William T.G. Morton

  William Thomas Green Morton (August 9, 1819 - July 15, 1868) was an American dentist and physician. He was born in Charlton, Massachusetts. He received his (honorary) M.D. at Washington University in Baltimore in 1852. He administered ether for a surgical operation at Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846.

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This first successful public demonstration by Morton of ether as an inhalation anesthetic was an historic and widely publicized event. Many consider him to be the "inventor and revealer" of anesthesia. However, he was not the first person to use ether for surgical anesthesia. Dr. Crawford Williamson Long first used ether as an anesthetic during surgery on March 30, 1842, and although he demonstrated its use to physicians in Georgia on numerous occasions, he did not publish his findings until 1868, in The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal. Morton and Long's accomplishments were key factors in the medical and scientific pursuit now referred to as anesthesiology and allowed the development of modern surgery. Spread of the news of this "new" anesthetic was helped by the subsequent feud that developed between Morton and two other scientists that claimed to have made the discovery, Dr. Horace Wells and Dr. Charles T. Jackson. In contradistinction to Drs. Morton, Wells, and Jackson, Dr. Crawford Long never sought royalties or a patent from the discovery.

Born in Charlton, Massachusetts, William Morton was originally a dentist. His parents were James Morton, a farmer, and Rebecca (Needham) Morton. He studied under Horace Wells in Hartford, Connecticut. The two later became partners. Morton claimed to have graduated from Baltimore Dental College in 1842 (although research indicated that he had never attended dental or medical school). In 1843 he married Elizabeth Whitman of Farmington, Connecticut, the niece of former Congressman Lemuel Whitman. Her parents objected to his profession and only agreed to the marriage after he promised to study medicine, so in the autumn of 1844, Morton received tutoring from Dr. Charles T. Jackson at Harvard Medical School. He was eventually awarded an honorary medical degree in 1852 by Washington University in Baltimore.

On September 30, 1846, Morton performed a painless tooth extraction after administering ether to a patient. This procedure led to an arrangement of a now-famous demonstration on October 16, 1846, at the Massachusetts General Hospital. At this demonstration Dr. John Collins Warren painlessly removed a tumor from the neck of a Mr. Edward Gilbert Abbott. Following the demonstration Morton tried to hide the identity of the substance Abbott had inhaled (ether). He referred to it as "Letheon". He had intentions to patent the substance and profit from its use. However, the “letheon” was quickly shown to be ether, and it was soon after being used in both the United States and Europe. Morton received a patent for ether in the US, which was later revoked, and never received any royalties. He spent his declining years in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide him compensation for his discovery, but this never arrived. His pursuit of profit from ether administration was complicated by the fact that his former mentor Dr. Charles T Jackson had subsequently demonstrated the use of ether in Paris and claimed the discovery as his own without credit or mention of Morton (or C. W. Long).

In the autumn of 1862 he joined the Army of the Potomac as a volunteer surgeon, and applied ether to more than two thousand wounded soldiers during the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness.

Morton was in New York City in July 1868 when he went to Central Park to seek relief from a heat wave, but he collapsed there and died soon after. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The 1944 Paramount Pictures film The Great Moment, written and directed by Preston Sturges, is based on the life of W. T. G. Morton.

Morton was ranked #37 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.

References

Frank Preston Stearns, Cambridge Sketches.