a favorable result would depend entirely on Mr. Wright's
longevity. At the same time he had another enterprise in hand, namely, to
convert the Middlesex Fells, in which Pine Hill is situated, into a
public park. This was greatly needed for the crowded population on the
northern side of Boston, and though the plan was not carried out until
after his death, he was the originator and earliest promoter of it.

Elizur Wright's most conspicuous trait was generosity. He lived for the
world and not for himself. He was a man of broad views and great designs;
a daring, original thinker. He respected Emerson, but preferred the
philosophy of John Stuart Mill, from the study of which he became an
advocate of free trade and woman suffrage.

He died November 21, 1885, in the midst of a rain-storm which lasted six
days and nights. He lies interred at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

DR. W. T. G. MORTON

A distinguished American called upon Charles Darwin, and in the course
of conversation asked him what he considered the most important discovery
of the nineteenth century. To which Mr. Darwin replied, after a slight
hesitation: "Painless surgery." He thought this more beneficial in its
effects on human affairs than either the steam-engine or the telegraph.
Let it also be noted that he spoke of it as an invention, rather than as
a discovery.

The person to whom all scientific men now attribute the honor of this
discovery, or invention, is Dr. William T. G. Morton; and, although in
that matter he was not without slight assistance from others, as well as
predecessors in the way of tentative experiments, yet it was Doctor
Morton who first proved the possibility of applying anaesthesia to
surgical operations of a capital order; and it was he who pushed his
theory to a practical success. It may also be admitted that Columbus
could not have discovered the Western Hemisphere without the assistance
of Ferdinand and Isabella; but it was Columbus who divined the existence
of the American continent, and afterwards proved his theory to be true.
There is an underlying similarity between the labors and lives of
Columbus and Morton, in spite of large superficial differences.

William Thomas Greene Morton was born August 19, 1819, in Charlton,
Massachusetts, a small town in the Connecticut Valley. His father was a
flourishing farmer and lived in an old-fashioned but commodious country
house, with a large square chimney in the centre of it. William was not
only a bright but a very dexterous boy, and was sent to school in the
academy at Northfield, and afterwards at Leicester. It is a family
tradition that he early showed an experimental tendency by brewing
concoctions of various kinds for the benefit of his young companions, and
that he once made his sister deathly sick in this manner. His father,
finding him a more energetic boy than the average of farmers' sons,
advised him to go to Boston, to seek whatever fortune he could find
there.

This resulted in his obtaining employment, probably through the Charlton
clergyman, in the office of a religious periodical, the _Christian
Witness_; but the situation, though a comfortable one, was not adapted
to his tastes, and from some unexplained attraction to the profession, he
decided to study dentistry. This he accordingly did, graduating at the
Baltimore Dental College in 1842. He then engaged an office in Boston,
and soon acquired a lucrative practice. He was an uncommonly handsome
man, with a determined look in his eye, but also a kindly expression and
pleasing manners, which may have brought him more practice than his skill
in dentistry,--although that was also good.

The following year he was married to Miss Elizabeth Whitman, of
Farmington, Connecticut, whose uncle, at least, had been a member of
Congress,--a highly genteel family in that region. In fact, her parents
objected to Doctor Morton on account of his profession, and it was only
after his promise to study medicine and become a regular practitioner
that they consented to the match. Accordingly, Doctor Morton in the
autumn of 1844 commenced a course at the Harvard Medical-School.

Mrs. Morton was a handsome young woman, with a fair face and elegant
figure. It would have been difficult to find a better looking couple
anywhere in the suburbs, and with good health and strength it seemed as
if fortune would certainly smile on them. Doctor Morton built a summer
cottage at Wellesley, where the public library now stands, and planted a
grove of trees about it; but a mere earthly paradise could not satisfy
him. He was not an ambitious man, or he would not have chosen the dental
profession; but the food he lived on was not of this world. He had the
daring spirit, the speculative temperament, and restless energy of the
born discoverer. Already he had made improvements in the manufacture of
artificial teeth. He was the first, or one of the first, to recognize the
importance of chemistry in connection with the practice of medicine. He
had no sooner returned to Boston than he commenced the study of chemistry
with Dr. Charles T. Jackson, spending from six to ten hours a week in his
laboratory; and he thus became acquainted with the properties and
peculiarities of most of the chemical ingredients known at that time.

Mrs. Morton soon discovered with awe and trepidation that she had married
no ordinary man. That he had a real skeleton in his closet was to have
been expected; but, besides this, there were rows of mysterious-looking
bottles, with substances in them quite different from the medicines which
were prescribed by the doctors in Farmington. He tried experiments on
their black water-spaniel and nearly killed him; and even descended to
fishes and insects. He would muse for hours by himself, and if she asked
him what he was thinking of he gave her no explanation that she could
understand. Although he was so attractive and pleasing, he did not care
much for human society. [Footnote: McClure's Magazine, September, 1896.]
He was kind and good to her, and with that she was content. A more
devoted wife, or faithful mother, has not been portrayed in poetry or
romance.

These phenomena in Doctor Morton's early life remind one of certain
processes in the budding of a flower. They indicate a tendency to some
object which perhaps was not at the time wholly clear to the man himself.
Impelled by the humanitarian spirit of the age, he moved forward with a
clear eye and firm hand to grasp the opportunity when it arrived,--nor
was it long delayed.

In considering the discovery of etherization we ought to eliminate all
evidence of an _ex parte_ character, unless it is supported
circumstantially; but there is no reason why we should disbelieve Mrs.
Morton's statement that her husband made experiments with sulphuric
ether; that his clothes smelt of it; and that he tried to persuade
laboring-men to allow him to experiment upon them with it. As Dr. J.
Collins Warren says: "Anaesthesia had been the dream of many surgeons and
scientists, but it had been classed with aerial navigation and other
improbable inventions." [Footnote: Anaesthesia in Surgery, 15.] As long
ago as 1818 Faraday had discovered the chief properties of ether, with
the exception of its effect in deadening sensibility. In 1836 Dr. Morrill
Wyman and Dr. Samuel Parkman had experimented with it on themselves at
the Massachusetts Hospital, but without taking a sufficient quantity to
produce unconsciousness. It was actually employed in 1842 by Dr. Crawford
W. Long, at the University of Pennsylvania, in some minor cases of
surgery, but he would seem to have lost confidence in his method and
afterwards abandoned it.

In December, 1844, Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford, had a tooth
extracted by his own request while under the influence of nitrous oxide;
and the following month he came to Boston, and having made his discovery
known, an operation at the hospital was undertaken with his assistance,
but the patient screamed, and it proved a failure so far as anaesthesia
was concerned.

From these facts we readily draw the following conclusions: That the
discovery of painless surgery was essentially a practical affair for
which only a slight knowledge of chemistry was required; that it was not
a discovery made at hap-hazard, but one that necessitated a skilful hand
and a clear understanding of the subject; and that the supposition which
has sometimes been advanced that Doctor Morton was necessarily indebted
to Doctor Jackson for a knowledge of the hypnotic effect of ether is
wholly gratuitous.

We will now quote directly from Doctor Warren's lecture on "The Influence
of Anaesthesia on the Surgery of the Nineteenth Century," delivered
before the American Surgical Association in 1897:

"Morton having acquainted himself by conversation with Mr. Metcalf and
Mr. Burnett, both leading druggists, as to purity and qualities of ether,
and having also conversed with Mr. Wightman, a philosophical instrument-
maker, and with Doctor Jackson as to inhaling apparatus, proceeded to
experiment upon himself. After inhaling the purer quality of ether from a
handkerchief he awoke to find that he had been insensible for seven or
eight minutes.

"The same day a stout, healthy man came to his office suffering from
great pain and desiring to have a tooth extracted. Dreading the pain, ho
accepted willingly Morton's proposal to use ether, and the tooth was
extracted without suffering. Morton reported his success the next day to
Jackson, and conversed with him as to the best methods of bringing his
discovery to the attention of the medical profession and the public.
Jackson pointed out that tooth-pulling was not a sufficient test, as many
people claimed to have teeth pulled without pain. It was finally decided
that the crucial test lay in a public demonstration in the operating
theatre of a hospital in a surgical case."

There is one statement in the above to which, according to our rules of
literary procedure, we feel obliged to take exception,--that is, the
statement concerning the interview between Morton and Jackson after the
successful administration of ether to Morton's patient. It is
substantially Doctor Jackson's own statement. Doctor Morton gave a wholly
different account before the Congressional Committee of 1852. He said:

"I went to Doctor Jackson, told him what I had done, and asked him
to give me a certificate that ether was harmless in its effects. This
he positively refused to do. I then told him I should go to the principal
surgeons and have the question thoroughly tried. _I then called on Doctor
Warren, who promised me an early opportunity to try the experiment, and
soon after I received the invitation...._"

Now as these are both _ex parte_ statements, and as there are no
witnesses on either side, according to the rule we have already
established, they will both have to be eliminated. [Footnote: The
Congressional Committee of 1852 did not find Doctor Jackson's report of
this interview trustworthy.] Doctor Morton, however, says previously that
it was Doctor Hayward with whom he consulted as to the best method of
bringing his discovery before the world.

In the consideration of this subject we come upon a man of rare
character--rare even, in his profession. Dr. John C. Warren was the
perfect type of an Anglo-Saxon surgeon. His courage and dexterity were
fully equalled by his kindness and sympathy for the patient. Cool and
collected in the most trying emergencies, it has been said of him that he
never performed a capital operation without feeling a pain in his heart;
and the evidence of this was marked upon his face, so that it is even
visible in the photographs of him. He deserved to have his portrait
painted by Rubens. In 1847 Dr. Mason Warren published a review of
etherization, in which he makes this important statement:

"In the autumn of 1846 Dr. W. T. G. Morton, a dentist in Boston, a person
of great ingenuity, patience, and pertinacity of purpose, called on me
several times to show some of his inventions. At that time I introduced
him to Dr. John C. Warren. Shortly after, in October, I learned from
Doctor Warren that Doctor Morton had visited him and informed him that he
was in possession of or had discovered a means of preventing pain, which
he had proved in dental operations, and wished Doctor Warren to give him
an opportunity in a surgical operation. After some questions on the
subject in regard to its action and the safety of it, Doctor Warren
promised that he would do so.... The operation was therefore deferred
until Friday, October 16, when the ether was administered by Doctor
Morton, and the operation performed by Doctor Warren."

It was eminently fitting that Dr. John C. Warren should be the one to
introduce painless surgery to the medical profession. Next to Morton he
deserves the highest credit for the revolution which it effected: a
glorious revolution, fully equal to that of 1688. His quick recognition
of Morton's character, and the confidence he placed in him as the man of
the hour, deserve the highest commendation. Doctor Warren had invited
Doctor Jackson to attend this critical experiment with sulphuric ether at
the Massachusetts Hospital; but he declined with the trite excuse that he
was obliged to go out of town. This has been generally interpreted by the
medical profession as a lack of courage on Jackson's part to face the
music, but it may also have been owing to his jealousy of Morton.

This happened October 16th, and on November 13th, Dr. C. T. Jackson wrote
to M. Elie de Beaumont, a member of the French Academy, this remarkable
letter:

"I request permission to communicate through your medium to the Academy
of Sciences a discovery which I have made, and which I believe important
for the relief of suffering humanity, as well as of great value to the
surgical profession. Five or six years ago I noticed the peculiar state
of insensibility into which the nervous system is thrown by the
inhalation of the vapor of pure sulphuric ether, which I respired
abundantly,--first by way of experiments, and afterwards when I had a
severe catarrh, caused by the inhalation of chlorine gas. I have latterly
made a useful application of this fact by persuading a dentist of this
city to administer the vapor of ether to his patients, when about to
undergo the operation of extraction of teeth. It was observed that
persons suffered no pain in the operation, and that no inconvenience
resulted from the administration of the vapor."

It was the opinion of Robert Rantoul and other members of the
Congressional Committee that Doctor Jackson suffered from a "heated and
disordered imagination," and that is the most charitable view that one
can take of such a letter as this. Whatever may have been the result of
Doctor Jackson's investigations with sulphuric ether, it is certain that
he added nothing to the scientific knowledge of his time in that respect;
[Footnote: Edinburgh Medical Journal, April 1, 1857.] and if he persuaded
Doctor Morton to make use of it, why was he not present to oversee his
subordinate? also, why did he make a charge on his books a few days later
against Doctor Morton of five hundred dollars for advice and information
concerning the application of ether? It is not customary to charge
subordinates for their service but to reward them. The two horns of this
dilemma are sharp and penetrating.

In a later memorial of the same general tenor, which Doctor Jackson
forwarded to Baron Humboldt, he stated that he had applied to other
dentists in Boston to make the experiment of etherization, but found them
unwilling to take the risk; but the names of the dentists have never been
made public, nor did any such appear afterwards to testify in Doctor
Jackson's behalf.

Still more remarkable was the action of the French Academy of Arts and
Sciences in these premises. The French Academy was founded by Richelieu,
but abolished in the first French Revolution, with so many other
enchanted phantasms. Napoleon re-established it, and gave it new life and
vigor by a discriminating choice of membership; but it is a close
corporation which renews itself by its own votes, and such a body of men
is always in danger of becoming a mutual admiration society, and if this
happens its public utility is at an end. In the present instance the
action of the French Academy was illogical, unscientific, and
mischievous.

Doctor Jackson's letter was brought before that august body on January
18, 1847, but previous to that time Doctor Warren had written to Doctor
Velpeau, an eminent French surgeon, concerning the success of
etherization at the Massachusetts Hospital, and suggesting the use of it
in the hospitals at Paris; and Doctor Velpeau referred to this fact at
the meeting of January 18th. The contents of this letter have never been
made public; but it is incredible that Doctor Jackson's claim should have
received any support from it. Nevertheless, the members of the French
Academy decided to divide one of the Mouthyon prizes (of five thousand
francs for great scientific discoveries) between Dr. W. T. G. Morton and
Elie de Beaumont's American friend, Dr. C. T. Jackson; and they
_conferred this particular favor on Dr. Jackson at his own
representation, without one witness in his favor, and without making an
inquiry into the circumstances of the discovery._ Could the Northfield
Academy of boys and girls have acted in a more heedless or unscientific
manner?

After the justice of this decision had been questioned, the French
Academy promulgated a defence of their previous action, of which the
essence was that the scientific theory of Doctor Jackson was as essential
to the discovery of etherization as the practical skill of Doctor Morton;
that is, they attempted to decide a matter of fact by an _a priori_
dogmatism. Was not the instruction that Doctor Morton received from the
dental college in Baltimore also essential to the discovery,--and to go
behind that,--what he learned at the primary school at Churiton? When
learning is divorced from reason it becomes mere pedantry or sublimated
ignorance, and is more dangerous to the community than unlettered
ignorance can be.

This blunder of the French Academy had evil consequences for both Morton
and Jackson; for it placed the latter in a false position towards the
world, and brought about a collision between them which not only lasted
during their lives, but was also carried on by their friends and
relatives long afterwards. It is doubtful if Jackson would have contested
Morton's claim without European support.

With true dignity of character Doctor Morton declined to divide the
Mouthyon prize with Doctor Jackson, and the French Academy accordingly
had a large gold medal stamped in his honor, and as this did not exhaust
the original donation, the remainder of the sum was expended on a highly
ornamental case. The trustees of the Massachusetts Hospital partly
subscribed and partly collected a thousand dollars which they presented
to Doctor Morton in a handsome silver casket. The King of Sweden sent him
the Cross of the Order of Wasa; and he also received the Cross of the
Order of St. Vladimir from the Tsar of Russia. He was only twenty-seven
years of age at this time.

The ensuing eight years of Morton's life were spent in a desperate effort
for recognition--recognition of the importance of his discovery and of
his own merits as the discoverer. No one can blame him for this. As
events proved, it would have been far better for him if he had finished
his course at the medical-school and set up his sign in the vicinity of
Beacon Street; but the wisest man can but dimly foresee the future.
Doctor Morton had every reason to believe that there was a fortune to be
made in etherization. He consulted Rufus Choate, who advised him to
obtain a patent or proprietary right in his discovery. Hon. Caleb Eddy
undertook to do this for him, and being supported by a sound opinion from
Daniel Webster, easily obtained it. Now, however, Morton's troubles
began.

He exempted the Massachusetts Hospital from the application of his
royalty, and it was only right that he should do so; but, unfortunately,
it was the only large hospital where etherization was regularly
practised. In order to extend its application Doctor Morton secured the
services of three young physicians, practised them in the use of the gas,
and paid them a thousand dollars each to go forth into the world as
proselytes of his discovery; but they met everywhere with a cold
reception, and were several times informed that if the Massachusetts
Hospital enjoyed the use of etherization, other hospitals ought to have
the same privilege; so that his enterprise proved of no immediate
advantage.

The Mexican War was now at its height, and Doctor Morton offered the use
of etherization to the government for a very small royalty, but his offer
was declined by the Secretary of War. He soon discovered, however, that
surgeons in the army and navy were making free use of it,--contrary to
law and the rights of men. Individuals all over the country--dentists and
surgeons--were doing the same thing; and it was more difficult to prevent
this than to execute the game-laws. For such an order of affairs the
decision of the French Academy was largely responsible, for if men only
find a shadow of right on the side of self-interest, they are likely
enough to take advantage of it.

Meanwhile Doctor Jackson, with a few friends and a large body of
Homoeopaths who acted in opposition to the regulars of the Massachusetts
Hospital, kept up a continual fusillade against Doctor Morton; but this
did him little harm, for early in 1847 the trustees of the hospital
decided, by a unanimous vote, that the honor of discovering etherization
properly belonged to him.

Doctor Jackson questioned the justice of this decision, and applied for a
reconsideration of the subject. Whereupon the subject was reconsidered
the following year, and the same verdict rendered as before. Doctor
Jackson then carried his case to the Boston Academy of Arts and Sciences,
when Professor Agassiz asked him the pertinent question: "But, Doctor
Jackson, did you make one little experiment?" adding drily, after
receiving a negative reply: "It would have been better if you had."

It is to be regretted that Doctor Jackson should have attacked Doctor
Morton's private life (which appears to have been fully as commendable as
his own), and also that R. W. Emerson should have entered the lists in
favor of his brother-in-law. In one of his later books Emerson designates
Doctor Jackson as the discoverer of etherization. This was setting his
own judgment above that of the legal and medical professions, and even
above the French Academy; but Emerson had lived so long in intuitions and
poetical concepts that he was not a fairly competent person to judge of a
matter of fact. It is doubtful if he made use of the inductive method of
reasoning during his life.

Doctor Morton sought legal advice in regard to the infringement of his
patent rights; but he found that legal proceedings in such cases were
very expensive, and was counselled to apply to Congress for redress and
assistance. This seemed to him a good plan, for if he could exchange his
rights in etherization for a hundred thousand dollars, he would be
satisfied; but in the end it proved a Nessus shirt to strangle the life
out of him. He soon found that Congress could not be moved by a sense of
justice, but only by personal influence. He gave up his business in
Boston and went to Washington with his family, but this soon exhausted
his slender resources. Knowing devils informed him that if he wished to
obtain a hundred thousand dollars from the government he would have to
expend fifteen or twenty thousand in lobbying, but the idea of this was
hateful to him, and he declined to make the requisite pledges.

The winter of 1850 and of 1851 passed without result, until finally in
December of the latter year, Bissel, of Illinois, made a speech in Doctor
Morton's favor, calling attention to the fact that the government had
been pirating his patent, and proposing that the subject be referred to a
committee. Robert Rantoul seconded the motion, and the step was taken. It
was considered better for the chances of success that the proposition
should come from a Western man.

This committee continued its meeting throughout the winter and made a
thorough-going examination of the question before it. The frankness and
plain character of Doctor Morton's testimony is much in his favor, and
the description he gave of his own proceedings previous to the first
operation in the Massachusetts Hospital show how hard he wrestled with
his discovery,--wrestled like Jacob of old,--working half the night with
an instrument-maker to devise a suitable apparatus for inhalation. Doctor
Jackson and Horace Wells also presented their claims to the committee and
were respectfully considered.

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