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Sirs: Your recent reference to where credit lies for the "discovery" of ether in its relation to anesthesia prompts me to send you the photo-static copy of a letter in the research files of Paramount Studio where a great deal of work has been done in preparation for a picture on the subject. [Based on Fulop-Miller's Triumph Over Pain—ED.] It is from Daniel Webster, written Dec. 20, 1851, addressed to Dr. W. T. G. Morton and states: "In reply to your letter of the 17th instant, I would say that having been called upon, on a previous occasion, to examine the question of the discovery of the application of ether in surgical operations I then formed the opinion which I have since seen no reason to change, that the merit of that great discovery belonged to you, and I had supposed that the reports of the Trustees of the Hospital, and of the Committee of the House of Representatives of the U. S. were conclusive on this point." The weight of Webster's views on this subject is considerable, especially in the light of the fact that whereas the backers of Dr.
Crawford Long's claim set the date of his discovery in the year 1842 there is no evidence that ether was used to relieve the pain of wounded soldiers during the first year of the war with Mexico as much as four years later.
Nor does it appear that ether was used in any single hospital in the world to allay the agony of surgical operations prior to the demonstration by Dentist Morton at the Massachusetts General Hospital on Oct. 16, 1846. The very word "anesthesia" sprang into being some few weeks later.
. . . Morton, who was not a well-educated man, gathered his scientific knowledge from many quarters, including Horace Wells, his friend and associate, but his courage was his own and he stood alone in the face of the skeptical science of surgery on that fateful October day. Wells and the others had dropped away from the great effort only to reappear with many protestations later.
Postmaster Farley's placing Dr. Long's likeness upon a postage stamp in honor of his having been the "discoverer" of ether leads to a warranted discussion of what the word "discovery" means. As to this, Professor John Ware of Harvard Medical School in a letter dated April 16, 1861 to Dr. Charles Jackson (another claimant) said: "The discovery of the fact that the state of anesthesia is a safe one and thus available in practice is due to Morton. James Watt did not originate the steam engine. George Stephenson did not first introduce the railway.
Dr. Jenner did not first notice the protective powers of cow pox and yet the world justly regards them as those to whom it owes the advantages it has enjoyed from these improvements."
... If there are postage stamps enough to go around let there be one for Dr. Long but let there assuredly also be one for Morton. . . .
ARTHUR HORNBLOW JR.
Paramount Pictures Inc. Hollywood, Calif.
Sirs: