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There is no question but that the "ether controversy" was an extremely bitter affair which, so I have heard, degenerated into a mud-slinging contest. Even in the third and fourth generations some bitterness remains which is most unfortunate. Our family has generally accepted the verdict of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, which decreed one of the Montyon prizes to Dr. Jackson for the discovery of etherization and a similar prize to Dr. Morton for the application of this discovery to surgical operations. Each had presented the Academy with a brief setting forth their respective claims.
I would be content to rest the matter as it stands above but may I refer you to the October issue of The National Magazine, 1896, which contains a very interesting article upon this question from Dr. Jackson's side. There is also an article by E. W. Emerson in the Atlantic Monthly, November 1896. There is also available the Report (minority) to the House of Representatives, vindicating the rights of Charles T. Jackson to the Discovery of Anesthetic Effects of Ether Vapor presented to the House on the 28th of August 1852, by Edward Stanly and Alexander Evans, members of the select committee on the ether discovery. I am convinced that should you investigate this matter, you will find that of all those who claim the honor of the discovery, Dr. Jackson was by far the most learned and scholarly and consequently the one most apt to discover ether. . . .
If it is possible, I would prefer to stay out of this ancient quarrel but I would appreciate it if you would revise your article on pp. 73-74 of your April 22 issue, giving my great-grandfather the credit which is his due.
JACKSON BIRD
Fay School Southborough, Mass.
Sirs:
TIME'S article (April 22, p. 73) on anesthesia, considered as an attempt to expound accurately an historical debate, leaves something to be desired. I note:
"Most doctors believe with their sainted masters, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sir William Osier, and Dr. William H. Welch that the real originator of anesthesia was Dentist William Thomas Green Morton."
Dr. Welch in the Ether Day Address at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1908 said, "The honor of making the first trial of anesthetic inhalation in surgical operations belongs to Crawford W. Long . . . then living in Jefferson, Jackson Co., Ga."
Dr. Osier in Historical Documents Relating to the History of Anesthesia mentions Dioscorides (circa 100 A.D.), Esdaille, who practiced mesmerism, and Long as anesthetists before Morton.
Dr. Holmes, when asked to which man the credit be given replied, "To e(i)ther." . . .
"Nobody has the clear credit."
Among responsible historians there is not a shadow of dispute as to who has the clear credit for every portion of the contribution to anesthesia.
LOGAN CLENDENING Kansas City, Mo.
Sirs: