Priority for Discovery

Claims of priority for the discovery of ether anesthesia arose quickly. Wells, Morton, and Jackson all claimed to have discovered anesthesia. The issue of priority was further complicated by a report that a surgeon in Jefferson, Georgia, had used ether anesthesia as early as 1842. Crawford Long (1815–1878) published a manuscript in the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal in December 1849, describing his use of ether on March 30, 1842, to excise a tumor from the neck of a young man, James M. Venable.^[124]

Numerous monuments have been erected to commemorate the man "who discovered anesthesia." At least 15 have been erected for the group of Morton, Wells, and Long. A chair that Charles Jackson sat in while experimenting with ether inhalation is on display in the Pilgrim Memorial Hall in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with the label "Seated in this chair, Dr. Charles T. Jackson discovered etherization February, 1842." In the Public Gardens of Boston, a monument without a name has been erected to those who discovered anesthesia, suggesting that the introduction of ether anesthesia was the product of several individuals. Howard R. Raper, in his book Man Against Pain, analyzed the controversy about "who discovered anesthesia" ^[2] and suggested that Crawford Long was the discoverer if only the issue of priority is considered. However, Long continued to use whiskey and other ineffective means after 1842, indicating his apparent lack of enthusiasm for ether. Wells was the discoverer if the idea of inhalation anesthesia is considered, and Morton was the discoverer if the primary consideration is who introduced inhalation anesthesia to the world. Historians have generally credited the personality that produces the actual change in medical practice, and that individual was William Thomas Green Morton.

Neither honors nor monetary awards were forthcoming during the remaining lives of Wells or Morton. Wells committed suicide in 1848, unaware that the French Academy of Sciences had just named him as the true discoverer of anesthesia. Morton was unsuccessful in his effort to profit from a patent on his discovery or to secure a financial award from the U.S. government and died, broken and despondent, at age 49. Jackson (1804–1880) was committed to a hospital for the mentally ill at the age of 68 years, where he died 7 years later. Morton was 27 years old when he demonstrated ether anesthesia. The ages of the other participants at the time of their discoveries were as follows: Wells (1815–1848) was 29; Davy (1778–1829) was 22; Hickman (1800–1830) was 24; Jackson (1804–1880) was 41; Long (1815–1878) was 27; and Colton (1814–1898) was 30 years old.