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A  DEFENCE
DR. CHARLES T. JACKSON'S CLAIMS
TO THE
DISCOVERT  OF  ETHERIZATION.
CONTAINING TESTIMONY DISPROVING THE CLAIMS SET UP IN FAVOR OF MR. W. T. G.
  MORTON, IN THE REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE MASSACHUSETTS GEN-
      ERAL HOSPITAL, AND IN NO. 201 OF LITTELL's LIVING AGE.
i/-
BY JOSEPH L. LORD & HENRY C. LORD.

       BOSTON:
OFFICE OF LITTELL'S LIVING AGE,
          1848.
• 
 
THE  ETHER  CONTROVERSY
                 TO THE PUBLIC.
   The writers of these  pages are attorneys of Dr.
Charles T. Jackson, of Boston.  They have been
employed  by him to  investigate the legality and
equity of his claims to  the recent discovery of  the
applicability of sulphuric ether,  as an agent  for
safely producing  insensibility to  pain,  during  the
performance of surgical operations.
   It is well known that Dr. Jackson's claim to this
discovery, has been drawn in question  before  the
public, by Mr. W. T. G. Morton, a practical den-
tist of this city.   Mr. Morton's counter-claim, and
the  justification  of it  by publications  proceeding
from various sources, to some of which the reader's
attention  will be  requested, are before the public.
   The authors perform their duty, without previous
acquaintance with the  persons  whose names have
appeared before  the  public, in this  controversy, as
parties, counsellors, witnesses, or apologists. They
put the case upon its own merits, without bias from
any personal, local, or accidental influence.
   Since the publication, in June, 1847, of Dr. Martin
Gay's able " Statement" of Dr.  Jackson's claims to
the discovery of etherization, the controversy has
essentially  changed its character.   Mr.  Edward
Warren, who, it now appears, had a pecuniary inter-
est in Mr. Morton's patent, had, previously to Dr.
Gay's " Statement," issued various publications in
Mr.  Morton's behalf, of such a character as to be
deemed by Dr. Jackson and  his friends unworthy
of an answer.   The  affidavits published  by  Mr.
Warren, and  recently bolstered up  by publications
from other and able sources, to prove that Mr. Mor-
ton had experimented with the ether,  before Dr.
Jackson  communicated to him his first knowledge
of its nature, and  entrusted him with its first appli-
cation, were, on their face, so suspicious, and con-
nected with so  suspicious circumstances,  that it
was hoped that the truth would be  established  by
the evidence contained in Dr. Gay's pamphlet, with-
out a sifting and  exposure of the affidavits them-
selves.   Accordingly, Dr. Gay, in conformity with
his plan not to reflect upon  the  moral character of
any  individual, forbore to publish evidence,  quite
sufficient to justify the strongest suspicion of, if not
to prove, the fraud and imposture, now placed, it is
submitted, beyond the possibility of dispute.
  In  this state  of the  controversy, Nathaniel  I.
Bowditch, Esq., having been appointed, by the Trus-
tees of the Massachusetts General Hospital,  a mem-
ber of a committee to draw up its annual Report for
the year ending with 1847, undertook,—without for-
mal  instructions so to do, contrary to all precedent
in the history of public charitable  institutions, in
opposition to the  remonstrance of Dr. Gay, and of
his declaration to  Mr.  Bowditch that  there was
important evidence with which  he had  not  been
made acquainted, and which, a^he himself admits,
he declined  to  listen  to, whe/ Dr. Gay offered to
communicate it to  him confidentially,—undertook,
we repeat, to constitute himself an arbiter in the
controversy, and to publish  to the world unjust ac-
cusations and conclusions against Dr. Jackson, in-
vested with all the prestige  and authority conferred
upon them  by his  official position.  Whatever  he
might properly do  in his private capacity, he had
no right to travel out of his way to wield the high
influence of a great and noble institution, against a
private individual,  who had never committed any
offence against it, but, on   the contrary, had pro-
cured for it the most signal  benefits.
  Mr. Bowditch cannot, under these circumstances,
complain, if his qualifications for the self-assumed
arbitration, shall be, in his own words, somewhat
"strictly scrutinized."  We wish, however, first,
to state distinctly that  we do not hold the Trustees
of the Hospital responsible for the truth of his state-
ments, the legitimacy of his inferences, or the just-
ness  of  his  conclusions.   Mr.  Bowditch  has ad-
mitted, in a communication published in the  Boston
Daily Advertiser,  since the publication  of his Re-
port, that in one instance, to which we shall directly
invite the reader's notice,  they  "relied upon his
accuracy;" and from  the  well-known manner in
which the proceedings of a board of trustees,  so
numerous as theirs, are conducted, we have no doubt
that, when they  adopted his Report,  they relied
upon him for the accuracy of the whole, no less than
of any particular part.  The only  error we would
impute to them, is that of placing undue confidence
in Mr. Bowditch, and  suffering him to meddle with
the controversy at all.   The high  moral character
of the gentlemen  who compose the Board, forbids
the suspicion  of any  intentional  injustice  towards
Dr. Jackson.   We cannot doubt  that, should they
be convinced they have been deceived, by an atro-
cious conspiracy to break  down  the  character  of
an innocent man, and  rob him of his rights of dis-
covery, rights dearer to scientific men than money,
or life itself, they  will all,  Mr. Bowditch  not ex-
cepted, repair, as far as possible, the injustice and
suffering which have, however unintentionally, been
inflicted upon Dr. Jackson.

  We now invite  attention to a charge of fraud,
made by Mr. Bowditch in  his Report, and subse-
quently defended by him in  the Daily Advertiser:
" On the other hand, Dr. Jackson  transmits  to
Europe,  as a paper which  he had read before the
American Academy, a statement of his claims to this
discovery ; thus communicating it  to the world under
an official sanction  to which it was not  as  yet en-
titled."  The groundlessness and injustice of this
imputation of fraud, will be seen from the following
statement of facts.  At the written suggestion of 
2
THE ETHEK
CONTROVERSY.
  Hon. Edward Everett, and Dr. J. C. Warren, Dr.
  Jackson a4dressed a paper to the American Acad-
  emy, containing an  account of his discovery of
  etherization.   On March the 1st,  1847, the day
  before  it was  actually read  to  the Academy, it
  was, for the purpose of  sending it to Europe by
  the next steamer, published  in the Daily Adver-
  tiser,  aforesaid, accompanied  by some prefatory
  remarks by the editor, in which he stated, not that
,  it had been read before, but that it was " addressed
  by Dr. Jackson to the American  Academy of Arts
  and Sciences."  The editor of the  Advertiser,—
  in  vindicating Dr. Jackson, lo use his own words,
  " from the charge of fraudulent misrepresentation,"
  and himself from  " that of being a  participator in
  the fraud,"—in an editorial article, published some
  weeks  after the  publication  of Mr.  Bowditch"s
  Report, and introductory to  a  communication in
  which Mr. Bowditch was  called upon to retracl  his
  charge, uses the  following language: " It was
  not stated  in the caption, or in the paper itself,
  [Dr. Jackson's,] that it had  been  read  before the
  Academy ;  nor was there anything  that  implied
  that it had  been so read.  We think it  obvious,
i  therefore, that the authors of the Hospital Report
  must have fallen, through some inadvertence, into
  a material error  in  supposing that the  paper had
  been ' communicated to the world,'  under a sanc-
  tion which  did not belong to it."
     Mr.  Bowditch, in a reply to the aforesaid com-
  munication, in which he admits that  he is responsi-
  ble for  the charge, (this being  the instance before
  alluded to,  in which Mr.  Bowditch states that the
  trustees relied wholly upon his accuracy,) attempts
  to justify it, by arguing that what he  had positively
  affirmed to be a fact, was a " legitimate inference !"
  This "legitimate inference," as has been seen, is
  at total variance with the declaration of Hon. Na-
  than Hale.  It  is equally at  variance with the
  general  practice of  scientific men, and  of the
  American  Academy itself, as  will  appear by the
  following letter of  Mr. Everett, whose authority
  Mr. Bowditch will not call in question.
                         Cambridge, 15 May, 1843.
  My Dear Sir,
      I recollect  having  expressed the opinion deci-
  dedly, at one of the monthly meetings of the Acad-
  emy, that no blame could attach to you  for having
  printed and forwarded to Europe a paper, purporting
  to  be addressed to the American Academy, before
  the paper had  been read to the  Academy.  No
  sanction is understood to be given by the Academy
  to any doctrine or opinion contained in the memoirs
  submitted to it, nor when they have  been  read be-
  fore it, printed  at its expense, and bound up with
  its transactions.
         I remain, Dear Sir, with great regard,
                     faithfully yours,
                            Edwaiid Everett.
    Dr. C. T. Jackson.

     We  have examined but one out of the many
  instances of false logic, misstatement of fact, and
  injustice to  Dr. Jackson, with which  Mr. Bow-
  ditch's  Report abounds.  The reader will not now
  doubt, that all of Mr. Bovvditch's statements and
  inferences are to  be received with  great  distrust,
 and that Mr. Bowditch, in  this controversy, lias
 assumed the part of a heated advocate, and not of
 an  impartial judge.   In justice to Mr.  Bowditch,
 however, it should  be remembered  that  his  posi-
 tion was unfavorable for forming  an  impartial
judgment upon the  matters in controversy.   Two
 of the medical gentlemen connected with the  Hos-
 pital, Dr. Jacob Bigclow, and  his son Dr. Henry
 J. Bigelow,  early committed  themselves against
 Dr. Jackson's claims.   The latter, during a  short
 absence  of  Dr. Jackson from  the city,   early
 in November,  1810, read before the  American
 Academy, and  the  Boston  Society of  Medical
 Improvement, of both  which  bodies Dr.  Jack-
son is a  member, a paper " promulgating"  Dr.
Jackson's discovery of etherization to the world ;
 and a few days afterwards, further " promulgated "
 it, by  publishing the same paper in the Boston
 Medical  Journal,  making no  other allusion  to
Dr. Jackson, than that  he and  Mr.  Morton  were
named in the patent as inventors.   May not the
" promulgator"  of etherization  naturally have felt
some  misgivings, lest the self-woven wreath  with
which he has sought to encircle his brow, might
prove to be, not  of laurel, but of night-shade ;  and
may not  these  same misgivings account for the
continued activity of  his pen  in filling the pages
of the Journal,  and  for  the  entire  suppression,
by his father, of the name of  Dr. Jackson, in his
letter to Dr.  Boot, of London, under date of  Nov.
28, 1846, published, with his  son's  article afore-
said, in the  London Lancet, and ascribing the dis-
covery exclusively to Mr. Morton, at a time when
the medical  faculty of Boston unanimously allowed
the suggestion, at least, of the new application of
ether, to have originated with Dr. Jackson?   It is
but just to Mr. Bowditch to suppose  that his  mind
has probably, however unconsciously, been warped
by an influence " behind the throne."
  The editors are aware that an attempt has  been
made to  prejudice  the  public  mind  against Dr.
Jackson's claims to  the discovery, by the alleged
fact, that he has always declined to submit them to
suitable arbitration.   We do  not propose to in-
quire  how far the advocates of Mr.  Morton  have
succeeded in this effort,  nor shall we attempt  any
review of the correspondence which passed between
Dr. Jackson  and Mr. Morton upon  this  subject.
It has no connection with the real question to be
decided, and, as a mere collateral issue,  should be
avoided.   The  fact  is  simply this:  Dr. Jackson
originally expressed  his  willingness  to submit his
claims to  a  just arbitration, and  he has  been anx-
ious  to  have them  carefully  scrutinized.    His
friends, however, and eminent legal counsel in his
behalf, have opposed any such reference, upon the
ground  that he would be unprepared to meet the
false  testimony  which   would  be  manufactured
against him, and the event  has shown  that  these
apprehensions were well founded.
   The public attention  is invited to the  following
statement of facts.
      Joseph L. Lord, )
      Henry C. Lord,  \ Counsellors at  Law.
   Court Square, Boston, 18 May, 1848. 
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
                   CHAPTER I.
   There  is  no evidence that previously to the
thirtieth of September, A. D. 1846, on which day,
according to both  Dr. Jackson and  Mr. Morton,
the first surgical experiment in etherization took
place,  Mr. Morton  was  acquainted, more or less,
with the idea that  sulphuric ether might be ren-
dered  available  as  an agent for  safely producing
insensibility to pain during the performance of sur-
gical operations, or that previously to  the aforesaid
date, he had ever made either sulphuric or chloric
ether  a subject of  study or experiment  with any
such reference.
   Mr.  Morton  asserts, and attempts to prove, the
contrary of what we have  just stated, by the tes-
timony of Francis  Whitman, William P. Leavitt,
Thomas R. Spear, Jr., and Grenville G.  Hayden.
   In the  spring of 1847, and " shortly after Mr.
Morton claimed etherization as his own discovery,
these four witnesses were taken by Mr. Morton into
a room in his office, where they were examined to-
gether, and their testimony drawn up, the gentle-
man who was at the head of the surgical department
in the  office  being  meanwhile dismissed from their
presence."—See affidavit of D. P. Wilson.
   Immediately afterwards, these witnesses, " all at
once,  and for the first time," began  to talk of the
alleged facts sworn to  in  their testimony, which
was the more  noticed from the  fact  that, during
the fall of 1846, and the greater part of  the ensu-
ing winter, " Dr. Jackson had been uniformly spo-
ken of by all connected with the office," not except-
ing these very witnesses, " as the sole discoverer of
the  new application of the  vapor  of  sulphuric
ether."
   These  witnesses all testify to a  demijohn  of
ether,  alleged by  Mr. Morton, in his memoir  to
the French Academy, and  by the witnesses, Leav-
itt and Spear, in their affidavits, to have  been pur-
chased of Messrs. Brewers, Stevens, and Cushing,
by the  said Leavitt,  about the first of August, 1846 ;
which  ether is  alleged by Mr. Morton in his me-
moir, and the witness Hayden in his certificate, to
have been sulphuric ether.   The witness  Whitman
alludes to the same demijohn, and  Spear testifies
to having inhaled a portion  of  the ether  which  it
contained.   All of which, as suspicious as it looks
of concert between  Mr. Morton and his witnesses,
might  possibly have some effect as evidence, were
it not in proof  that  no such demijohn of ether, as
is alleged, ivas  ever bought of Messrs. Brewers <3f
Co.
                        Boston, May 8th, 1848.
  I, William A. Brewer,  of Boston, County  of
Suffolk, and  Commonwealth of Massachusetts, of
the firm of Brewers, Stevens, & Cushing, of this
city, on oath depose and say, that we have never
kept or sold  any other quality of sulphuric  ether
than the best manufactured in the American mar-
ket.
  The only quality  of sulphuric ether kept or sold
by us, in the summer of eighteen hundred and forty-
six, and the month of September of the same year,
as I have  ascertained by careful inquiry and  com-
parison,  was  inferior to no quality  of  sulphuric
ether which  was, at  that time, to  be found in the
Boston market—it being the best officinal  or sul-
phuric ether of commerce.
  We have never kept  or sold  a quality  of sul-
phuric ether such as is  alleged by Mr. W. T. G.
Morton to  have  been purchased of us in August,
1846, and which was analyzed for Mr."Morton, by
Dr.  Martin Gay, of  this city, as appears  in Mr
Dana's pamphlet, No. 201 of Littell's Living Age
page 536.                  Wm. A. Brewer.

  Suffolk, ss.  Boston, May 19th, 1848.—Person-
ally appeared, the aforesaid  Wm. A. Brewer, and
made oath  that the foregoing affidavit, by him sub-
scribed, is true.   Before  me,
                        S.  W. Robinson,
                          Justice of the Peace.
  [ The  Editors are in  possession of still  further
testimony, verifying the  statements contained in the
foregoing affidavit, but the said affidavit is deemed
amply sufficient to  prove the  point for which it is
introduced.]
   That Messrs. Brewers &  Co.'s was the place
where the alleged  ether—supposing it to  have
been purchased—was purchased, cannot be denied ;
for Morton, Leavitt, Spear  and  Hayden  all  so
state:  nor  can it be  pretended that it was chloric,
and not sulphuric ether  which was purchased ; for
Hayden  certifies that he kept the very demijohn
constantly in his possession, until the twenty-second
of June, eighteen  hundred  and forty-seven,  and,
on that day, he had a portion of  its contents ana-
lyzed ; and he produces the analysis of Dr.  Martin
Gay, and the  certificate of  Mr. Burnett, both  of
this  city, that it was sulphuric ether.   That sul-
phuric ether was taken to Dr. Gay, for analysis,
there can be no doubt; and that certain ether taken
to Mr. Burnett,  to be pronounced sulphuric ether,
was  so pronounced, and truly, there can also  be
no doubt; but that  it was the slops and  drainings
of Mr. Morton's sponges  and  inhalers, and of
ether, too,  bought after the  30th of September,
both from  the  analysis of Dr. Gay and a  sample
of the same now in our possession for the benefit
of the sceptical and curious, there is just as little
room to doubt.
  But there is  still other evidence of there being
no demijohn of sulphuric ether in  Mr. Morton's of-
fice, either in the summer, or in September, of 1846.
  Mr. Tenny  says : " I was  occasionally  in and
out of Mr.  Morton's office, from about the 10th
of September, 1846, until the first of October next
ensuing; all the different rooms of the office  were
accessible to, and visited by me ; there was  no
evidence  of a demijohn of  sulphuric,  chloric,  or
any form of ether there during the said interval
of time.   I think there could  not  have been any
sulphuric ether  in the  office  without my  having
detected its odor, if it had been used."
  Mr. Wilson was " quite frequently in and out
of Mr. Morton's office  during the month of  Sep-
tember, and also the  preceding summer months,
and  never  heard Mr. Morton  allude to  sulphuric
ether," and " never perceived  its odor about his
person,  or otherwise."   Mr. Hunt, who  was  an
assistant in the office in  the summer of 1846, uses
still stronger language <o the same effect. 
4
THE ETHER
CONTROVERSY
   So  that  if  there was sulphuric  ether in  Mr.
 Morton's office, there  is no probability of its hav-
 ing been used ; which is no better for Mr. Morton's
 claims than if there had been none there.  A>,-ain,
 it is not possible to discover  any reason  why  Mr.
 Morton should have bought  so large and unusual
 a quantity as a demijohn of sulphuric ether at  this
 time.   What could  have  been his motive or in-
 ducement?  Mr.  Morton pretends to but two  ex-
 periments with  sulphuric ether, previously to the
 purchase here alleged—one upon a water-spaniel,
 which  we shall  prove  directly could  never, in  any
 probability,  have been  performed, and  one upon
 himself, a few days previous.  But it  is also in
 proof, that Mr. Morton, as late as November, 1846,
 " had  never, in any instance, inhaled the ether,
 excepting in the atmosphere about him," and that
 he  never, during the fall of  1846, or the ensuing
 winter,  gave any of his assistants reason  to suspect
 that he had ever inhaled it, but  every  reason to
 suspect the contrary, from his most manifest fear of
 its effects.   We can disprove, still more  complete-
 ly, this pretended experiment uporuhimself.   Mr.
 Morton  says that the ether which he inhaled was
 purchased by Mr. Hayden,  at the  apothecary store
 of Mr.  Burnett, early  in August.   Mr. Hayden
 certifies that Mr.  Morton,  having inhaled it, in-
 formed  him of  the fact.   But Mr.  Hayden  has
 since  stated—as will  appear by the affidavit of
 Mr. Blaisdell—" that the ether to which  he swore
 as having been made use of  by Mr.  Morton, pre-
 viously  to Sept. the  30th, was  chloric,  and  not
 sulphuric;"  and Mr. Morton  himself, at the time
 Mr. Hayden made this  statement, substantially and
emphatically admitted that such was the  fact ; and
 Mr. Morton  has also given  Dr. Gay  distinctly to
 understand that there was no reference in the affi-
davits of his witnesses, to sulphuric ether.   How
absurd,  therefore,  that Mr. Morton  should have
commenced  his experiments by the purchase of a
 whole demijohn of sulphuric ether !
   We thus prove, that no demijohn of sulphuric
ether was purchased of Messrs. Brewers & Co.,
 about the first of August, as alleged ;
   Secondly; That it  is wholly improbable  that
 sulphuric  ether, in any quantity, was purchased
 of any one ; or, if purchased, that any  use was
 made of it in Mr. Morton's office ;
   And, thirdly; That  there was no ostensible rea-
 son why any should have been purchased.
   Again ; Thomas R.  Spear, Jr., one of the four
witnesses  under consideration, states, in his affi-
davit, that,  " about the first of August he inhaled
 some of the very ether  brought  by Leavitt from
 Messrs. Brewers &  Co., in a demijohn, in Dr.
 Morton's office."  There was not only no such
 ether to inhale, but Spear did not inhale  sulphuric
ether at all  until  the  November  following.   Mr.
 Hunt details the  circumstances  of  Spear's  first
 inhalation of the ether.  One evening Spear and
 Leavitt  endeavored to induce, one the   other,  to
 inhale it.  Spear at length consented, and handled
 a stranger in the  office quite rudely while under
its  influence.   Upon coming to himself,  he apol-
ogized for his rudeness, asking  the  stranger to
excuse him, " as this was the first time he had ever
taken the ether."   Hunt, thinking it barely possi-
ble that Spear might have intended this as only an
apology, after the gentleman had left, asked Spear
" if the  ether had  ever  affected  him in  the same
way before?"   " No,"  he replied,  " for I never
took it  before."   Hunt  speaks of other circum-
stances which fully satisfied him, at the time, that
Spear told him the truth.

  I, George H. Hayden,  of Calais, in the State of
Maine, on oath, depose  and say,  that I came to
Boston to reside, in the  fall of 1846, and resided
there from the first of the month of November until
the month of January next  ensuing; that some
time in the month of November of that year, Thom-
as R. Spear, Jr., stated to me that  the evening
before he had, for the first time, inhaled the vapor
of sulphuric ether, in the office of Dr. Morton, and
that it excited him  very much ; that while  under  its
influence he seized a stranger who was in the office.
Spear stated  to me, distinctly, that he "had never
inhaled the gas before."  He said  that it producei?
delightful sensations;  and I feel quite sure, from
the manner in  which  Spear spoke of the circum-
stance, that he stated  to me  the  truth,  and had
never inhaled the vapor before that  time.
                        George  H. Hayden.

   Suffolk,  ss.   April  24th,  1848.—Sworn to,
before me,            S. W. Robinson,
                          Justice of the Peace.

  Wilson also testifies that Spear,  about this time,
" suddenly commenced   inhaling  the  ether, and
was afterwards in the habit of inhaling it continu-
ally;" which strongly confirms Hayden and  Hunt.
  But  we should  feel perfectly  justified in dis-
believing Spear's account of his inhaling the ether
in August, from the circumstance  alone that there
was no  such ether to  inhale, as that which  he
positively asserts that he  did inhale.
  William P.  Leavitt,  another -of the" four wit-
nesses, describes  the inhalation,  by  Spear, of
Messrs.  Brewers & Co.'s ether, bought  by him-
self, quite minutely and vividly.   He  tells us,
moreover, that Hayden was an  eye-witness  to the
same experiment.   What  does Mr. Hayden say
about it ?   It was the  first  experiment he had
ever witnessed ; the first which Mr.  Morton says
he  performed on  a human being.   According to
Mr.  Morton  and  Leavitt, it  was attended with
very striking  and remarkable  effects, which they
remember most distinctly.  Hayden simply says
that Mr. Morton  " tried to induce"  Spear " to
take it."  Will Mr. Hayden say that it  was at a
different time that  Mr. Morton  " tried to induce"
Spear " to take it?"   Grant it.  Is Leavitt  not to
be believed because he says that Mr. Hayden was
an eye-witness to  this experiment; or, is Hayden
not to  be believed  because, having been an eye-
witness, he has told us  nothing about it  • or was
it concluded,  at the taking of the  testimony, that
Morton,  Leavitt and  Spear would  be witnesses
enough to this experiment ?
  We dismiss Leavitt with three words more.  First 
                                  THE  ETHER  C

he went to Messrs. Brewers & Co.—supposing him
to have gone—with a lie in his mouth as to whom
he wanted the ether for ; second, he did not go
there, as he alleges ; third, he swears to  an exper-
iment with the very ether that he says he bought,
which  we  have proved never to  have  been per-
formed.
   But  Spear's  is not the  only experiment pre-
tended.  Hayden tells us that Morton  informed
him, in August  of 1846, that he had just inhaled
the ether, and on the 30th of September  following
that he had also inhaled it on that day.  This lat-
ter is  the experiment of which Mr. Morton  gives
such a glowing  and detailed account in his me-
moir.
   But  Hunt gives us  the  circumstances in full
under  which Mr. Morton stated expressly to him,
in the following November, that " he had never, in
any instance, inhaled the ether excepting only in  the
atmosphere about him,"  It is, moreover, very re-
markable that Mr. Morton never, during  the whole
fall of 1846, alluded to  either  of the two experi-
ments  upon himself, or gave Wilson  or  Hemmen-
way, his two principal  operators, any reason to sus-
pect that he had performed them, and should have
manifested such a constant fear of  its effects upon
himself, as is testified to by  them.  Can any fur-
ther evidence be  required that Mr. Morton stated
falsely, to Mr. Hayden, that he  had  inhaled  the
ether,  whether it be once or  twice ?
   Mr. Morton also described  to  Mr. Hayden an
experiment performed by him upon  a  dog—the
water-spaniel of Mr. Morton's  memoir—" in  the
presence of two witnesses."   The animal " at first
wilted  completely away, then roused, yelled loudly,
and  leaped ten feet into  a pond."   Please to take
notice  that the effects produced  on  this dog, as  de-
scribed, " exactly corresponded  " to the effects pro-
duced  upon human subjects in Mr.  Morton's  office
even as  late as  March  the  25th, 1847,  as " wit-
nessed and sworn to" by Mr. Hayden himself.
   We  look in  vain for at  least one  of the two
witnesses to this, the  only  experiment,  in  addi-
tion  to the one upon  Spear and  the two  upon
himself,  pretended by  Mr.   Morton in  his  testi-
mony to have taken place, previously to the 30th
of September.   We have already proved that the
three last  named were  never  performed.  This,
therefore, was his only experiment.   Must he not
have known it, and does he think it unimportant
to attempt to prove it by testimony of any kind ?
A.re the two witnesses " spirits of the vasty deep"
that  "  would not come," or  have  they  forgotten
the experiment,  or has Mr. Morton forgotten who
they were ?  Would that iEsop  might live again
to give speech to the dog ! We  would gladly  abide
by his  testimony, either as   to  his having inhaled
the ether at all,  or as to  his having leaped the ten
feet.
   We have said that " Dr. Jackson was  uniformly
spoken  of, in the fall of 1846, and the greater
part of the  ensuing winter, by  all connected with
Mr. Morton's office, as the sole and exclusive au-
thor of the new discovery."  In  proof whereof,
                                             5  ,

see Hemmenway.   " The  ' common  report' of
the office during the first months of the applica-  j
tion  of the new agent, known as it  must have
been to Mr. Morton, and uncontradicted, so far as  .
I know, by him or by any one, ascribed  the author-  ]
ship of the new discovery exclusively to Dr. Jack-  ,
son."   Wilson and Hunt  fully sustain this  Ian-  j
guage of Hemmenway's.   Wilson speaks of this
ascription of the discovery exclusively to Dr Jack-  jj
son, as "an every day remark."
   Now these four witnesses  yielded an entire as-  -.
sent, during the said fall and winter, to this " com-  j
mon report," which assent alone,  by well-settled  j
principles of evidence, would  be  conclusive as
against any subsequent  statements  indicating a  |
changed  or opposite belief,  no new facts having  I
transpired, no reason being assigned, and it being  :
impossible to discover any,  why they should have
changed  their minds.                             ■
   But we  do  not rely upon their  silent assent  j
alone.  Spear told Hunt, in a walk to  East Cam-
bridge, that " Mr. Morton first  obtained ' the gas'  |
from  Dr. Jackson at his laboratory, on the 30th  I
of September ;  that he had tried it, and it worked
first-rate ; and that he had since then continued to  j
use it under the directions of Dr. Jackson."  This  i
was late in October, or  early in November, 1846.  i
Francis Whitman assured Hunt that he had heard  i
the truth in Spear's account.  Hunt says he  can-  I
not be deceived as  to the belief of Spear, at the
time of the above statement that Dr. Jackson was  '
the exclusive author of the  new discovery.
   If, therefore, the silent assent of these witnesses  i
to the one voice  and one  mind  of the office is  ,
not conclusive against their subsequent  testimony,  '
certainly their open, explicit, and  voluntary decla-
rations must so be taken.                         j
   At  any rate, it  is a  very remakable fact  that  j
these witnesses, immediately upon the taking of  jj
their testimony, did " all at once, and for the first  ,'
time," begin to harp  upon the before-named  ex-  j
periments pretended to  have been performed by  J
Mr. Morton previously to the 30th  of September ;  ]
the experiment upon the water-spaniel—the  two
experiments of  Mr.  Morton upon  himself—the  j
demijohn bought of Brewers, Stevens &  Cushing—  j
and the inhaling of that very same ether by Spear.  1
   We  dismiss  these  witnesses  with  one word
more  touching  Mr. Hayden.   Hayden stated to  !
Mr. Blaisdell,in June  or July, 1847, that when he  J
swore  in his affidavit that Mr. Morton had used  1
ether   in  the summer  and   September  of 1846,  •
" he  knew it was chloric ether, but he thought
he would write it as he did, and let people draw  j
what inferences they pleased." Does not this show  J
a manifest determination in Mr. Hayden to deceive
the public by his  testimony, and  does it not cast  |
a  still more fatal suspicion  upon the  mysterious  j
circumstances under which it first saw the  light?   j
   R.  H. Dana, Jr., Esq., and Dr. Francis Dana,
Jr., infer from Mr. Morton's having  mentioned to  u
them, in  the summer of 1846, that "  he was en-  |
gaged upon something which, if successful, would  |
revolutionize the  practice of dentistry," that Mr.  |
ONTROVERSY. 
  "                                THE ETHER (

  Morton  alluded to the ether discovery.   Messrs.
  Wilson  and Hunt will inform the Messrs. Dana
  what it was to which Mr.  Morton was accustomed
  to apply the very  words addressed to them.  Says
  Wilson, " During the summer  of 1846 I often
;  heard Morton speak of a  new discovery which he
ij  was  about  to  publish to  the world, to which he
j  was  giving his whole energies, and which, in his
j  own  words, ' would revolutionize  the whole prac-
{  tice  of  dentistry,  and secure to  him  a fortune;'
  but he never hesitated to tell me  that  it consisted
  of  a  new composition for  filling teeth, and a new
  mode of making teeth and setting them to plate."
  Wilson adds that  " this was Morton's great hobby
  in the summer of 1846, and in September of the
  same year."   Hunt tells us that Morton spoke to
  him of these improvements as being a discovery,
  which, in Morton's own language, " would enable
  him to uptip and monopolize the whole practice of
  dentistry in  the city, and be  worth one or  two
  hundred dollars a  day to him."
    It  thus appears that Mr. Morton's time and en-
  ergies were almost wholly  consumed,  in the sum-
  mer  and early autumn of 1846, with  this last-
  named discovery.   It is  probably this discovery,
  and Mr. Morton's use of chloric ether for the pur-
  pose  of destroying the sensibility of teeth, as ap-
  pears from Wilson, which  constitute  the ground-
  work of the disjointed and ragged recollections to
  which  Mr. Morton's  witnesses  swore, so far as
  there is any  groundwork to their  recollections
  at all.

                    CHAPTER  II.
    The letters  of  Messrs.  Metcalf and Wightman
  are relied upon as evidence that Mr. Morton was,
  on the thirtieth day  of September, A.  D.  1846,
  more  or less acquainted with the idea and use of
  the new application of sulphuric ether.   Less im-
  portance will be attached to letters such as these,
  by cautious readers, than  to statements  given un-
  der oath.  There is nothing like  an oath to fasten
  honest witnesses,  which both of these gentlemen
  unquestionably are, to the  letter of their recollec-
  tions.  The witness  himself attaches  greater im-
  portance to  statements thus given, and is more
  careful and definite.
    Testimony of so extremely indefinite a character
  as that contained  in the letter of  Mr.  Wightman,
  would be rejected in  a court of law, as not being
  entitled  to weight as evidence, unless there should
  be accompanying  testimony to give it definiteness,
  which in the present case is most sadly wanting.
    Mr. Wightman says that his acquaintance with
  Mr. Morton commenced in the  summer of 1846.
  We  are enabled to approximate, in some measure,
  to the date, with  the  assistance of Mr.  Chamber-
  lain.   Mr.  Chamberlain testifies,  that "late in the
  summer, or early in the  autumn"  Mr. Morton
  called on him to  obtain gas bags for a blow-pipe
  apparatus, an instrument which Mr. Morton prob-
  ably  needed to carry on the  improvements which
  we  have shown  him to  havebeen engaged upon
  in mechanical dentistry.  Not being satisfied with
ONTROVERS •

Mr. Chamberlain's prices, Mr. Morton  asked if
such  apparatus was made elsewhere in the city.
Mr. Chamberlain referred him to Mr. Wightman,
when Mr. Morton asked who  Mr. Wightman was,
and where  was  his  place   of  business?   Mr.
Wightman's first acquaintance with Mr.  Morton
must, therefore, have been after this interview.  Mr.
Wightman says that his second interview with Mr.
Morton took place " loithin a few weeks, he should
think," after  the first, and  according to the testi-
mony of Mr. Morton,  it could not have been until
after the middle of September,  when he returned to
Boston from the  country, where he had gone early
in the month of August.
   Approaching  thus  nearly by the testimony of
the  other  party to the  month  of October,  we
can  attach very  little  value to a circumstance by
which Mr. Wightman says that he enables him-
self to remember that  it occurred before the 28th
of  September, especially  as that circumstance is
withheld by him.  Again ;  for what purpose  did
Mr. Morton seek his  second  interview with  Mr.
Wightman ?   Mr.  Wightman tells us that it was
to ascertain the  effect of sulphuric ether upon In-
dia rubber bags.   Is it not, therefore, in the high-
est degree probable, that the interview in  question
took place at the time  when Mr. Morton, after  the
30th of September, first set about inventing some
apparatus for the  inhalation  of sulphuric ether?
Is it not likely that Mr. Morton, when he left Mr.
Chamberlain's,  went directly  to  Mr. Wightman,
and asked him,  as he had Mr. Chamberlain,  con-
cerning the different  gases and  bags  which  he
might use in connection with the blow-pipe appa-
ratus,  which he was upon at that  time ; and may
not Mr. Wightman have confounded this interview
with a conversation or conversations respecting the
effect  of  sulphuric ether upon India rubber bags,
when, after the  30th  of September,  he  actually
was constructing an  inhaler  with bags  of India
rubber cloth ?   Or, if Mr.  Morton  did  not go to
Mr. Wightman from Mr. Chamberlain, has not Mr.
Wightman antedated the interview in question a lit-
tle?—a little, we say,  for at the farthest, we come
within a very few days  of one another. A person so
extremely indefinite in his dates as  Mr.  Wight-
man, is more easily deceived in this  regard than
he  is  apt  to  suppose.  If, in point of fact,  any
conversation took place in the cars, on the 28th of
September, between Mr. Wightman and Mr. Mor-
ton, in respect to ether as an  agent for producing
insensibility, it probably had  reference to chloric
ether, but only as a  narcotic for  destroying  the
sensibility of  teeth, which, it appears by Wilson,
was at that time used  by Mr.  Morton for this pur-
pose.
   That Mr. Wightman is confused and mistaken in
his recollection of the  date of the interview under
discussion, and  that Mr. Morton  did not consult
with him, with  regard to the  effect of ether upon
India rubber, prior to the 30th of September, is  also
proved by  other circumstances.  If Mr. Morton
was contriving  an  inhaler with India rubber  bags
[previously to  September 28th, why has  not  Mr. 
?HE  ETHER CONTROVERSY.
 Hayden recollected the  fact, and why  have not
 Whitman  and Leavitt and  Spear testified  to  it?
 Surely it was very  material to confirm the state-
 ment of Mr. Wightman,  and to establish the pre-
 tensions of Mr. Morton, and yet these witnesses are
 all  silent  upon  the matter.  Perhaps they will
 recollect it now!
   Notice also the absurdity of Mr. Morton's state-
 ment upon this subject.  After giving his account
 of the conversation  with Mr. Wightman, he says:
 " I took from Mr. Wightman's a glass tunnel, pur-
 chased an India rubber bag on my way, and returned
 to my office."  He went there to procure the same
 article,  and  he asked Mr. Wightman to show him
 some of his  gas bags.  Why, therefore, did he  not
 make his  purchase  of Mr. Wightman ?   Mr. Mor-
 purchased a bag on his way to his office!   Where
 did he  purchase it ?  At whose store ?  Why  has
 not Mr. Morton fixed the  date of his visit  to Mr.
 Wightman, and  thereby confirmed  the indistinct
 statement of that  gentleman by  the  testimony of
 the person of whom he bought the gas bag ?
    Again, if Mr.  Morton had purchased a gas  bag
 prior to the  28th of September, why should he have
 been in want of another  on the 30th of the  month,
 when he went  to Dr. Jackson's  laboratory  to bor-
 row one ?   Had the  former bag, and the one also
 which  Spear swears that  he saw in  Mr. Morton's
 office in August, been dissolved  by tRe agency of
 ether,  or  was he contriving some very complicated
 apparatus for its inhalation ?
    Again, Mr. Morton states, that, upon his return
 to his office from Mr. Wightman's, he " sent Leav-
 itt to Dr. Gay, a chemist, to ask the simple ques-
 tion, whether ether would dissolve  India  rubber?
, He  (Leavitt) returned,  saying that  Dr. Gay was
 not in."  Mr. Leavitt has, however, testified, that
 he went to  call upon Dr. Gay, but could not find
 his residence.   He  has not,  it is true,  fixed the  day
 when  he  went to  call^upon Dr.  Gay for this pur-
 pose, but there is no evidence  that  he was sent
 twice, and the language  which he has put into Mr.
 Morton's  mouth proves that the same transaction
 is referred to by both parties.  Does not this con-
 tradiction in the testimony of Mr. Morton and Mr.
 Leavitt, add  greatly to  the  improbability  of  the
 statement of the former.
    We submit, therefore, that the account given by
 Mr. Morton of his alleged visit to the office  of Mr.
 Wightman  in September is in the highest  degree
 absurd and  improbable, and that the  testimony of
 Mr. Wightman must relate to an interview in the
 month  of October, when,  as we do  not question,
 Mr. Morton did call upon him to  procure some ap-
 paratus for the inhalation of ether.
    As to Mr. Metcalf "s  letter.   Mr. Metcalf  has
 stated  since his letter was written, that the  vial of
 ether which Mr. Morton held in his hand  in Mr.
 Burnett's store, early in  the summer  of 1846, was
 either a one or two  ounce vial.   We understand
 Mr. Metcalf will  not state on  oath that  it con-
 tained  sulphuric  ether.   He only believes it was
 so  labelled.   Mr.  Metcalf will  not probably
 swear  that  Mr. Morton  did really  purchase  the
said  vial of  ether.   Mr. Morton held it  in  his
hand, and  he (Mr.  Metcalf)  therefore supposed
that  he was purchasing it.  Mr. Metcalf will not
probably swear  that Mr.  Morton made, if  any,
other than the most general  inquiries respecting
sulphuric ether ; or that what  was said in  regard
to ether as a substitute for nitrous oxide, was not
wholly volunteered  by himself,  which  is  much
more likely to have been the case, from the fact of
Mr.  Metcalf's having had  some experience with
it as such  a substitute.   Upon the hypothesis
of sulphuric  ether,  did  not  Mr.  Morton wish
to ascertain  whether  it  might  not  be a  better  i]j
article for destroying the sensibility of teeth, than
chloric  ether, which he was  using ?  It  is  also  A
to be noticed that Mr. Morton  tells us what he did  j;
with the sulphuric ether which he bought at other  |
times.  Will he tell  us  what he did with this?  ,:
Mr.  Metcalf says that this was merely an acciden-  y
tal conversation  with Mr. Morton, which " quickly  |
passed from his mind,"   It  was  brought  back™
to him some time  and some  where  while  in  Eu-
rope, when he first  heard of  the discovery of the  i
new use of  sulphuric ether.   Is not this last cir-
cumstance all which has led  Mr. Metcalf to con-jj
nect a forgotten conversation with sulphuric ether?
Connecting  with  Mr.  Metcalf's letter the other j
testimony  in the  case, the hypothesis  that  Mr.  ,
Morton's inquiries were  concerning chloric ether, i
is by far the most reasonable.                     i
   As to Mr. Morton's memoir.   His story about1
the  water spaniel we have  submitted to  be un-'
true.  Also the purchase  of sulphuric ether by
 Hayden at Burnett's, early in  August.   The mat-ji
ter of the  demijohn is a third falsehood.   Spear's*
inhalation  of a  portion of its contents, a  fourth, i
 The analysis of another portion of the contents of  \
the  same vessel, a fifth.   The pretension  that ifl
its contents had been a more respectable quality of
sulphuric ether, he (Mr. Morton)  should have made.'j
 the  discovery in  August instead of Septembers
is a sixth.   His two experiments upon himself, aj
seventh and eighth.   His account of  his interview^
with Dr. Jackson  on the 30th of September, when;
he  thought  it necessary to carry his deception to.
such  an  extent  as to  inquire  of  Dr. Jackson;
whether sulphuric ether was liquid or gaseous, lestS
Dr.  Jackson " should," in his own words, " snatch'
the  prize from his grasp,"  is  a ninth.  His state!
ment that he inhaled the ether on the 30th  of Sep-I
tember,  with a  tube and flask, obtained from Dr.j
Jackson's  laboratory on  that  day, and which we
 prove by the sequels to the original affidavits of j
 Barnes and Mclntire, that he did not obtain until!
two or three days after the 30th, is  a tenth.   His]
account, as appears from Barnes and Mclntire, atj
the  laboratory of Dr. Jackson, on Oct. the 1st, that!
he only inhaled  it on the 30th with a handkerchief}^
is the eleventh.  The account, also, that he  inhaled
it from a sponge on the same  occasion, as given by
Mr.  Edward Warren,  and  endorsed  by Mr. Mor-
ton, is the twelfth.  (Three different accounts,  itj
will be perceived, of an experiment which is proved
never to have happened.)   His account of an oper-l 
8
THE ETHEK  CONTROVERT
I ation  upon  the wife and  aunt of  Dr.  Jackson,
( as will  appear from Mrs. Bridge and  Miss Bart-
| let, is the thirteenth.   His false assertion that his
| first successful experiment got into the papers with-
; out his knowledge, as will  appear by the next fol-
| lowing  affidavit,  is the fourteenth.   But we  for-
; bear, not because the reader  has been told all the
 falsehoods  in  Mr. Morton's memoir, but because
 we have sufficiently discredited  him.   We beg the
1 reader's  pardon for so far departing  from the dig-
 nity which belongs to so grave  a discussion.

    I, A. G. Tenney, of Boston,  County of Suffolk,
 and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath de-
 pose and say, that I was an eye-witness to the ex-
 periment performed  with the vapor of  sulphuric
 ether by Mr. W.  T. G.  Morton, of this city, at his
 office, on the evening of the 30th of September, A.
 D. 1846.   I allude to the experiment performed on
 Mr. Eben H. Frost.
    On the following morning Mr. Morton called at
 the office  of  the Daily Evening Journal, with
 which  I was then connected, and requested me to
 insert a notice of the said experiment in  the paper
 of  that day.   I stated to him that the  regulations
 of  the  office  would require  that he should  first
 become an advertiser.   In the course  of the morn-
 ing I received word that Mr. Morton had directed
 'he insertion of his advertisement, and thereupon
 wrote a notice of the experiment aforesaid, which
 jame out in the Journal of the same evening.
    The same morning there was considerable con-
 versation between us in relation to the experiment
 )f  the preceding  evening,  in the course  of which
 Vlr. Morton stated that he  had  received the assur-
 inces of Dr. Jackson,  that the application of the
 )reparation  which he had  used was  perfectly safe
 md harmless.   Mr. Morton, a few days afterwards,
  epeated the same statement to me.
    I was occasionally in and out of  Mr. Morton's
  iffice, from  about the  10th of September, A. D.
  846, until the first of October next ensuing.   All
  he different rooms of the office were accessible to
  ,nd visited  by me.  There was no  evidence of a
  emijohn of sulphuric, chloric, or any form of ether in
  he office, during the said interval of time.  I think
  here could not have been any sulphuric ether there,
  without my having detected its  odor,  if it had been
  .sed.
    I never  saw Mr. Morton administer the ether,
  xcepting on the  evening of the 30th  of September
  foresaid, although connected with his office from
  ie 12th of  October, 1846,  until  after  the com-
  lencement of the year  1847.
    From the statements and expressions  of assist-
  nts in the office, I was led to conclude that they
  ad no confidence in Mr. Morton's knowledge of the
  ature  and proper application of the ether.   Mr.
  lorton appeared  to have  little or no connection
  nth the responsibility of their experiments.
                               A.  G.  Tenney.

1    We  come now to the 30th of September.   We
   ave  followed Mr. Morton through with  all his
   sstimony up to  this date.   We have endeavored
   dthfully and fairly to discuss every  material item
   F it.   We  now stand with  Mr. Morton, in the
   iboratory of  Dr.  Jackson.   We ask Mr. Dana,
^   re ask the chairman of the committee of the Trus-
   ses of the Massachusetts General Hospital, who
attempts to justify,  with  such zealous advocacy.
the pretensions of Mr.  Morton, what knowledge
Mr. Morton had,  on  that day, which he could have
concealed from Dr. Jackson?  What evidence is
there  of any ?  What evidence is  there that Mr.
Morton had ever made the new application of sul-
phuric ether a subject of previous  observation, in-
quiry, study, or experiment ?   Mr. Morton tells us,
in his memoir, that he kept  back, at the interview
with Dr. Jackson, the knowledge at which he had
arrived, as the result of his studies and experiments,
lest Dr. Jackson should suspect his discovery, and
steal  it from him.   Observe that we  have to  de-
pend  upon Mr. Morton's word alone, the value of
which we believe we have, in  the most effectual
way possible, already submitted to the public,  for
the only account given us of this piece of deception.
Mr. Morton's account has  been  substituted  by Mr.
Bowditch and Mr. Dana,  in the place of the sim-
ple and straightforward narratives given by Barnes
and Mclntire, in their  affidavits, of  the  circum-
stances in full, of this interview.  It is now in our
power to add yet a third narrative of this interview,
agreeing with those of Barnes and Mclntire, almost
letter  for  letter, and " received by Mr. Wilson,"
without solicitation, " from Mr. Morton's own lips,
in November, 1846."   Says Wilson, Mr. Morton
related to me the following facts.   " On one occa-
sion a lady called at the office to procure a  set of
artificial teeth.   It  became necessary to  extract
several stumps.   The lady was timid and sensitive,
and shrank from the operation.   In order to prevail
upon  her to submit to the  instrument, I determined
in some way to act upon her imagination, and for
this purpose went to the laboratory of Dr. Jackson,
to procure an India rubber bag, which I  proposed
to inflate with atmospheric air, and then  persuade
the patient to inhale from it, stating to her, at  the
same  time, that  she would experience  no pain
from  the operation.   Dr.   Jackson scouted  the
idea of  practising  any such deception,  directing
me to administer  the vapor of sulphuric ether, with
a handkerchief or folded cloth, which would render
the patient  insensible, when I could  extract  her
teeth  without  her knowing it.   I instantly seized
upon  the new idea, and immediately commenced my
first experiments with the ether."   These are ad-
missions made voluntarily by Mr. Morton himself
against his own  interests—the highest  evidence
known to the law.
   These three narratives  taken together, place be-
yond  a doubt Mr. Morton's total ignorance, on  the
30th  of Sept., of the properties and effects of  sul-
phuric ether; Dr. Jackson's knowledge of its perfect
safety and applicability as an anaesthetic agent, his
communication of the discovery to Mr. Morton  and
the committing to him, as his agent,—with the re-
quisite and specific instructions, and an express  and
actual assumption of the whole responsibility__of
the first surgical experiment and testing of the new
agent.   The perfect  newness of Mr.  Morton's
delight  upon  receiving this trust,  was  equalled
only  by his ignorance of the  agent intrusted to
him. 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.
9
                   CHAPTER III.

    Dr. Jackson's mind is to be seen no less clearly
  in the demonstration than in  the authorship of the
  new  discovery.    Mr. Morton, because his hand
  extracted the first tooth without pain to his patient,
  is no more to be  considered  the discoverer of the
  new  use of ether,  than the sailor who  first shouted
  " Land !" from  mast-head, and not Columbus, is to
  be considered the  discoverer  of the New World.
  Taking the authorship of the idea—or the demon-
  stration of it—it is Dr. Jackson's mind only which
  we see.  It was his mind only which Mr. Morton
  himself saw, during the early application of the new
  agent.  It was  his mind alone which was recog-
  nized  by the assistants  in his office, and  made by
  them their exclusive guide in the demonstration of
  the discovery.
    We care not whether Mr.  Morton, by the word
  " discovery," means " authorship," or " demonstra-
  tion," one or both.  During the early application of
  the ether in his  office, he unhesitatingly proclaimed
  Dr. Jackson  its "sole  and exclusive  discoverer."
  And  Mr. Morton said this, we have not a doubt, be-
  cause he saw Dr. Jackson's  mind  in all, and  over
  all, authorship  and  demonstration  alike.   It  was
  the tribute which his own good sense, and the good
  sense of the ether operators  of his office, and  the
  force  of an urgent practical truth, compelled them
  to pay to the mind which guided and  directed  the
  whole operations of their hands. On these  points,
  let us listen first to Mr. Morton, and  then  to  his
  "ether corps."
   Says Wilson,  "  Mr. Morton, in November, 1846,
 stated to me that ' he was indebted  to  Dr. Jackson
 for the idea of the new application of ether, and had
 received instructions from him how  to apply  it.'"
   Again : " Respecting the authorship of the dis-
 covery, I  do not feel the least  embarrassment or
 doubt; for my  opinion  has been wholly founded
 upon the narrative  and declarations of Mr. Morton,
 in which uniformly, and without reserve, he ascribed
 its authorship to Dr. Jackson, never speaking of
 himself, otherwise  than  as the first and fortunate
 person to whom Dr. Jackson had communicated  it."
   Robinson.  " Mr. Morton unreservedly admitted
 that there  was some one behind himself connected
 with the discovery, as its  originator, and that  Dr.
 Jackson was that person."
   Blaisdell. " Mr.  Morton stated that  the idea of
 employing sulphuric ether, for the purpose before
 mentioned, was first suggested  to him by Dr. Jack-
 son.   I asked him,  therefore, if it was Dr. Jackson
 who made the  discovery?  Mr. Morton  at once
 answered that he did, and  that  Dr. Jackson had
 communicated it  to him,  with instructions as  to the
 proper mode of applying  the ether, and  that having
 acted in accordance with  his advice,  his (Morton's)
 practice had  been  successful, the result in  every
 way answering to Dr. Jackson's prediction.   I met
 Mr. Morton frequently afterwards,  and conversed
 with him upon the subject of ether.  He uniformly
 made the same declarations, awarding the discovery
to Dr.  Jackson."
   Payne. " During this interview,"  (at Mr.  Mor-
 ton's office, Jan. 2, 1847,) " Dr. Morton stated, rel
 peatedly and  emphatically, that Dr. Charles  T.!
 Jackson was  the  sole discoverer of the new agent?
 for  producing insensibility to pain,  and that Dr,
 Jackson  had  communicated  it to him.  Further-I
 more, that all the knowledge he possessed, of its|
 properties and its application, had come to him from'
 Dr. Jackson, and that he had never had any idea of1!
 applying sulphuric ether, or that it could be applied,'
 for  the  aforesaid  purpose, until Dr. Jackson  had
 suggested it to him, and  given him full directions]
 for  applying it."
   Dr. Payne is  recommended  to our  confidence^
 by  Hon. A.  R.  Hadley, Speaker  of the House'i'
 of Assembly of the State of New York, and byi<j
 other highly respectable citizens of that  state, as a!
 gentleman of truth and veracity, "and as standing
 among the first in his profession."               \
   Did Mr.  Morton ascribe the discovery to  Dr.p
 Jackson, in  the strong language which has beenjj
 given, in order to inspire confidence  in it, in thei
 mind of Dr. Payne, and thereby induce him to pur-
 chase a right under his patent ?
   But Dr. Payne, when  he came to this city, had'
 already used the ether for a considerable time, hadj
 investigated its properties, and fully tested  its ap-
 plicability for  the purposes of its newly-discovered i
 use. An "injunction" had been sorved upon him i
 in Troy.   He came to Boston, not for information,
 but  protection.  His business was with the propri-'
 etor of the patent, not with the author of the  dis-''
 covery.   Mr. Morton  "offers to call  with  Dr. i
 Payne upon the author of the discovery, who will \
 give him  any information  he may desire."  But i
 no ; Dr. Payne cannot be  better convinced than he ;
 is already, or better assured, even by one  of the!
 best chemists in the country, of the perfect  practi-|]
 cability and safety of the  new agent.
   What motive had Mr.  Morton to tell  a gentle-
 man, upon whom  he must have known  Dr. Jack-,]
 son's assurances could have no weight or influence, \
 that the discovery belonged exclusively to Dr. Jack- j
 son ?  It is not human nature thus voluntarily to «
 admit  away a discovery, of which  the magnitude '
 and  greatness were so  fully foreseen.   Mr. Mor- |
 ton's declarations  to Dr.  Payne are inexplicable |
 upon any other hypothesis than  that he believed |
 what he stated.                                 fj
   There  are  many others who came to  Mr. Mor- |
 ton under precisely the circumstances which brought
 Dr. Payne to this  city, and to whom he made the '
 very same statements.                            ,
   Now as to the ether corps of the office :—      t
                                                ■ ;
  I,  L. E. Hemmenway, of Boston, County of Suf- |j
 folk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath I:
 depose and say, that I was  an assistant  dentist in j!
 the office  of Mr. W. T.  G. Morton, of  this city, |
 from about the  15th  of October, A. D. 1846, until |
 after the commencement of the year 1847.
  While in Mr. Morton's office I formed the belief ^j
that  Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of this  city, was the j
first and exclusive discoverer of etherization.  This I
belief I was in the  habit at the time  of frequently I

                                                I 
rONTROVERSi.
 10                                THE  ETHER

 declaring to others.  I founded it upon the fact that I
 in all questions, which arose in the office, touching
 the  nature and properties of sulphuric ether, and
 the judiciousness and safety of its application, (and
 they were of almost daily occurrence during the
 early  period of its application,) the decision and
 instructions of Dr. Jackson were  required by the
 operators, and obtained, either by Mr. Morton him-
 self, or his brother-in-law, Mr.  Francis Whitman.
 I founded it also upon the fact, that during the early
 application of the ether, Mr. Morton neither ap-
 peared nor pretended to have any knowledge of its
 nature and effects, excepting as derived from Dr.
 Jackson ; upon the fact,  that Dr. Morton  never, to
 my  knowledge, inhaled its vapor, or spoke of hav-
 ing inhaled it, or, excepting in one instance, applied
 it to a patient in the office himself, during its early
 application ;  upon the fact of his constant repetition
 of the assurances of Dr. Jackson, that the vapor of
 pure sulphuric ether, as an agent for producing in-
 sensibility to  pain, during the performance  of our
 dental, and  of  all surgical operations,  was  per-
' fectly  safe, if judiciously administered ;  upon the
 fact, that  he  cast the whole responsibility of the
 consequences which should result from our experi-
1 ments, upon Dr. Jackson and ourselves ;  upon the
1 fact, that the occasional directions which he  haz-
j arded  upon his own responsibility, were at variance
1 with those brought to us, as aforesaid, from Dr.
'Jackson,  that they were regarded by us as  injudi-
1 cious, and that, as a general thing, we did not dare
 to follow them ; upon the fact, also, that the  " com-
 mon report" of the office, during the  first months
 of the application of the new agent, known, as it
 must have been, to  Morton, but never, so far as I
 know, contradicted by him or  by any one, ascribed
 the authorship of the new discovery exclusively to
 Dr.  Jackson.
   So intimately was Dr. Jackson connected, by his
 directions, instructions, and authority, coming to us
 as aforesaid, with  all  of  our experiments, and so
 entirely did we distrust and set aside Mr.  Morton's
 own unadvised directions, that if etherization had
 resulted  in a failure, I should have considered it
 the  failure of Dr. Jackson, and not of Mr. Morton.
   I  have heard Mr. Morton state, that Mr.  R.  H.
 Eddy, of this city, would not, as he had  stated to
'him, take the sum of sixty thousand dollars, for his
 (Mr. Eddy's) interest in the patent taken  out upon
 the  new discovery.
                          L.^ E. Hemmenway.
   Suffolk ss.  Boston,  May 4th, 1848.   Sworn to
 by the said Hemmenway this day, before  me,
                         S. W.  Robinson,
                          Justice of the  Peace.
   Hunt  tells us, " Dr.  Jackson's  directions and
 instructions were made the rule of all our experi-
 ments.   The directions which  Mr. Morton some-
 times  gave us we did not think it  safe to follow,
 they being generally rash and injudicious."
   Says  Wilson,  "In  my administration  of the
 ether  I  was guided  by, and relied solely upon,
: the  advice and assurances of Dr. Jackson, received
 through Morton.  We did not dare  to follow Mor-
i ton's  own directions. If  we had  followed even
I the  few  which  he volunteered  upon  his own re-
sponsibility, and  not confined   ourselves  strictly
,i within the directions and authority of Dr. Jackson,
! received  as aforesaid, and the  teachings  of  our
 own observation and experience, I  have  no doubt
 that dangerous, and even  fatal results would have
I ensued, and etherization at that time have resulted
 in a failure."
   Tenney tells us, that " From the statements and
 expressions of assistants in the office, I was led to
 conclude that they had no confidence in Mr. Mor-
 ton's  knowledge of the nature or proper applica-
 tion of the  ether.   Mr. Morton appeared  to have
 little  or  no connection with the  responsibility of
 their experiments."
   One word as to the gentlemen  whose testimony
 we  have produced.   Among  them are  included
 all who were ether operators in Mr. Morton's  of-
 fice in  the fall  of 1846,  excepting Mr. Hayden,
 the same who belongs  to  Mr. Morton's coterie of
 witnesses,  who  administered it but occasionally,
 when  there  was  more  than  ordinary  pressure
 of business.    The  gentlemen  produced  by us
 have  hitherto  observed  a  strict neutrality and si-
 lence.   Animated by the  "esprit du corps," they
 were  unwilling to  say anything which might affect
 unfavorably him whom they had  served ; but they
 have at length felt it to be their  duty to the pub-
 lic to expose, by the  statement  of facts, which,
 from  the circumstances of their  connection with
 Mr. Morton, lay  peculiarly  within their knowl-
 edge, the gross and high-handed  imposture which
 they have  seen him  attempt to practise upon the
 world.
   It has been charged upon Mr.  Barnes,  that  his
 testimony wants in accuracy,  for the  reason  that
 six  or eight months  elapsed  after  the conversa-
 tion which he relates took place,  before it was put
 to writing  by him.  If this  length of time  had
 elapsed beforehand, it would be a proof of nothing
 but  the  astonishing  accuracy  and fidelity of  his
 memory, for  his narrative is almost literally veri-
 fied by Mr. Morton's narrative to Wilson, in Nov.,
 1846, already  given.    But no  such length of time
 did elapse; Mr. Barnes' testimony was all in writ-
 ing,  within six  weeks after the  conversation  oc-
 curred, of which we have abundant proof.
   To  conclude  the  argument of  the preceding
 chapters; we  have in our possession a copy of a
 " Statement," by Dr. Augustus A. Gould, of this
 city, drawn up in the  earlier  period of  the con-
 troversy, in fulfilment of an  understanding with
 Mr. Morton, and expressly purporting to state the
 whole ground  of Mr. Morton's claims to the dis-
 covery of etherization.   No mention whatever is
 made  in this " Statement" of any studies  or ex-
 periments of Mr. Morton previously to the  30th of
 September, 1846.
   Again;  why did not Mr. Morton, when  R. H.
 Eddy, Esq., his counsel in taking out a patent on
 the new discovery, stated to him  that " Dr. Jack-
 son  should be made a party to the  instrument, inas-
 much as he had first suggested  the new application
 of the ether,"—why, we ask,  did Mr. Morton  not
 tell  Mr. Eddy that the idea was,  in some measure,
 at least, the result of his previous studies and  ex-
 periments,  and why did  he assent fully  that  the
 suggestion came entirely from the source  to which
 Mr. Eddy  ascribed it,  and  then  proceed  directly
 to confirm  that assent by conduct so naturally the
 result of it ? 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.
11
                   CHAPTER IV.
   The idea of the applicability of sulphuric ether
as  an  agent  for  producing  insensibility to  pain
during surgical  operations,  was  perfectly  well
known to the mind of Dr. Jackson before the 30th
of  September, A.  D. 1846 ;  and on that day Dr.
Jackson,  through Mr. Morton,  introduced, for the
first time, the new agent into the surgical practice
of  the medical  and  dental professions.  In sub-
stantiation of which proposition we quote Dr. Gay:

   Dr. Jackson was for  many  years in the  habit,
when at work in his laboratory, of inhaling occa-
sionally to  a greater or less extent the  vapor of
sulphuric ether,  to relieve the irritation produced by
the various  noxious fumes to which he was at times
exposed.   He knew that a long continued  inhala-
tion of it was supposed by physiologists to be dan-
gerous ;  and  about six years ago—with a view of
observing fully  the  effects of  this inhalation—he
breathed  the vapor for a longer time  than he pre-
viously had done.   In  this experiment, a peculiar
sleep or  unconsciousness was  produced; he  ob-
served that it was  of short duration, attended with
no unpleasant sensations, and  no symptoms  which
seemed to him to  be dangerous.  In the winter of
 1841—42, he inhaled  sulphuric ether in order to
obtain relief from the very unpleasant sensations,
caused by an accidental inhalation of chlorine gas.
He thought that in  this case  some  relief  might
possibly arise from the  union  of the hydrogen of
the ether with the chlorine, forming hydrochloric
acid ; which acid  would be less irritating than the
uncombined chlorine ; and  he inhaled  ammonia, to
neutralize the acid, and form muriate of ammonia,
less irritating still.  He at first breathed  the ether
without  producing unconsciousness,  but derived
from  it some  relief.  Afterwards,  still  suffering
from the  chlorine,  he continued the experiment to
such an extent as  to  produce complete general in-
sensibility.   Full  relief from  the  suffering was
experienced before he became  unconscious,  and it
continued for a short  time after the insensibility had
passed away.    When  the  system had   become
wholly free from  the  influence of the ether, the
painful sensations  returned, although with  some-
what diminished violence.
   Dr. Jackson also prescribed the ether to  one of
his students, Dr. William  F. Channing, who was
suffering  in the  same manner  from chlorine gas.
The  effect  of the  chlorine was to produce a spas-
modic sensation, and, to quote Dr. Channing's own
words, " distress of respiration, of such a character,
as  to make me apprehend an immediately  fatal
result." He also found entire, but temporary, relief
from the  ether.   It was 'evident, therefore, as this
perfect relief from suffering, at first experienced, so
soon  passed away, that there must be some other
explanation of these effects,  besides that founded
on  the possible neutralization of the chlorine by the
hydrogen of the  ether,  and of the acid  by the am-
monia ; because, if these combinations of chlorine
and hydrogen, and of the acid  and ammonia, had
once been formed,  they would  have  been perma-
nent ;  and the relief, having been a result of these
combinations,  would  have  been  permanent also.
This was  not the case, for the peculiarly unpleasant
sensations from the chlorine returned, although with
less violence.
  The question now arises, how far is Dr. Jackson
entitled to the credit of  having discovered the pre-
cise character of the unconsciousness  induced by
3 I
inhaling  the  vapor of sulphuric  ether, and  espe-
cially the important fact of the safety of the inhala-
tion?  Before his observations, a state of complete
insensibility from this cause, was considered, by the
best authorities, as one of greater or less danger;
and  it had been known to produce fatal  results
Young persons had breathed this vapor to the extent
of producing  unconsciousness, and in some  cases
without  injury. In Philadelphia it was  breathed \
by some lads, who poured the  ether into bladders,
which they dipped into hot water, in order to vapor-
ize  it; they then  inhaled the vapor thus formed;
Dr. Mitchell states that, in some instances, it proved
fatal.*   These facts give some  idea of the state of
knowledge upon the subject,  before  Dr. Jackson
made sulphuric ether an  object of investigation.
Acquainted with the opinions  of others,  and also
with the fact, that this vapor had  in various in-
stances been breathed without serious or unpleasant
consequences, and  having performed  bold experi-
ments upon himself, he,  at last, in  opposition to \
the  opinion of other physiologists, arrived  at  the
conclusion, that the inhalation of a proper mixture
of sulphuric ether  and atmospheric air is  perfectly
safe ; and that the state of unconsciousness thereby
induced  has  all the various other characters which
have been  described, and  which later  experiments I
have fully established.   That  he had  perfect and j
unwavering  confidence in  the correctness  of his ]
opinion, will  be proved in the sequel.   If we con- :
trast the state of general information and belief
concerning the effects of sulphuric ether previous to ''
Dr.  Jackson's investigations, with that which now
exists, and if we recollect that this change is due to
him, it  would seem  but just to admit  his claim to \
have discovered, in the  insensibility induced by the
sulphuric ether, qualities of inestimable value.
  Dr. Jackson  conceived the  idea, that the pain *;
attending surgical operations might  be prevented '
by  inhaling the vapor  of sulphuric  ether  to  the
extent of producing general unconsciousness.   His j
conviction of the safety, with  proper  precautions, j
of  inhaling it to  this  extent,  was the first step \
towards the application of the ether to that purpose, i
The  character of this unconsciousness,  in  other j
respects, was all that could  be  desired.  Its princi-
pal features, as discovered  by  him, are, the short!
time required for its induction, its completeness, its]
brief duration, the  rapid recovery of the patient from'
its effects, and a certain paralyzing influence upon :
the nerves of sensation.  The difference is remark-*
able between the effects of this  vapor, and those of 5
all  other substances, whose action on the system!
has been investigated.  The ether is  the only one
known to produce  the effects just described, and,
with  proper  precautions, is not liable to produce
any others, which  would  render its administration
objectionable.   It  still remained to be ascertained,
whether this  unconsciousness was so perfect, that,
during its continuance, no pain  would  be produced
by wounding instruments.  Dr. Jackson confidently
believed that  it was.  Having, as the  final  result
of his experiments and reflection, come to the con
elusion, that sulphuric ether combines  all the qual
ities requisite in a  substance to  be used for the pre
vention  of nain >-  surgical operations, he select
it for this great purpose.
  Dr. Jackson was now prepared to advise without
reserve  the performance  of an operation upon  a!
patient under the influence of the ether vapor.  Hei
communicated to several persons, and  among others!

  * Vide Beck's Medical Jurisprudence, vol. ii., p. 6C8. .' 
12
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
  to  Dr. Bemis, an eminent dentist, in  1842, as is
  proved by his statement subjoined in the Appendix,
I  his observations and conclusions respecting the pre-
  vention of pain in surgical operations.
    [That the agent of which Dr. Jackson  spoke to
j!  Dr. Bemis, was, in all probability, pure and washed
j  sulphuric ether, see letter of Mr. Blake, a distin-
  guished chemist, who was formerly superintendent
1  of  the Norfolk Laboratory.]
   In  February,  1846, finding  that  Mr. Joseph
  Peabody, a  student in his laboratory,  wished  to
  be  mesmerized,  that  he  might have  two  teeth
  extracted without pain,  he dissuaded  him from
  the  attempt.   He  informed  him  that insensi-
  bility would be produced  by the inhalation of sul-
  phuric ether vapor;  he advised  him to  breathe it,
  and to  submit to the operation, while in the sleep
  induced thereby.   He  gave him directions for the
  purification of the ether;  and instructions similar to
  those which were subsequently given  to  Mr. Mor-
  ton, and which were found sufficient for a perfectly
  successful performance of the operation.  All this
  was voluntarily done by Dr. Jackson,  no advice or
  opinion having been solicited of him  by Mr. Pea-
'body.   They conversed  several times concerning
[this application  of the ether; and Mr.  Peabody
j intended to have the operation performed upon him-
1 self, after returning to  his home in Salem ; and he
1  actually commenced the distillation of the ether for
  this purpose.  He, at last, gave up the experiment,
  because his  father, a scientific man, feared irrita-
  tion of the  lungs might ensue; because the  best
  authorities on the subject were arrayed against the
  opinion of Dr. Jackson, and because he was unwill-
  ing  to  incur any risk  for  so  slight an  operation.
'Dr.  Jackson declared  to Mr.  Peabody,  that,  not-
  withstanding the general  opinion of physiologists,
'  he  felt  perfectly satisfied  that  he  would  have
  incurred no  danger.
   Late in Sept.  1846, Mr.  W. T. G. Morton called
1  at the  office of Dr. Jackson, and requested the loan
  of an India rubber bag, for the purpose of adminis-
  tering  atmospheric air  to a patient, in order to act
  upon her imagination, and  to induce her to permit
  him to extract a tooth.   He  was dissuaded from
'  the attempt by Dr. Jackson.  There was also some
'  conversation concerning nitrous oxide.   Their con-
'  versation upon the above named subjects lasted for
  some  time.  It  was finished,  and  no  request had
  been made by Mr. Morton to  Dr. Jackson to  sug-
  gest to him any process, by which teeth  might be
  extracted without pain.  Mr.  Morton  had left  the
|  apparatus room, in which most of this conversation
j  had occurred; he went into the office on his way
  to the  street, when he was followed  by Dr. Jack-
1  son, and stopped by him.  Dr. Jackson then in-
  formed Mr. Morton, that he could  impart to him a
:  means of producing  a  general insensibility,  during
  which, he was confident, surgical operations might
  be  performed without pain.  He communicated to
  Mr. Morton all  that  it was  necessary  he  should
  know, for the performance of this experiment.  He
  informed him, that the substance to be  used was
j  the vapor of sulphuric ether.  He gave him direc-
',  tions concerning the  degree of purity requisite in
  the ether to be used.  He assured him of the cer-
1  tainty of the induction of  the insensibility,  and of
1  the safety of the operation, if properly performed.
'!  He gave instructions in the most minute detail; so
a.that'nothing whatever was left  for Mr.  Morton to
!  devise in any part of the process, for the successful
  performance  of  the operation.  Dr.  Jackson  dis-
  tincthj assumed the responsibility of the application.
I It is evident from Mr. Morton's inquiry, respecting
 sulphuric ether, "Is it a gas?" that he was entirely
 ignorant of its appearance  and qualities.   He was
 incredulous as to the results, which  Dr. Jackson
 assured  him  would  be produced,  and  required
 repealed assurances  from  him.   Relying on Dr.
 Jackson's knowledge and  authority,  Mr. Morton
 proceeded to his rooms to make the trial.
  Thus  it appears that Dr. Jackson instructed Mr.
 Morton upon every point relating to the new appli-
 cation  of ether.  He  did not, to quote an expression
 often used, suggest merely  to  Mr.  Morton  this
 application for him to consider, whether it was a fit
 one among others of which to make trial; because
 Mr. Morton was not  qualified to form any judgment
 about the matter.  Dr. Jackson took upon himself
 the sole responsibility of the  act, and would alone
 have been morally responsible, had the lifo of the
 patient been lost.
  The  ether was administered by Mr. Morton  in
 exact conformity  to the instructions of Dr. Jackson.
 He had  procured the ether  at  the  place recom-
 mended, and of the  purity  prescribed by  him; he
 poured some of it upon a handkerchief, and held it
 close  to  the mouth  of the patient.   Insensibility
 soon ensued, the handkerchief was removed, and
the tooth was  extracted.  The recovery  from the
 insensibility was  rapid and entire, and the patient
 declared, that  he had felt no pain from the extrac-
 tion of the tooth ; and no unpleasant sensations dur-
 ing any  part of the  process.   The instructions of
 Dr. Jackson had  been followed in the most minute
 particular; and his assurances had been in every
 respect fulfilled.
  The next day Mr. Morton  called at the office of
 Dr. Jackson, and informed him of this successful
 experiment with the ether.  Dr.  Jackson expressed
 no surprise, as he expected this result.

  The letter of Mr.  Caleb  Eddy, addressed to the
 surgeons of the  hospital,  is relied upon to  prove
 that Dr. Jackson did  not, at the time he communi-
 cated the discovery  of etherization to  Mr. Morton,
 appreciate its  value, or foresee the extent to which
 it might be applied in the practice of surgery.  Mr.
 Eddy states, that after  Dr. Jackson  had  related to
 him the circumstances under which he had intrusted
 the discovery  to  Mr. Morton, he proposed the fol-
 lowing question: "Dr. Jackson, did  you know at
 such time, that after a person had inhaled ether, and
 was asleep, his flesh could be cut with a knife with-
 out  his  experiencing any  pain?"  To which  the
 reply is alleged to have been given, " No, nor Mor-
 ton either; he is a reckless man for using it  as  he
 does;  the chance is, he will kill somebody yet."
  Dr. Jackson remembers distinctly the  object  of
 his visit to the house of Mr. Eddy, and the conver-
 sation which  took place at that time.  Mr. Eddy
 has forgotten the general tenor of that conversation,
 and only remembers the detached expressions  re-
 corded in  his  letter, which, if taken  out of  their
 proper connection, would  suggest the  conclusion
 referred to.   Dr. Jackson  has assured the editors
 that he  called upon  Mr. Eddy to protest against
 the taking out of a patent  upon his  discovery, and
 expressed his repugnance to  having his name asso-
 ciated in any way with that of Mr. Morton.   Dur-
 ing the  interview Dr. Jackson related  to Mr. Eddy
 his original researches and experiments with  sul- 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.
13
 phuric ether, and affirmed that the discovery of its
 efficacy to destroy the sensation of pain had been
 made in the year 1842.   Mr. Eddy then asked Dr.
 Jackson, if, at that time,  " he was aware, that after
 the ether had been  inhaled, the flesh could be cut
 with a knife without the sensation of pain?"   Dr.
 Tackson replied, " that he was satisfied  it could be
 done, that he had not the least doubt of it, but still,
 that an actual operation should be performed before
 publishing the statement  as a fact; and for this rea-
 son he gave  Mr. Morton instructions to perform  a
 dental operation upon a person under the influence
 of ether, before publishing  his discovery."  It ap-
 pears, therefore,  that Mr.  Eddy has been able to
 recollect a part only of his conversation with Dr.
 Jackson, and that his testimony relates  to separate
 and disconnected sentences, which,  read together
 in the false  connection in which he has put them,
 convey a totally different meaning from what was
 intended by Dr. Jackson.  It is in proof,  that, at
 and before the time of this conversation, Dr. Jack-
 son  entertained an  entirely opposite belief from
 what Mr. Eddy would ascribe to him.  The testi-
 mony of Barnes and Mclntire  is  in  point, and
 proves,  beyond a question,  that Dr. Jackson could
 not have used the  expressions which  Mr. Eddy
 quotes,  and  in the  connection which he  alleges.
 Barnes states that when Mr. Morton returned to
 the laboratory with an account of his first experi-
 ment, "Dr.  Jackson expressed  no  surprise, but
 appeared as if he expected the result."   Mclntire
 testifies that " during the time he was in Dr. Jack-
 son's  laboratory he  never heard  him express any
 doubt about the effect which ether would  produce
 in causing insensibility to pain."  Peabody testifies
 that " Dr. Jackson always alluded to the effects of
 ether  with the same confidence, so  that  when  I
 learned the final success of the application I  was
 not at all surprised."  The  deposition of Dr. Hitch-
 cock meets this issue directly.   Dr. Hitchcock had
 an interview with Dr. Jackson  immediately after
 the discovery had been tested by Morton, at which
 time " Dr. Jackson  stated that he had the utmost
 confidence in his discovery,  and that he  had no
 doubt that even the most  severe surgical operations
 might be performed upon patients who had inhaled
 the vapor of pure sulphuric ether, with entire insen-
 sibility to pain."  The editors are in  possession of
 abundant evidence to the same effect.
   Will any fair and  unprejudiced mind  now doubt
 that the  discovery of the  effect of the  inhalation of
 ether to  produce a  state  of complete and safe in-
 sensibility, during operations of a surgical  nature,
 was perfect in the mind of Dr. Jackson on the 30th
 day of September,  when he  intrusted  it  to Mr.
 Morton ?
   We have no  doubt that Dr. Jackson did, at this
 interview with Mr. Eddy, declare his deep regret
 at having confided so valuable a discovery to such
 a  man as Mr. Morton ;  neither do we doubt that
Dr. Jackson expressed fear lest the  ignorance of
Mr. Morton, and  his recklessness in the use of
ether, might endanger life.  The testimony of many
witnesses, the operators  in Mr.  Morton's office,
 proves that there was ground for this apprehension
 Dr. Jackson  did  not  express his  anxiety to Mr.
 Eddy alone ;  Dr. Keep states that " Dr. Jackson
 often said to him, that he regretted  very much hav-
 ing first intrusted the discovery of etherization to
 Mr. Morton, and transferred to him the  sole right
 to  apply the agent, for his ignorance  of its nature,
 and his recklessness  in  ordering  its application,
 might be the occasion of injurious, if  not fatal,
 consequences."   The statement of Dr. Hitchcock
 is also to the same effect.
    Hence arose, in part, Dr. Jackson's repugnance
 to  having his name associated with that of Mr.
 Morton in any public  reference to the discovery,
 and particularly in the " special  notices" and ad-
 vertisements which  Mr.  Morton  inserted  in  the
 newspapers far  and  wide;  a fact which  his  oppo-
 nents have  judged so material in  the case.  Dr.
 Jackson would  naturally  have elected some other
 and more dignified medium of publishing his dis-
 covery to the world, than the  quackish  advertise-
 ments of Mr. Morton.
    Dr. Jackson's confidence  in the  value  of his
 discovery is not to be disproved by such expressions
 as  those imputed to him by Mr. Eddy.  All the ex-
 pressions of distrust attributed to Dr. Jackson were
 coupled with Mr. Morton's name and recklessness,
 not with the  utility  and  safety of etherization.
 Even if he had  lost his confidence in  the utility of
 his discovery, the fact could not undo what he had
 already done.   The  discovery was already  made
 and known  to the world,  and every day was  add-
 ing new proofs  of its inestimable value.
    The fact of Dr. Jackson's refusing to give Mr.
 Morton a certificate, as stated  by the latter in his
 memoir,  that " ether was harmless  in its ef-
 fects," proves nothing but his  unwillingness  to
 figure in Mr. Morton's  advertisements, and  his
 prudence in refusing to make himself responsible
 for  anything and  everything Morton might,  in
 his ignorance, do with an agent liable to the most
 dangerous abuse.

           CHAPTER V.--THE PATENT.
   Our proposition is, that Dr. Jackson's exclusive
 right to the honor of the discovery of the applica-
 tion of  sulphuric ether, for the prevention of pain,
 is not invalidated by the  connection of his  own
 name with that of Mr. Morton in the patent.
   It is well known that a patent was taken out in
 the joint name of  Dr. Jackson and  Mr. Morton,
 and that by the language of that instrument  they
 were  represented as  joint discoverers.  It is now
 contended, in behalf of Mr. Morton, that he is not
 estopped by that fact from maintaining the ground
 that he was the sole discoverer of etherization ;
 that in permitting the name of Dr. Jackson to be
 associated with his own in the  patent he was  gov-
 erned by the opinion of counsel, who now alleges
 that his advice was given under a misapprehension
 of the merits of the case.   The assertion is, how-
 ever,  made,  that  Dr.  Jackson is  estopped from
claiming the whole discovery, by the  alleged fact
 " that  he knew that Morton  had  applied for an 
14
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
exclusive patent," that " he  made  no objection,"
and that " he was satisfied with making a  profes-
sional charge for advice."  The testimony to this
effect comes mainly from two witnesses, Mr. Mor-
ton himself, and R. H. Eddy, Esq.   To the state-
ment which  is made  in  the " memoir" of Mr.
Morton, to the French Academy, relative  to  the
taking out of the patent, we do  not attach any
credit whatsoever.   It is contradicted by the most
conclusive evidence, to wit, his own voluntary ad-
missions.   If the narrative which he gave to Dr.
D. P. Wilson of his connection with the patent,
sworn  to  by that witness, be true, then  are  the
allegations in his memoir false.   Dr. Wilson, let
it  be borne in mind, was an  assistant in the office
of Mr. Morton ; he was engaged in the surgical de-
partment of dentistry; he administered the ether,
from  which  responsibility  Mr.  Morton  always
shrank ; and  he had the entire confidence  of his
employer.   Dr. Wilson testifies, that, being sur-
prised at the  phraseology of the patent, he sought
from Mr. Morton an explanation of  his connection
with it.   In reply Mr. Morton stated as follows :
" That as he was the first person who had applied
the ether,  he  supposed  that he had a right to take
out  a  patent in  his  own name, and for this end
consulted R.  H. Eddy, Esq., who so advised him,
but suggested that Dr. Jackson should be made a
party to the instrument, inasmuch as Dr. Jackson
had suggested to  him the new application of  the
ether ; that Dr. Jackson was opposed to any patent
whatever, but that he at length yielded to the solic-
itations of himself and Mr.  Eddy,  that  a patent
should be  taken out, recognizing Dr. Jackson as
the discoverer of the new agent, and himself as its
proprietor; and that Mr. Eddy said  that he (Mor-
ton) had a right to  take out a patent in his own
name, and as he was determined to do  so, this
was the only way by which Dr. Jackson  could
secure or  save  to himself the credit of his discov-
ery."
   This was a responsible statement, made by Mr.
Morton on the eleventh day of November, in  the
year 1846.   He told the truth then ; he did not
then claim the discovery as  his own; " he was
its proprietor," and to Dr. Jackson belonged  the
whole  credit of the " new idea."   Eight months
after, in the  excitement of a controversy, he  de-
clares that" Dr. Jackson did not oppose his taking
out an exclusive patent;" that Dr. Jackson thought
he would  do well with it, and only intended " to
make him a professional charge for  advice;" leav-
ing  it to  be  inferred that Dr. Jackson had no im-
mediate connection with the discovery, but awarded
it to him.
   The friends  and advocates of Mr. Morton have
been compelled to admit that he sometimes prac-
tised duplicity, in confessing  that Dr. Jackson had
communicated the discovery to him, and  that his
right under  the patent was merely  the right  of a
purchaser ; but this duplicity they would now turn
to  his  advantage by saying  that his object in so
doing was to avail himself of the scientific reputa-
tion of Dr. Jackson, and to secure to the discovery
the authority of his name.   But in Mr. Morton's
narrative  to Dr. Wilson there  was  no deception ;
it was a  deliberate confession  to a friend  and an
assistant,  and  he  is bound by it ; the statement in
his memoir comes " too late."
   The testimony of Dr. Payne is  in  point.   He
has been using the ether in  the city of Troy ; am
injunction is served upon him by one of Mr. Mor-
ton's  agents, and   he  thereupon comes  to  Boston
to see the  proprietor of the discovery, and to satisfy
himself in relation to the validity of  the  patent,
which he has infringed.  He  seeks an interview
with  Mr. Morton, and  asks,  why it  is that  his
name appears  in  the  patent, if  Dr. Jackson was
the sole discoverer of the new application of ether.
Dr. Payne has tried the new agent; he is perfectly
satisfied of its safety; he  does  not care whether
Dr.  Jackson  or  Mr.  Morton  be its  discoverer;
there  is no object in  deceiving him ;  neither  the
assurances of Dr. Jackson, nor  the authority of his
name, will add aught  to his confidence in the dis-
covery ; he  merely seeks information  about the
patent.  Dr. Payne testifies,  "  that  he questioned
Mr. Morton about the patent, how he came  to have
any  interest in  it,  &c."   Mr. Morton  replied,
" that he  had  been very fortunate in effecting an
arrangement with  Dr.  Jackson, before any  one else
had the opportunity; that he had put zhased of Dr.
Jackson, who,  himself, objected  to any  patent, all
his right and interest in the profits which might re-
sult from  the discovery; and that his interest in the
patent teas a  purchased  one  alone."   Dr. Payne
also states, that Morton only spoke of himself " as
the fortunate person, who, by consequence of first
receiving the idea of etherization from another, had
been enabled to secure to himself great pecuniary
benefit."  This statement was made by Mr. Mor-
ton early in the month of January,  1847.    It can-
not be reconciled with the language of his memoir.
  The testimony  of  Dr. Robinson, of Salem, is
to the same  effect.  After alluding to his interview
with Mr. Morton, he says, " I was convinced, from
Mr. Morton's  statements and admissions, that his
own interest in the discovery  was  exclusively a
pecuniary interest.  He  did  not seem to  consider
himself in any sense connected  with the originating
of the discovery, but appeared  to think of  nothing
but his pecuniary right."   Refer, also, to the con-
versation quoted in Mr. Blaisdell's deposition. Mr.
Morton tells him " that he is about  to take out a
patent upon the  new  application of ether," and
Mr. Blaisdell  asks how he could do so, since Dr.
Jackson, by his own admission, was its discoverer.
In reply, Mr. Morton states that he had purchased
of Dr. Jackson his right to  the profits of the dis-
covery, and  that  Dr. Jackson had assigned  his
whole interest to him, for, said he, " Dr.  Jackson
will have nothing to do  with any patent."  This
interview occurred immediately after the discovery
had  been intrusted  to  Mr. Morton.  Will  the
friends of Mr. Morton  presume to say  that he was
deceiving Blaisdell, from considerations of mere
expediency?   Not long afterwards, Mr. Blaisdell
[ was employed by Mr. Morton  to act as his agent 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.                               15  j
 for the  sale  of  licenses under the patent, and he
 says that he uniformly, in accordance with the in-
 structions of Mr. Morton, informed purchasers that
 Dr. Jackson was the discoverer of the new agent,
 and that he  (Morton) was  its proprietor.   Were
 these directions given to his agents  in  order that
 they might thereby inspire confidence in the dis-
 covery ?  Had  Mr. Morton so little confidence  in
 himself and " his  discovery"  that  the  name and
 authority of Dr.  Jackson were necessary to give it
 credit?   We do not believe that his biography will
 afford another instance of so  great modesty, and
 distrust of his own merit.
   We  next invite  attention  to the letter of R. H.
 Eddy, Esq., to the surgeons of the Mass. General
 Hospital.   That document is important,  not so
 much as a statement of facts as of opinions.   To
 many of the facts stated we yield a willing assent,
 but to the inferences, and conclusions of Mr.  Eddy
 we shall not  pay so much respect.   With the al-
 leged reasons which induced him to regard ether-
 ization  as  the joint discovery of Dr. Jackson and
 Mr. Morton,  we shall have  nothing to do; we do
 not propose to answer the question—" What con-
 stitutes  a  discovery?"   To the general tone of
 the deposition we do object.   Mr. Eddy,  " has
 learned that Dr. Jackson utterly refused to submit
 his claims to  a just arbitration ;" he " had under-
 stood from Dr. Jackson that he had some connec-
 tion with Dr. Morton in making the discovery ;"
 he "is  fully convinced  that Dr. Jackson thought
 the whole matter of little value or importance, and
 was willing that  Morton should do what  he pleased
 with it, so long as he  did not  couple his  (Dr.
 Jackson's) name  with it;" " after he had prepared
 the  specification for a  patent, Dr. Jackson  fully
 approved of it;" " it  is a matter of indifference to
 him to  whom the world may ultimately award the
 honor of being its benefactor  for having given to
 it the great discovery in question," &c.   We say,
 therefore, that the general character of the deposi-
 tion is partial; that it betrays a want of fairness,
 and a judgment  biased by interest.   Mr.  Eddy's
 opinions, if relied  upon, would  force the  follow-
 ing conclusions : first, that Dr.  Jackson  shrank
 from submitting his claims to  the arbitrement of
 a suitable umpire ;  second, that he  did  not regard
 himself as  the exclusive discoverer of etherization ;
 third, that he had but little confidence  in the dis-
 covery, and was  willing that it should be patented
 by Mr.  Morton ;  fourth, that Dr. Jackson was glad
 to receive ten per cent, on all sales of licenses un-
 der the  patent, as an equivalent for the part which
 he had in the discovery.
   It is  needless to  add, that conclusions like these
 would  do  great  injustice to  Dr.  Jackson.  We
 propose  to account for  this manifest bias on the
 part of Mr. Eddy  in favor  of the pretensions of
 Mr. Mortftn.  Our argument is  a legitimate one,
 and supported by high authority.   We say that a
party who  is  interested in a matter in question is
not competent to prove  it.  The facts  which he
states are liable to  be colored, and  the  inferences
which he draws are not  the result of impartial in-
 vestigation ;  feeling usurps the place of judgment,
 and the party is  thereby really, though  perhaps  ',
 unconsciously, misled.                             j
   Now Mr. Eddy will  not deny that  he had  an  ;
 interest in Mr. Morton's patent; he will not deny
 that he expected to realize  a large  profit from the  j
 discovery in  Europe ; indeed, it is admitted, in the  |
 argument cf Mr. Dana,  that  he was interested to  ■
 the  amount  of fifty  per cent, in  the  European  ,
 rights,  and when they were applied for both  Mr.
 Morton and  himself believed that  they would  be  ;j
 productive of  great pecuniary  emolument.   The  jj
 testimony of Hunt, Wilson, and Hemmenway, may  jj
 be referred to on this point. It is apparent, there-  ;l
 fore, that Mr  Eddy  must  have testified  under a  !
 strong bias ;  that his evidence has not the merit  of  .
 entire impartiality :  and that he must have leaned  '!
 in favor of that party to whom his interest inclined  J
 him.                                             j
   But, says Mr. Eddy,  at the close of his letter,  ]
 " I have endeavored to state a few facts relative to
 the early  discovery of the effect of sulphuric ether  I
 in surgical operations.   In doing so, I am infiu-  !
 enced by no other motives than to render justice to  I
 whom it may be due.   It is a matter of indiffer-  j
 ence to  me to whom the world may ultimately award  *
 the merit of  being its  benefactor for having given  \
 to it the great  discovery  in  question."   It would  i
 have been the  part of wisdom in Mr. Eddy to have  '
 omitted that  paragraph.  We submit, upon the evi-  ;
 dence  already published by Mr.  Morton, that it  \
 was not a " matter of indifference" to  Mr. Eddy  ]
 to whom belonged the honor of the discovery.   If,
 in the month of June, 1847, the date of the letter  j
 referred to, the English government had, as was
 anticipated, made a large donation to the discoverer  .
 of etherization, would it  then have been a " matter  j
 of indifference" to Mr. Eddy who was its discov-  i
 erer ?                                             1
   There is another inconsistency in his testimony, j
 Mr. Eddy states that " he found Dr. Jackson tine-  1
 tured with  old and  exploded prejudices  against I
 patents, which  he labored to  remove ;" but he after- ;
 wards goes on to say, that  " Dr. Jackson's disin- •
 clination to associate with Mr. Morton in  a patent «
 arose from no disposition, ever evinced to me, to j
 give the public a gratuitous use of the discovery." i
 If Dr. Jackson was  thus, in principle,  opposed to
 patenting  any new medical  agent, if his prejudice j
 against  patents was so active and confirmed, if Mr.  it
 Eddy labored to  remove it, it is very marvellous |,
 that Dr. Jackson should  never have "evinced  to \.
 him any disposition to  give  the public a gratuitous  |
 use of the discovery."                            |j
   The  allegation that the chief objection with Dr.  i
Jackson to taking out a patent upon his discovery  ::
arose from what he supposed would be  the action  j
of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and also the  .
statement  that Dr. Jackson regarded the discovery  jj
of little value, are completely  answered  by  the  ;]
testimony  of many witnesses.   It  is remarkable  V
that Dr. Jackson should have expressed, to medi-  {
cal gentlemen,  entire confidence in his  discovery,  |
and  asserted that even capital  cases in  surgery  1 
1G
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
   might be performed upon patients who had inhaled
   the vapor of pure sulphuric  ether, with complete
   insensibility to pain, but,  on the  other  hand, that
   he should have given Mr. Eddy reason to infer that
   '' he  thought the whole matter of little value  or
|   importance."
      Without further comment upon the communica-
i •  tion of Mr. Eddy, we submit the following facts
   relative to Dr. Jackson's connection with the patent.
   They are taken from the  pamphlet published  by
   Dr. Gay, and from certified documents in the pos-
   session of the editors ; and it will be observed
   that this account of the patent  is fully supported
   by  the admissions,  and positive  and unsolicited
   declarations, of Mr. Morton, as sworn to  by various
   witnesses.
      A few days after Dr.  Jackson had  communi-
   cated his discovery of the  effect of the  inhalation
   of sulphuric ether to Mr.  Morton, that gentleman
   applied to  Mr. R. H. Eddy, who was a solicitor
   of patents, to secure one for himself.   Mr.  Eddy
1   advised  Mr. Morton,  that, as  he had  made the
J   first  application of the discovery, he was  entitled
   to the  protection  of the patent law, and that  he
   could take  out a patent in  his own name.
      Upon being informed of this movement on the
   part of Mr. Morton, and of the opinion which the
   •solicitor had given in relation to the matter, Dr.
   Jackson called upon Mr. Eddy, and asked him why
   he had  so  advised Mr.  Morton.  Mr.  Eddy then
   endeavored to  explain to him, that, as Morton had
   performed the first operation on a patient who had
   inhaled the ether, he  had a right to  aike  out a
   patent in consideration of that application; but  he
   urged Dr. Jackson, at the same  time, to unite with
   Mr. Morton in applying for a patent, whereby his
   own right to the discovery might be recognized  in
   the petition to be  filed at  the patent office.   Dr.
   Jackson replied that  he was opposed to patents,
   and that he did  not deem  it consistent with the
   principles of  a liberal science to  monopolize any
   discovery.   He further  objected, as  an  additional
   argument against  taking out a patent  upon the
   discovery, that it would be contrary to  the  spirit
   of the rules of the Mass. Medical Society.   Dr.
   Jackson was then told  that  he would " lose his
   discovery;"  that Morton  would patent  it, and
   would swear that " he believed it to be his own,"
   and thus procure a kind of recognition at the patent
   office  that he was the discoverer.  Dr. Jackson
   was given distinctly to  understand, that, in  order
   to save to  himself the honor of his discovery, his
   name must appear in the  patent, and  that  other-
   wise the public would attribute it entirely to Mr.
   Morton.   He was also,informed that if he should
   take out a patent in conjunction with Mr. Morton,
   he might assign to him  (Morton) his whole interest
   in the instrument, and  thereby avoid a  copartner-
   ship in the resulting profits.
      Upon these assurances  of the solicitor, in  whose
   friendship and professional capacity he then had im-
   plicit  confidence,  and for  the  single purpose  of
   securing the credit of  his discovery, Dr. Jackson
finally consented to the  proposition of Mr  Zfcy,
and the patent was directed to him.
   " There is no doubt whatever in the  minds of
Dr. Jackson's friends," concludes Dr. Cay, " that
he consented to it for the sake of preventing Mr.
Morton from holding a legal instrument  in his
possession, with  his own name alone in it  as  the
discoverer.   Dr.  Jackson  was  surprised,  upon
reading the petition presented for  his  signature,
that Mr. Morton was fully recognized  in it  as a
joint discoverer with himself, but he had agreed to
the arrangement, and  he supposed that the expres-
sion referred to was a necessary  part of the tech-
nical wording of that paper.  If, for the subordinate
part performed  by Mr. Morton,  the patent laws
were such  as to permit him to join  with Dr. Jack-
son in  taking out a patent, the wording of  the in-
strument referred to could not have been different.
The patent has always been the exclusive property
of Mr. Morton;  he gave to Dr. Jackson  a bond
promising him a  certain percentage of the profits
that he might  derive from  it.   Dr. Jackson  has
received no pecuniary advantage  from this patent,
and he has  determined  that he never will receive
any.   He  has destroyed the bond."
  The  charge made  by Mr. Dana,  " that  Dr.
Jackson not  only made no objection to  Dr. Mor-
ton's being joined in the application, (for a patent,)
but was glad to be included in it himself, even at
the lowest  rate of compensation," is not supported
by Mr.  Morton's own  testimony ;  it is emphati-
cally contradicted  by  the statement of Mr.  Eddy,
that Dr. Jackson expressed  great unwillingness
that his name should  be associated with Mr. Mor-
ton's in any patent..
  Again ;  Mr. Dana  most  unjustly asserts, in a
preceding sentence, that " the idea of a right in
the  patent  came  only  (to Dr.  Jackson)  from the
partiality and legal caution of his friend Mr. Eddy ;"
and again,  relying upon some  minutes with which
Mr. Eddy has furnished him, he labors  to force
the conviction that Dr. Jackson manifested a fever-
ish desire to secure a  liberal share of tbs profit to
be realized upon the European  patents.  The whole
argument relative to this matter is unwarranted by
the  evidence, and is in  the  highest  degree disin-
genuous.
  Dr.  Jackson's motives for insisting upon a per-
centage of the proceeds of all sales of rights to use
the ether,  both  in Europe and  in  this  country,
were the same.   His first object, was to defeat the
taking out  of any patent whatever, and when ad-
vised that  this was impossible, he  was  unwilling
that those parties, who  were intent upon  making
his discovery a means of  profitable speculation,
should reap the whole  benefit.   That  he did  not
wish  to  make anything out of the public  is suffi-
ciently  proved  by the  fact that he immediately
surrendered  his  share of  the  proceeds  to  the
public.   It is proper in this  connection to state,
that Dr. Jackson was, in the month of November
1846,  notified  by Mr.  Eddy  that  he had in his
possession, for  him, (Dr. Jackson,) a considerable 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.
17
sum of money, which had been realized from  the
sale of  patent rights, and  that Dr. Jackson indig-
nantly refused to accept it.   He  never taxed the
public for his discovery, and has never received a
dollar for the use of ether.
                   CHAPTER VI.
  INTRODUCTION OF THE DISCOVERY OF  ETHERIZA-
      TION TO THE MASS.  GENERAL HOSPITAL.
    It is asserted that " so long as the discovery was
 under test, and its result was uncertain, Dr. Jack-
 son was unseen and unheard,"  and that he did no
 act intimating that he had any connection with the
 discovery, until its value had been fully shown by
 two experiments  at the Hospital.  These  allega-
 tions are disproved by abundant testimony.
    There is no doubt, upon the evidence presented,
 that the  Massachusetts Hospital was really in-
 debted to Dr. Jackson,  not only for the discovery
 of etherization, but for the privilege of  first testing
 it in a capital operation, and for the right to use it
 freely, at a time when its general use was restricted
 by a patent.   The testimony of Mr. Barnes is con-
 clusive upon this point.  That witness  states that
 on  the afternoon  of the 30th of September, or of
 the following day, Mr. Morton called at  the labora-
 tory of Dr. Jackson, to announce  the  success of
 his first experiment.   He stated " that he had tried
 it (the  ether) upon a patient with complete success,
 for while he  extracted a tooth the patient was in-
 sensible and knew nothing  about it.  Mr. Morton
 intended soon to perform another extraction.  Dr.
 Jackson then  said to him, ' You must go to Dr.
 Warren, and obtain his permission to administer it
 at the Massachusetts General Hospital,  and if pos-
 sible it should be  in a capital operation ; for people
 will not believe in the insensibility to pain in case
 of a mere tooth,  since  it is very common  for pa-
 tients, in an  ordinary case, to say that  it did not
 hurt them, when the twitch is very sudden and the
 operation skilfully performed ; this proof would not
 be regarded by the public  as satisfactory.'   After
 some argument, and Dr. Jackson's further insisting
 upon it, Morton promised to go to the Hospital."
   Mr.  Barnes also testifies, " that some time after
 this,  when the experiments  at  the Hospital had
 proved  successful, and while the patent  was being
 negotiated, the right of using the ether having been
 assigned to Morton, Dr. Jackson urged him, in my
 presence, to present the free use of it to the Hospital,
 saying that they would not buy a patented  article,
 and it ought to be given to the poor.  Morton was
 very reluctant to do this, and asked if there were
 not some pay patients at the Hospital, who could
 afford  to remunerate him  for  administering the
 ether.   This  was argued a long time, and Morton
 finally said that he would do so."   We  think that
 this  positive  testimony  completely disproves  the
 assertion of Mr. Morton, that he agreed with Hay-
den, prior to this visit to Dr. Jackson's laboratory,
that it was best to announce the discovery to the
surgeons of the Hospital.   The reader  is already
satisfied how much credence  is  due to  the state-
ments of those gentlemen.
    It appears, therefore, that Dr. Jackson sent Mr.
 Morton, as his messenger, to ask permission of Dr.
 Warren to test the ether in a surgical operation at
 the Hospital, and that Morton was an unfaithful
 messenger, and  did not mention the name  of the
 physician who sent him, and that he managed to
 have  the  operation done without letting Dr. Jack-
 son know when it was to be performed, so  that he
 did not witness the first  operation  ; a fact which
 has been  dwelt upon by his opponents with great
 emphasis.   After obtaining permission from  Dr.
 Warren to apply the ether at the Hospital,  Mr.
 Morton returned to Dr.  Jackson's,  and informed
 him of the fact, but did not tell him when  the op-
 eration was to be performed, and  he never knew
 of it until after  it was done.    This was the  16th
 of October.   Soon  afterwards, Dr. Jackson went
 to the  copper mines of Maryland, but upon his re-
 turn to Boston he attended the first operation of
 which he received notice, neglecting important
 engagements  to do so.   We  submit,  therefore,
 that the assertion, that " no experiment was tried,
 to Dr. Jackson's knowledge, or under his direction,
 although he thought the experiment on the tooth
 not satisfactory," is without foundation.
    Some  allusion  has  been made  by Mr. Dana,
 and in the Report of the Trustees of the Hospital,
 to a conversation which  took  place between  Dr.
 J. C. Warren and Dr. Jackson, later in this  month,
 in regard to  his (Dr. Jackson's) connection with
 the discovery, and also to the request which  Dr.
 Warren extended to him  to  administer the ether
 during a capital operation which was to be  per-
 formed on Saturday, the 31st day of October.  The
 facts are as follows :   On  or about  the 29th  day
 of Oct., Dr. Warren was a second time informed by
 Dr. Jackson,  at his  (Dr. W's) house, that he was
 the exclusive discoverer of etherization, and  that he
 had first communicated it to Mr. Morton.  Dr. War-
 ren again  expressed his delight that the discovery
 had been made by a scientific man, and then made
 the request referred  to, and upon the following  day
 sent a  note to Dr. Jackson containing  the same
 invitation.   Dr. Jackson declined accepting  the in-
 vitation, for two reasons;  one,  that he was going
 out of  town,  and the second, that he could  not do
 so consistently with his  arrangements with  Mr.
 Morton. Dr. Jackson was absent in Maryland when
 this operation  was performed, and the arrangements
 with  Mr. Morton, spoken of, relate  to the  patent
 which had already been applied for, and Dr. Jackson
 had assigned his whole  interest  in that instrument
 to Mr. Morton.  So scrupulous was Dr. Jackson to
 observe the spirit of that assignment, that a very
 few days  before, when sending  his  own sister to
 Dr. Keep to have some teeth extracted under  the
 influence of ether, he had requested Dr. Keep to
 ask Morton's  consent to the application of  the
 agent.
   This magnanimity on  the part of  Dr. Jackson
 should  be  contrasted with the  mean  and selfish
spirit evinced  by Mr. Morton in neglecting to  no-
tify Dr. Jackson  of the first  experiments  which
were  performed  at  the Hospital.   Dr. Jackson 
13
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
manifested no feverish impatience  to proclaim his
discovery  to the world, and to demand its grati-
tude ; he  was not ambitious for glory, and asked
no reward ; and he did not publicly claim the dis-
covery as  his own until it was in  danger of being
appropriated by another.
   The editors are  assured that Dr. Jackson felt
great interest in  the operation referred to, and he
had entire confidence in its complete success.  He
mentioned it, during his absence,  to Dr. Gale  of
the patent office, to  Dr. Hare of Philadelphia, and
Mr. Tyson of Baltimore, and he  informed those
gentlemen, and others, that they would soon read
a notice of the first painless capital operation in
surgery.   The editors have also in  their possession
another letter from Dr. Warren  to  Dr. Jackson,
desiring him to give some practical account of the
new agent for producing insensibility to pain, and to
procure for the Hospital the right to use the same,
and the apparatus for  its inhalation.   The  testi-
mony of  Barnes  also proves that  Dr. Jackson, so
soon as it could be effected, induced Mr. Morton
to surrender the right of the free use of  ether,
&c,  to   the  Hospital.   This arrangement  was
wholly the work  of Dr. Jackson,  and it was only
by dint of arguments addressed to Morton's pecu-
niary interest that he finally prevailed upon him to
accede to  it.   Mr.  Morton was unwilling to make
a free gift of his  patent right, and he never would
have done so, had it  not been suggested  to him
that it was good policy to interest the surgeons of
the hospital in the  discovery, and that it would
remove objections to the patent if it was made free
to the poor.   In justice to Dr. Jackson, we would
add, that  he did not resort to this last appeal until
forced to  do  so by  Morton's selfish manoeuvering.
Even then Mr. Morton was unwilling to grant an
unrestricted right, but  signified his wish to tax
those patients who were able to pay for the benefit
of  the discovery.  Thus was the hospital really
indebted to Dr. Jackson for the free right  to use
the ether.
   Had application been made to Dr. Jackson, by
the surgeons of the Hospital,  before  he had trans-
ferred his pecuniary  interest  in the  discovery to
Mr. Morton, we are assured that  he would most
cheerfully have  reserved to  that institution  the
free use of the discovery.  He did  the best that
he could do, after  the transfer had been  made,
inducing  Mr. Morton to surrender that right, and
it is to Dr. Jackson that the thanks of the trustees
of the Hospital  should have been presented.
   It is   claimed, however, by the  report  of the
trustees,  that credit is due to  Mr. Morton for ten-
dering the free use of  ether to similar  institutions
throughout the country.  This meritorious act was
 unfortunately not done, if done at all, until  after
 the patent had  ceased to he a  source of profit.
 The allegation that an unrestricted right was ten-
 dered to  the army and navy of the United States
 is not sustained  by fact.   On the other hand, it is
 known that Mr. Edward Warren went to Wash-
 ington in behalf of Mr. Morton, and endeavored to
procure an appropriation of twenty thousand  dol-
lars from Congress for the  purchase of this right.
The petition presented by Mr. Morton is described
" as offering to the government, for the use of the
army and nary,  the  purchase  of his process fbr
preventing pain in surgical operations."   It was
referred to a special  committee in  the  senate, of
which Mr. Sturgeon, of Pennsylvania, was chair-
man.  That committee, however, never met, nor
was any action had upon the subject.
   Upon the occasion  of this movement on the part
of Mr. Morton, Dr.  Jackson expressed his deep
mortification to the President of the United States
that any patent had  been taken out upon the dis-
covery, and he was especially indignant that  the
discovery had  not been freely given  to the army
and navy.
   We submit, therefore, upon the evidence already
adduced, and upon facts well  known to this com-
munity, that Mr.  Morton manifested  a  determina-
tion to monopolize  the discovery.    There is no
doubt  that he intended to  make the  dentists of
Boston tributary to him, that he  at first refused to
sell any rights in the city,  and that he  considered
himself " sufficient for the  dentistry of Boston."
Mr. Morton also sent his agents to  all parts of the
country to dispose of licenses under  his patent, and
it is known that in many instances, in this vicinity,
legal process was commenced against purchasers,
who had given notes  for the amount to be  paid by
them for the use of the ether, even after the patent
had been  in fact abandoned.
   Dr. Jackson always denounced this monopoly;
he  asserted that the patent was an  improper  one,
and that he lamented the connection  of  his name
with it, for the discovery was  not a joint   discov-
ery.  Dr. Jackson's protest against the patent was
everywhere read, and through his instrumentality
alone the use  of ether was made free to " suffering
humanity."
CHAPTER VII.
  It is proper to  notice Dr. Horace Wells' claims
to the discovery in controversy.   This dentist, fol-
lowing out the suggestion of Sir Humphrey Davy,
that nitrous  oxids  might probably be used with
advantage, as an  anaesthetic agent in such surgical
operations as were attended with  no great effusion
of blood, extracted teeth from  several patients,  in
the autumn of  1844, under the  influence of this
gas, without their experiencing any pain.   Dr.
Wells abandoned the use of  nitrous oxide,  how-
ever, in December of the same year, and there is
no pretence that he, or any person  in his behalf,
or in consequence of his experiments, subsequently
used this  gas as an  anaesthetic  agent—a fact of
itself sufficient to show that,  notwithstanding  his
success in a few instances, there must have been
decisive objections  to  the continuance of  its use.
This conclusion is amply confirmed, by a statement
published to the world a long time ago, and repub-
lished by Mr. Dana in his pamphlet, and which,
moreover,  is not denied by  a champion of Dr. 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.
19  |
Wells' claims, in a communication in the Boston
Medical Journal for May, to wit, that Hon. James
Dixon,  member  of Congress from  Connecticut,
having applied to Dr. Wells to administer this gas
to him, in  a case of severe toothache, Dr. Wells
informed him, that  having met with only partial
success, he had abandoned the use of it, and ad-
vised him not to take it.
   As to sulphuric ether, Dr.  Marcy recommended
its use  to  Dr. Wells.   An experiment was per-
formed, by whom it  is not stated, upon a patient
under its influence, at Dr. Marcy's office.  It has
not been said that the experiment was successful.
The  inference is that it was  not.   Dr. Wells, in
his pamphlet, states that  Dr. Marcy advised  him,
after this  experiment, to continue to use  nitrous
oxide in preference to sulphuric ether, which advice
he followed.
   On such  facts  as  these,  and  they are  derived
from Dr. Wells' own pamphlet, it is preposterous
to set up any claims, in his behalf, to the  author-
ship  of the ether discovery.
    It is claimed for  Dr. Wells that  he imparted
to Dr. Jackson the idea of using sulphuric ether in
surgery.   He must have imparted the idea, if at
all, after sulphuric ether had been recommended to
him  by Dr. Marcy, and  after, in consequence of
Dr. Marcy's advice, he had wholly abandoned the
use of it.
    Now, it is not probable that Dr. Wells would
have thought of imparting an idea to Dr. Jackson,
which, as we have seen, he had entirely repudiated
in his own mind.  And even if, having repudiated,
he had still communicated it to Dr. Jackson, would
he have been deserving of any credit, if Dr. Jack-
son,  subsequently,  and in consequence of his sug-
gestion, discovered that sulphuric ether was avail-
able as an anaesthetic agent.   The fact is, however,
that  Dr. Wells never  said  anything whatever to
Dr. Jackson, or to any one in  his presence, in
relation to the use  of sulphuric or any other ether
vapor, as  applicable  to prevent  pain  in surgical
operations, and  even if it were  otherwise, it is
proved that Dr. Jackson had long before imparted
the very same idea which it  is claimed  that  Mr.
Wells imparted to him, to  Mr. Bemis and  Mr.
Blake.     (See their  affidavits.)    A Dr.  Hick-
man, as  it  appears  from  the  London  Lancet,
published  a pamphlet in  1824,  in which  he de-
scribes surgical operations rendered painless to his
patients, by the inhalation of carbonic acid gas.
    Whatever credit may be due to  Mr. Wells for
his meritorious exertions to  demonstrate the sup-
posed applicability of nitrous  oxide,  in surgical
operations,  his experiments  with  that  gas  pro-
duced no  result, of  permanent value, except to
prove its  general  unavailability as an  anaesthetic
agent, and they have had no  more connection with
the discovery of etherization,  than have those per-
formed by Dr. Hickman with carbonic acid gas.
   As to  nitrous oxide, Dr. Jackson  has had  no
controversy  with  Dr. Wells, and  he has never
believed that it could  be made  generally useful in
surgery.
                 CHAPTER VIII.
  It is claimed that not only does the glory of the  I,
discovery, itself,  belong to Mr. Morton, but that  I
to him alone is to be paid the honor of spreading  >
its blessings through the world.   We simply ad-  '
mit  that Mr. Morton was,  sooner  or  later,  the  j
bearer of the  discovery wherever a loaf ox a fish,  j
the lure of a price or a reward, enticed him.   He  .
claims to have tendered, through Congress, it? free  !
use  to the  army and navy of the  United States.  <
The editors are  in possession of documentary evi-  ;
dence, furnished  to them by members of Congress,  j.
showing  the   tender  to  these  departments  of
government, not  of its free use, but "of its pur-  <\
chase," as he  had already tendered  it to the Mas-  j
sachusetts  General Hospital.  Mr.  Morton, with
most disinterested  alacrity, made it, according to  !|
Mr. Bowditch,  " free  as  God's own sunshine,"
wherever, and provided always, there was the  re-
ciprocal gift of a good  and valuable consideration,  j
He was willing that the surgeons and  dentists  of  j
the  country should prevent, he  cared  not how  1
much of human pain, if they gave him their ready  i\
money and their " notes to balance," for that which  i
he  had no right to sell at all.  The editors are in
possession   of facts  indicating that Mr.  Morton
would even have been willing  that  all  the  hospi-  jj
tals and  armies and navies of the world should  i
have paid  him  tribute,  provided he could  subse-  i
quently have enjoyed the sublime  satisfaction of  <;
relieving  their   sufferings;  and tributaries they  ;
might have been for many  years to come, if  Dr.  -■
Jackson had been prevailed upon to allow the  pa-  }
tent to be taken  out in his own name, as sole dis-  ].
coverer, and had then assigned it to Mr. Morton.,  i
who would thereupon have  had a right to sell  a
discovery,   which Dr.  Jackson,  as soon  as  he  !
found  that he was under no obligation to Mr. Mor-
ton  and his co-partners, presented freely to  the  i
world.                                          j
   But Mr. Morton did not, in  point of fact, pre-  ]
cede Dr. Jackson in the introduction of the discov-  \
ery into  general  use.   Nearly all the different  f
countries of  Europe received their first  definite  .
knowledge, if not their first actual intelligence, of it;
from Dr. Jackson ; and it was through the influence  i
of his distinguished scientific friends that  its repu-  f
tation was there established.   Dr. Henry J. Bige-  i
low's paper, the same which has been  alluded to  I
as  published  in  the  London Lancet,  served  but  ]
to mystify and conceal the true nature of the agent  j
employed;  and we  know, from the  highest author-  j
ities, that it  was generally discredited  until  Dr.  j
Jackson made his communication  to the "Acade-  |j
mie des Sciences" at Paris.  Immediately after its  h]
introduction into Europe  by Dr. Jackson  and his  j
scientific friends, he  received works dedicated to
him by medical writers in France  anfl Italy, indi-  ,
eating to whom they considered their own coun-
tries indebted.   The discovery was communicated  'j
by  Dr. Jackson to Prussia.   It was  made public in  '
Giessen on Christmas day.   Dr. H. J. Bigelow had  J
gone before, but had been received without notice,  |
and had secured no place in  the confidence  of  the  lj 
20
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
 medical faculty of that city.  Upon Dr. Jackson's
 authority alone was the discovery accredited, and
 put to trial.
    A letter from  Dr.  Jackson contained the first
 intelligence  of the  discovery which reached the
 surgeons of Vienna ;  and they, relying upon  his
, authority, and  acting in obedience to his " pre-
 cise  and cautious directions," subjected  it to an
 immediate  test,  upon  the successful  issue  of
 which, a burst of applause rang through the oper-
 ating room, and the name of Jackson was on the
 lips of  every spectator,  indicating from whom the
 discovery was there received.  At St. Petersburg,
 and  in  Sweden,  and in the United  States, the
 same source is acknowledged.   It was communi-
 cated by Dr.  Jackson to the East  Indies, in a long
 and  carefully written letter of instructions to Dr.
 Parker, in the winter of 1846.
    Upon the testimony herein written, the claims
vof Dr.  Jackson, and  the doings of Mr. Morton's
 defenders, are submitted to the world, to which,
 through Dr.  Jackson, as its providential benefac-
 tor, the  discovery  now freely belongs.   The world
I has not murmured, and it  will not murmur, that
i Dr.  Jackson  did  not  sooner  communicate to it
 a discovery already known to his own mind ; or if,
 like  the few envious  maligners,  who are always
 boding  ill from their hollow oaks, it had murmured,
 its  murmurs  would long  ere this have been for-
 gotten in its d^ep  and fervent gratitude.

I                   TESTIMONY.
   I, Don Pedro Wilson, of Boston, County of Suf-
'folk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath
 depose  and say, that I was an assistant  in  the of-
 fice of Dr. N. C. Keep, of this city, during the year
'next preceding the eleventh of November, A.D.
 1846.   While with Dr. Keep, I formed  the  ac-
 quaintance of Mr. W. T. G. Morton, and was  in
 the habit of frequently visiting him, at his office, in
 Tremont Row.
   After the discovery, by Dr. Charles T. Jackson,
 :t)f this city, of the application of ether to  produce
 insensibility to pain during operations of a  surgical
 nature,  I had several  conversations with Mr. Mor-
 ton in  relation to the circumstances  under which
 Dr.  Jackson  had  communicated the discovery to
 him, and the nature and extent of the interest which
 lie had  acquired therein, by virtue of his purchase,
 from its author,  of the pecuniary  benefit which
 should result therefrom.
 1   Respecting the  authorship of the discovery, I do
 not feel the least  embarrassment or doubt, for my
 spinion has been wholly founded upon the narrative
 and declarations of Mr. Morton, in which, unifornv
 1 ly, and without reserve, he ascribed its authorship
 to Dr.  Jackson, never speaking of himself other-
 wise than as the first and fortunate person to whom
 Dr. Jackson  had communicated it.
    I here  speak of the  time which intervened be-
 tween  the eleventh day  of November, A. D. 1846,
 ' )r thereabouts, and  the month of February then
 icxt ensuing, when Morton first  claimed  the dis-
 covery  to be his own.
 1   On  the  aforesaid  eleventh  day of November, I
 Concluded  a  contract  with  Mr. Morton to become
 !'an assistant in his office. During this month I had
  ;oaversations with  Morton, in which he expressly
stated that " he was  indebted to Dr. Jackson  for
the idea of the new application of ether, and  had
received instructions from him how to apply it."
  Immediately upon Morton's receiving his  patent
from Washington, which was within a few days
of the time of my entering the office, being sur-
prised at  the  phraseology  of the patent,  which,
being taken out in  the name of both  Dr. Jackson
and Mr. Morton, declared them to be joint discover-
ers, I asked Morton for an explanation.  He related
to me, in substance, the following facts  respecting
the circumstances  under which the discovery  had
been communicated to  him : " That a lady, upon
one occasion, called at the office to procure a set of
artificial teeth;  that it became necessary to  extract
several stumps; that the lady was timid and sensi-
tive, and shrunk from the operation ; that in order to
prevail upon her to submit to the instrument, he de-
termined, in some way, to act upon her imagination,
and  for  this purpose went to the laboratory  of Dr.
Jackson to procure an India rubber bag, which  he
proposed to inflate with atmospheric air, and then
persuade the patient  to inhale from it, stating to
her, at the same time, that she would experience
no pain from the operation ; that Dr. Jackson scout-
ed the idea of practising any such deception,  direct-
ing him to apply the vapor of pure sulphuric ether
with a handkerchief or  folded  cloth, which  would
render the patient  perfectly insensible, when  he
could extract  her  teeth without her knowing it;
that he instantly seized upon the new idea, and im-
mediately commenced  his first experiments with the
ether."
  This narrative,  received from Morton's own lips,
was confirmed by statements and expressions made
by him, and by the  assistants and others connected
with the office, from day to day.
  Morton  stated,  " that as he  was the first who
had  applied the ether,  he supposed  that he had a
right to take out a patent in his own name,  and for
this end consulted  R. H. Eddy, Esq., of this city,
who so advised him, but suggested that Dr. Jack-
son should be made a  party to the instrument, inas-
much as  Dr. Jackson had suggested  to him the
new application of the ether."  Morton also  stated,
" that Dr. Jackson was strongly opposed  to  any
patent whatever, but  that he at length  yielded to
the solicitations of himself and Eddy, that a patent
should be  taken out, recognizing Dr. Jackson as the
discoverer of the  new  agent,  and  Morton  as  its
proprietor;  and that  Eddy said, that although he
(Morton) had  a right to take out a  patent  in  his
own name, and had determined to do so, this was
the only way in which  Dr. Jackson could  secure,
or save to himself, the credit of his discovery."
  I was in the office of Mr. Morton until April, A.
D.  1847,  and  had  charge  of the surgical  depart-
ment of dentistry ; but nothing occurred to change,
or in the  least degree  modify, the  belief which 1
had previously entertained in relation to  the dis-
covery of etherization.  On the contrary, Morton's
directions and instructions to the assistants in the
office, and to the  agents whom he sent abroad  to
sell rights under his  patent—the manner and fre-
quency with which the name  of Dr. Jackson was
associated with the origin of the " new idea," and
the advice and  authority of  Dr. Jackson with our
experiments  in the office—only strengthened  my
former belief.   During  the early application of  the
ether, Dr. Jackson was constantly spoken of in  the
office, and without contradiction from Morton, as
the sole discoverer of etherization, notwithstanding
our knowledge of the  language of the patent, which 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.
21
declared Dr. Jackson and Mr. Morton to be its joint
discoverers.   It was an  every-day remark in  the
office, with assistants and students.
   In my administration of the ether, I was guided
by, and  relied solely upon, the advice and assur-
ances of Dr. Jackson, received through Morton.
   We never dared to follow Morton's own directions.
If we had  followed even the few which he  vol-
unteered  upon his own responsibility, and not con-
fined ourselves strictly within  the directions  and
authority of Dr. Jackson, received as aforesaid, and
the teachings of our  own observations and experi-
ments, I have  no  doubt that  dangerous and even
fatal  results would have  ensued, and  etherization,
at that time, have resulted in a failure.
   Morton, evidently,  was afraid of the effects of
the ether upon himself.  He never gave me  any
reason to suspect that he ever inhaled it.  I never
knew him  to  apply it  to a  patient in the office.
This was from a most apparent fear, and  shunning
of responsibility.   I was in  and  out  of Morton's
office quite frequently during the  summer, and the
month of September, of 1846.  I never saw sulphu-
ric ether there ; never heard Morton speak of it,  that
I can remember ; never perceived its odor about the
person of Morton, or otherwise.  I think it could
not have been  used in the office without my having
perceived its odor.
   There  was a small vial in  the  office containing
chloric ether, which Morton stated to me he used
to deaden the nerves  of teeth—an article common
among dentists for this  purpose.
   During the summer of  1846, I often heard Mor-
ton speak of a new discovery, which  he  was about
to publish to the world, to which he was  giving his
whole energies; and which, to use his own words,
" would  revolutionize the whole  practice of den-
tistry, and secure to him a fortune;"  but he never
hesitated to tell me and others  that " it  consisted
in a  new preparation  for  filling teeth, and  a new
mode of making teeth and setting them to plate."
This was Morton's great hobby, during the summer
of 1846, and  during the  month of September of
the same year.
   In the month of February,  1847, Morton, for the
first  time, pretended that the new discovery was
his own, and that he had made the application of
ether as  an agent for  producing insensibility to
pain, a subject of study or  experiment previous
to the 30th of September, 1846.  Soon after the
setting up of this pretension by Morton, the affi-
davits of William P. Leavitt, Thomas R. Spear,
Jr., and  Grenville G. Hayden, were  taken  by  an
attorney of  this city; I being sent from  the room
while these witnesses were examined  together and
their testimony drawn up.  It was about this time
also  that  Mr. Edward Warren became associated
with  Mr.  Morton.  As  soon as the  affidavits of
Leavitt,  Spear, and  Hayden  were taken,  they,
all at once, and for the  first time, began to talk
about Morton's experiments with the vapor of ether
previous to the 30th of  September, aforesaid ; and
I, for the first time,  heard that Morton's earliest
experiment  had been   performed upon  a  water-
spaniel in  the summer of 1846, and that  there had
been a demijohn of sulphuric ether in the office in
the month of August of that year, and that Leavitt
and Spear had, in that month, inhaled the vapor.
  This  language of the deponents aforesaid thus
became, all  at once, directly contradictory to all of
their former assertions.
  About  the same time Morton undertook to ex-
plain his narrative and  statements  hereinbefore  de-
 posed to by me, by stating that his object in visiting
 Dr. Jackson's laboratory,  as  aforesaid, was to
 deceive  him, and gather  some information  which
 would enable him to perfect the great discovery to
 which he had been wholly devoting himself during
 the summer.
   The first time of Spear's inhaling the ether, to
 my knowledge, was near the middle of November,
 18,46, when he  suddenly commenced  inhaling it,
 and was, after that  time, in the habit of inhaling it
 continually.  I never knew of  Leavitt's  having
 taken  the ether in  any instance ; and I feel very
 confident that I  heard him state, sometime  in the
 fall of 1846, that he had never inhaled it.
   Mr. Edward Warren, the author of a pamphlet
 supporting Morton's claims to  the  discovery, was
 directly  interested in Morton's patent.  There was
 a contract in writing between  them, by the terms
 of which it was provided  that Warren  should re-
 ceive ten per cent, of the proceeds of all sales under
 the patent.   The original contract I copied myself,
 at Morton's request, at a time when a large  sum
 of money was expected  to be realized from the
 patent.
   I have heard  Morton state that Eddy would not
 take one hundred thousand dollars for his (Eddy's)
 interest in the matter.
                             Don P. Wilson.

   Suffolk, ss.  May 2d, 1848, Boston.—Sworn to
 before me                i?  v v>
                          U.K. Bartlett,
                             Justice of the Peace.


   I, Horace J. Payne, of the City of Troy, County
 of Rensselaer, and State  of New York, surgeon-
 dentist, depose and say, that in the early part of
 December, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-
 six, I commenced  applying the vapor  of ether for
 the purpose of producing insensibility to pain during
 operations of a surgical nature.  This was  after I
 had heard of the discovery  of  the preparation by
 Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of the city of Boston.
 About this time Dr. Clark, of  Lansingburg,  of the
 aforesaid county of Rensselaer, called at my office
 in Troy,  and desired me to inform him of the  nature
 of the agent I was then applying, and also to grant j
 or sell to him the right to use it.  After some fur- >
 ther conversation, he  left my  office, proposing to
 meet me again in relation to the subject the same'
 evening.   He did not call  as  appointed.  I soon
 after heard of him in  the city of Boston, where he-
 had gone, as I supposed,  to consult with  the pa-;
 tentees of the new discovery.
   Dr.  Clark purchased of Dr. W. T. G. Morton, i
 as he afterwards  informed me, a right  under the |
 patent for this and several of the adjoining counties, '|
 and immediately upon his return to Lansingburg
 served a  notice upon me to abandon the application
 of ether  for the purposes before mentioned.   Soon :
 after, Dr. Clark sold a right for the city of Troy to j
 Dr. A. Bardwell, and I was notified by Dr. Blake, \
 of Boston, who represented himself to be the agent
 of Dr. Morton, to abandon the use of ether  in my j
 practice.                                         J
   I then  attempted to negotiate with  Dr. Bardwell J
 for the privilege of  employing  tie new agent con-,:
jointly with  himself in the city ol  Troy.  Failing,
 however, in this, I determined to go to Boston and ;
 inform myself fully in  relation to the patent, and if '
 satisfied  of its validity,  to purchase a right  under
 the same for the state  of Ohio.
   I went accordingly to the city of  Boston on the 
 A&                               THE  ETHER C

 second day of January following, and at once sought
 an interview with Dr. Morton.   I had a protracted
 conversation with him respecting the use and  effect
 of the vapor of ether, its discovery, and the patent
 which had been taken out thereupon.   During this
 interview, Dr.  Morton  stated repeatedly  and em-
 phatically that  Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston,
 was the  sole discoverer of the new agent for pro-
 ducing insensibility to pain,  and that Dr. Jackson
 had  communicated  it to  him.  Furthermore, that
 all the knowledge which he possessed in relation to
 its properties and its application had  come to him
 from Dr. Jackson, and that he never had  any idea
 of applying sulphuric ether, or that sulphuric ether
 could be applied, for  the aforesaid purposes, until
 Dr. Jackson had suggested it to him, and had  given
 him  full  instructions.   I then questioned Dr. Mor-
 ton with regard to the patent, how he  came to have
 any  interest in  it, &c.  He replied that he had been
. very fortunate in effecting an  arrangement with Dr.
 Jackson before any one else had the opportunity, and
iK that  he was the  first man to whom the discovery had
 been  communicated  by Dr. Jackson.  Dr.  Morton
 also  stated that he had  purchased  as  his right and
, interest to the pecuniary profits which might result
,. from the discovery of Dr. J., who himself objected
I to any patent, and, added he," I have made a great
j bargain."
i    Dr. Morton then went on to say  that if I felt any
i apprehension or embarrassment with regard to the
 patent, or if I desired  any  instruction as to the
 proper application of  ether, he would  call with me
, upon the discoverer, who would render any  informa-
 tion I might wish.  Dr. Morton staled again and
1 again that he was not in any way the  discoverer of
i the new application of ether,  but that  the  idea had
 been  first communicated to him by Dr. Jackson, who
i was its discoverer, and that his (Dr. Morion's)  in-
 terest in the patent was merely a purchased one, and,
 'moreover, that he had been very lucky, in anticipating
i all other persons, by first receiving so precidus a dis-
 covery from  the lips of Dr. Jackson.
    From  Dr. Morton's admissions  and statements,
 jso freely  and emphatically made, no doubt was left
 Ion my mind that Dr. C. T. Jackson was  the sole
 author of the discovery of etherization.   I was very
| much astonished in learning some time after that the
rlformer asserted any claim whatever to the same.
 JDr. Morton  only  spoke of himself  as  the fortunate
 jperson, who, by consequence  of first receiving the
 Idea  of etherization from  another, was  enabled  to
 /secure to himself great pecuniary benefit.
 j                                H.  J. Payne.
; |   State of New York, Rensselaer County, ss.
 Personally appeared  before me this  12th day of
1 April, A. D. 1848,  Horace J. Payne, known to me
 to be the person who subscribed the foregoing  state-
 ment in writing,  and  being by me  duly sworn, de-
 posed that the facts therein stated are true.
11                              Joseph White,
 \Commissioner,  cfc., for the State of Massachusetts.


 '   I, Allen Clark, of Coney Island, in the town of
; Gravesend,  County of Kings, and State  of  New
 York, depose and say, that in the month of Decem-
i ber,  of the year eighteen hundred and  forty-six, I
I was engaged in  the  practice of dentistry  at Lan-
i isingburg, in the county  of  Rensselaer, and state
, aforesaid, that  in the early part of that month, after
, hearing of the  discovery of the application of the
"Jrapor of ether for the purpose of producing insensi-
 bility to pain during operations of a surgical nature,
I visited the city of Boston, with the intention  of
advising with the patentees of the  discovery, and
purchasing  the  right to use  the  same in my own
practice.
  Immediately upon my arrival in Boston I  had an
interview with Dr. W. T. G.  Morton, and conversed
freely with  him  in relation to the newly-discovered
agent, its  application, effects, and  his  privileges
under the patent.   This conversation was held in
Dr. Morton's office, and there were several persons
present at the time, and among them Dr. A. Blais-
dell, who was acting as the agent of Dr. Morton
for the sale of licenses under the  patent.
  I felt a great deal of doubt and hesitation  both in
regard to the safety and propriety of applying sul-
phuric ether for  the purposes before mentioned, and
also the validity  of the patent, and was very partic-
ular and minute  in my inquiries of Dr. Morton and
Dr. Blaisdell.
  After  some negotiation, I purchased  the sole
right under  the  patent for the aforesaid county of
Rensselaer, and  several of the counties adjoining.
During the whole interview, Dr.  Morton  never
claimed to have discovered the  new use of ether
himself, but left a full and decided  impression  on
my mind that Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston,
was its sole discoverer, and that  he  (Dr. Jackson)
had first communicated it to him.
  I never should  have made the above  purchase
had  I  not  believed,  and  been assured,  that Dr.
Jackson was its  discoverer, and   that he  had  pro-
nounced its  application  to be  perfectly  safe.   I
never for an instant suspected, from the representa-
tions which were made by Dr. Morton at  this inter-
view, that  he was in any way connected  with the
discovery of this new application of sulphuric ether,
or that he  ever would  assert or pretend  to  any
claim to its discovery, but was fully satisfied that
Dr. Jackson was  its author.  I have since  been
greatly surprised that Dr. Morton should assume to
have discovered  etherization ; since  from his  own
declarations and the representations of his agents,
I had drawn an  entirely different conclusion.   Dr.
Morton left the  impression  on my mind  that  Dr.
Jackson had first discovered the new agent, that he
had thereupon communicated  it to him, Dr. Mor-
ton, who had made the first application  of it, and
that his interest  in the discovery  was merely a pe-
cuniary one.                    Allen Clark.


  I, John E. Hunt, of Boston, County of Suffolk,
and Commonwealth  of Massachusetts, dentist,  on
oath  depose and  say, that I was an assistant dentist
in the office of Dr. W. T. G. Morton, of this city, in
the fall of 1846.   I think  I entered his office early
in the month of November  of that year.   A few
days afterwards I took up an inhaler which was
lying upon the work-bench, containing a  little
ether, and  breathed  from it  once or twice; I re-
marked to  Dr. Morton how  easily it worked, and
asked him to try the instrument  himself.   He re-
plied that "he would rather not."  I inquired of
Dr. Morton, if "he  had ever inhaled the ether?"
He answered "that he had not, excepting only as he
had  inhaled it from the  atmosphere about him."
From which language, and the manner in which it
was addressed to me, the conviction was inevitable
that he had never inhaled its vapor, from a sponge,
handkerchief, inhaler, or other instrument.
  It was the "common report" of all in the office
while I was connected with it, that Dr. Charles T.
Jackson, of this  city, had made known to  Dr. Mor 
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.                               23
ton the  new application of sulphuric ether,  and
given him instructions  how to use it.  Dr. Morton
never denied this "common report;" never claimed
the new discovery as  his own;  never, by a  hint
or expression, led me  to infer that he in any sense
considered it his own.
   A few days after my becoming connected  with
Dr. Morton's office, in the fall of 1846, one even-
ing, Thomas R. Spear, Jr., one of the boys in the
office, asked William  Leavitt, I being  present at
the time, to inhale the ether.   Leavitt refused ;
whereupon, Spear said that  " he  would inhale it
himself, if Leavitt would take the instrument from
his mouth,  when  he  had  inhaled sufficiently."
Spear sat down, and applied the inhaler to his lips ;
after a few inhalations, ne sprung  from his chair,
seized  a stranger who was present, by the waist,
and nearly  threw him over.   Upon coming to, he
apologized  to the man whom he had handled so
rudely, and asked him to excuse him, as "this was
the first  time he had ever taken  the ether."   I
thought it barely possible  Spear might have in-
tended  this simply as  an apology for his rudeness.
To satisfy  myself, after the stranger had left,  I
asked Spear " if the ether had ever affected him in
the same way before?"  "No," he replied, "for
/ never took it before."  Spear had much  to  say,
at the time, of  the delightful sensations which the
ether had produced upon him.  He spoke of them,
as those who took the ether for the first time, and
were   pleasantly affected by  it, used  always to
speak ;  satisfying my mind, beyond a doubt, that he
had never experienced anything of the kind before.
   A few days before the occurrence of what I have
just stated, I was requested by Spear to accompany
him on a walk  to East Cambridge ; where, as he
told me, he was  going to execute  an order at the
Glass House, for Dr.  Morton.   As  we were cross-
ing Cragie's bridge, I  asked Spear " where Morton
first got hold of the 'gas,' " (the ether went by that
name in the office.) Spear then related, that " Dr.
Morton  ha.i first obtained the idea at Dr. Jackson's
laboratory, and from Dr. Jackson ;  that he  (Mor-
ton) had been directed  by Dr. J. to administer the
ether to produce insensibility to pain ; had tried  it
on  a woman ; that it worked first-rate ; and that
he had since then continued to use it under  the di-
rections of Dr. Jackson." I cannot be deceived that
Spear intended  to communicate distinctly  to me
that the new discovery belonged exclusively to Dr.
Jackson; and that, at  the time of this conversation,
he so believed himself.  I soon after repeated Spear's
story, but not as coming from Spear, to  Mr. Fran-
cis Whitman, the brother-in-law of  Dr. Morton,
and a  student in the  office.  Mr. Whitman gave
me to understand that  I had heard  the truth;  said
" he had heard the same account himself, and that there
was no doubt of the truth of it in his  own mind."
   Dr. Jackson's directions and  instructions  were
made  the rule of all  of our experiments  in  Dr.
Morton's office.   The directions which Dr. Morton
sometimes gave us upon  his  own responsibility,
and not as coming from  Dr. Jackson,  were gen-
erally injudicious and rash, and we did not think it
safe to follow them.
  About the middle of the month of November,
(1846,) Dr. Morton stated tome expressly, that "he
had never inhaled the ether."  I was also connected
with Dr. Morton's office in the winter of 1845-6,
and in the spring and  summer of  1846.   I often
heard Dr. Morton speak of a great  work upon
which he was engaged, which, in his own  words,
" would uptip and monopolize the  whole practice
of dentistry in the city, and be worth  one or two
hundred dollars a day to him."  This great work heli
unreservedly mentioned, as being a new " composi-j
tion for filling teeth, and a new mode of manufacturing:
and setting them to plate.".  Morton stated to me, in|
the summer of 1846, that he had carried this " com-1
position" to a chemist to be analyzed ; that it hadf
not yet realized his expectations, but that he should!
keep on  trying to perfect it, until he  succeeded ;
that he was sure to attain to  perfection if money;
and time could  effect it;  that  he  had given one;
dentist of this city, whom I have since understood:
to be Dr. N.  C.  Keep, five hundred dollars for in- i
formation upon the subject; and not being satisfied,!
had given to another a large sum of money, in or-.
der to gain all the information possible.  During:
the summer of 1846 his energies  seemed to be al-| I
most wholly bent in this direction.  He was  con-j
stantly exhibiting specimens of his manufacture to;
persons who called at the office.
   I never, during the  summer of 1846, saw sul-;!
phuric ether in Dr.  Morton's office, and never per-l-
ceived its odor there, about his person or otherwise ;•'
never heard its name mentioned by Dr. Morton, that]
I can remember, and never, during either the sum-j,
mer or fall of that year,  heard him make a remark)'
which would lead me  to  infer that he had  made
sulphuric ether  a subject  of observation, inquiry,
study, or experiment, previous to the 30th of Sep-1
tember of  that year.   And yet Dr. Morton leas'
communicative and sanguine to an uncommon degree^
in relation to whatever particularly interested or oc-[
cupied his mind.                                 |
   In the fall of 1846 I was in  the office  of Dr. Mor-
ton a few weeks only.   When I left I spoke to'
him about going to Havana,  with the ether and'
instruments for him. He told me that he would see
Mr. Eddy about it; giving me to understand that'
Mr. Eddy was interested in the patent, and must1
first be consulted.                               !
   I have heard  gentlemen who called at the of-,
fice to  purchase rights under Dr. Morton's pa-
tent, speak, in their conversations there, of Dr.
Jackson, as the  author of the "new  discovery,"!
and state that they had been  so informed by Df.J
Morton  himself.  I remember, at  this moment, a*
gentleman  from Philadelphia, another from Ver-*'
mont, and a third, I think a Mr. Heald, from Porfr»*
land,  in  the  State  of Maine.  Indeed, this was'
evidently the only opinion  entertained or expressed
in the office while  I was connected with it in the
fall of 1846, and Dr. Morton never contradicted it,|,
or intimated  that it was not founded wholly upon
                                J.  E. Hunt.   ,
  Suffolk ss.  Boston, May 2d, 1848.—Sworn to!
by the said J. E. Hunt, this day, before me.      '
                         S. W.  Robinson,     |
                             Justice of the Peace J

  I, A. Blaisdell of the city of Boston, County of
Suffolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, sur-'
geon dentist, on oath depose and  say, that during
the summer and fall of the year eighteen hundred]!
and forty six, I was  associated in  the practice of;,
dentistry with Drs. Ball and Fitch, at No.  34 Tre-\
mont Row;  that on or about the last  of September
or the first of October of that year, I met Dr. W.'
T. G. Morton  at  Mr.  Burnett's  apothecary store,'!
No.  33 Tremont Row.  This was soon after  theft
application of the vapor of ether for the prevention);
of pain in operations of a surgical nature.          [J
  At that time I had a conversation with Dr. Mot* l| 
24
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
 ton  to the following effect: I asked  him how he
 succeeded in the application of ether.  He replied,
 " Most satisfactorily."  I then asked  him how he
 had dared  to use an  agent so powerful ?  He told
 me that he had received the most positive assurance
 from Dr. C. T. Jackson, that it was perfectly safe.  I
 remarked, '' Then you have consulted Dr. Jackson ?''
 He replied  in the affirmative, and stated that the idea
 of employing sulphuric ether, for the purpose before
•mentioned, was first suggested to him by Dr. Jack-
 son.   I asked him thereupon if it was Dr. Jackson
 who made  the discovery.   Dr. Morton at once an-
 swered  " that he did, and that Dr. Jackson had
 communicated it to him, with instructions as to the
 proper mode of applying the ether;  and that having
 acted in accordance with his advice, his (Morton's)
 practice had been  successful, the result  in  every
 way answering to Dr. Jackson's predictions."
   Dr. Morton then told  me that he was about tak-
 ing out a patent upon this new application of ether.
 I asked him how he could do so, since Dr. Jackson
^was the discoverer.   He replied that  he had pur-
 chased his right of Dr. Jackson, and that Dr. J.
 had assigned his whole interest to him ;  for, said
^Morton, Dr. J. will  have  nothing to do with any
: patent.  This ended our conversation at this time.
   I met Dr. Morton frequently afterwards, and con-
i versed with him  upon the subject of ether.   He
, uniformly made the same declarations, awarding the
 discovery to Dr. Jackson.
   On the  first day of Dec. following, Dr. Morton
 notified  me to meet  him at Mr. Burnett's.   I met
 him  as  desired.  At this interview Dr. Morton
 stated that  he wished to employ me  to work in his
i office, and also to go  abroad and sell  licenses to use
, the " Letheon," so called.  The following evening
 we met again by appointment at his own office, No.
 19 Tremont Row.   Dr. Morton was at this time
 associated with Dr. N. C. Keep.  Upon his express-
 ing the same wish as on the  morning before, and
, making certain proposals,  " we closed a bargain."
 I entered the office of Drs. Morton and Keep, Dec.
 14, A. D. 1846. On that day I went to Nashua, in
 'the State of New Hampshire, to sell rights to use
{the Letheon.  In closing a sale with a gentleman
i of that town, he objected to the phraseology of the
\hlicense, the plural being used, as though two  or
•Wore persons were interested in the grant or sale,
 fas follows—" I promise to pay to their order, as-
 signs or legal representatives."   The question was
 jasked me why the plural was used, there being but
[lone signature at the conclusion of the license? and
/also  who  the  person was  to whom allusion was
 made?  I  answered  that Dr. C. T. Jackson was
: the discoverer of this application of ether, as I had
iheen informed by Dr. Morton,  and that he had
 assigned all of his right and interest under the  pa-
 rent to Morton for a specified sum of money.  The
• gentleman still objected, and called in his counsel, to
, jwhom I stated the facts as above;  who thereupon
 advised his client that  he could safely make  the
 purchase.   I returned to Lowell and sold three or
 jfour rights in that city, but encountered  the same
 Objection on the part of purchasers.  To all of them
 I made the same statement as above.
   Upon my return to Boston, I told Dr. Morton the
i idifficulties in my way, and the statement with which
I I had opposed them,  and asked if I had stated the
ilruth, and  the fact as he had given it to me.  He
 .replied that I had told the truth, just as it was.   I
,'lalso informed Dr. Morton that I found great diff-
 iculty in making people believe that  ether could be
 'used with safety, unless I gave them assurance, as
 coming from Dr. Jackson, to that  effect.  He an-
 swered that I must tell them that Dr. Jackson was
 the discoverer, and that he  pronounced it perfectly
 safe.  With this new instruction I started  for Prov-
| idence, Rhode Island, sold the right for that city to
 two dentists, but was subjected to the same embar-
 rassment as at Nashua  and  Lowell, and  met it in
 the same way.
   On the twenty-first  day of December, having
 returned  to Boston, I was  in Dr.  Morton's office,
 making  preparation, in  compliance with his direc-
 tion, to go to  New York, when Dr. Clark, of Lan-
 singburg, in the state of N. Y., called to  purchase
 a right  to  use the  ether.   Dr. Clark was very
 urgent and  particular in  his inquiries respecting the
 discovery of this agent and its effects.  Dr. Morton
 told  him that Dr. Jackson, the eminent  chemist,
 was the man who made  the discovery,  and that he
 had given him (Morton) instructions in regard to
 its use and effect.  Dr.  Clark then expressed  his
 satisfaction, and a bargain was effected.
   Dr. D. S. Blake was  present during this conver-
 sation.  Soon after,  I went to New York  in com-
 pany  with  Dr. Blake.   I  sold rights under  the
 aforesaid patent in different parts of that state; also
 in New Jersey, Virginia, and many of the southern
 and western states.   When in  Cincinnati, on  my
 return home,  in April of the following year, I re-
 ceived a  letter from Mr. Edward Warren, stating
 that  Drs. Jackson and  Morton were engaged in a
 controversy respecting the discovery of the use of
 ether in surgical operations.  This was  the first in-
 timation  I ever had  that Dr. Morton was in any
 way connected with the  discovery.
   In June or July following, an article appeared in
 the  " Alliance  and  Visitor," severely censuring
 Dr. Morton for permitting the term ether, instead
 of  chloric ether,  to  be  used in  a certain  affidavit
 which appeared in the pamphlet published by Ed-
 ward Warren, leaving it  to be inferred by the public
 that sulphuric ether was intended.  At this time I
 had a conversation with Dr. Hayden, about  the
 statement in  his affidavit.  I asked him if he did
 not  know, when he swore that Dr. Morton had
 made use of ether, that  it was chloric  ether.   He
 replied, " I did, but I thought I would write it as
 I did, and let people  draw what  inferences they
 pleased as to the kind used."   A few minutes  after,
 Dr. Morton came into the office, and I  handed him
 the article referred to. I  asked him what he thought
 of it.  He answered, " that he never told  any one
 that  he  used  sulphuric  ether until he received it
 from Dr. Jackson."  I  have heard Mr.  Edward
 Warren  say that  he " did not  know  or  care to
 whom the discovery belonged, but that he  meant to
 fight it through, and  get  all the credit for Morton."
 Both Warren  and Morton have told me  that he
 (Warren) was to have one  half of the pecuniary
 profit arising from the discovery.
                               A. Blaisdell.
   Sufeolk, ss.  May 27, 1848.—Sworn to before
 me.
                         F. K. Bartlett,
                             Justice of the Peace.

   I, Silas T.  Gladwin, of Lowell, County  of Mid-
 dlesex, and Commonwealth  of Massachusetts, den-
 tist, on oath depose and say, that on or about the
 15th day of December,  1846, Dr. A.  Blaisdell, of
 Boston, called at  my office in Lowell,  to sell me a
 right  to use the " Letheon," so called ;  that Dr.
 Blaisdell  then and there  stated to me that he was
 the duly  authorized  agent of Dr. W. T.  G.  Mor-
 ton, of Boston, to sell rights to the said " Letheon." 
THE ETHER CONTROVERSY.
25
   Dr. Blaisdell, during the interview, stated to me
substantially and distinctly as  follows.   That  the
idea, that  the  "Letheon," or  vapor of sulphuric
ether, would produce  insensibility  to pain during
the performance of operations of a surgical nature,
was the discovery  of  Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of
Boston, who had  imparted it  to Morton, with in-
structions  as to the nature  and properties of the
ether, the effects which it would produce, and the
results which  would  follow its application;  and
also, instructions as to the mode in  which it was to
be applied.  That Dr.  Jackson being  its discov-
erer, a man of science, and a great chemist, and the
experiments which had been made having been ac-
cording to  the directions of Dr.  Jackson, and having
resulted according to his predictions, I need have
no fear as to the perfect  safety, practicability, and
efficacy of the new agent, in  producing insensibility
to a sufficient degree, and for a sufficient length of
time, to enable me to perform  any dental or surgi-
cal  operation under its influence,  without pain to
the  patient.  That Dr.  Morton had only bought
Dr. Jackson's right to the discovery; had got hold
of it before any one else ; had first  received it from
Dr. Jackson, and that he (Morton) was a go-ahead
fellow, and would make a fortune out of his, a  bar-
gained and purchased, interest in the new discovery.
                          Silas T. Gladwin.

   Commonwealth of Massachusetts.   Middle-
sex, ss.  Lowell, April 20, 1848.—Sworn to before
me.                       William Smith,
                              Justice of the Peace.

   I, Samuel Lawrence, of Lowell,  County of Mid-
dlesex, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on
oath depose and say, that on or  about the 15th of
December,  1846, Dr. Alvah J. Blaisdell, of Bos-
ton, called at my office in Lowell, and announced
himself as the agent of Dr.  W.  T. G. Morton, of
Boston, to sell  for nim patent rights for the use of
the "Letheon," so called.  I  did  not purchase a
right of Dr. Blaisdell, for the reason, as I stated
at the time, that I had  previously used sulphuric
ether with good success ;  that I was perfectly  sat-
isfied that it was safe, if judiciously applied. Where-
upon, Dr. Blaisdell went on to 6tate that I could not
use  sulphuric ether, without infringing on the pa-
tent which Morton had procured  on  the "  Le-
theon."   I replied that  I cared nothing  for Mor-
ton's patent, for that I did not believe that sulphuric
ether  was patentable, any more than any  other
common drug  or medicine.  Dr. Blaisdell threat-
ened me with prosecution if I used the ether;  and
upon his offering me a right for seventy-five dollars,
I  told him I would not give  him twenty-five cents
for one.
   Dr. Blaisdell stated to me that  the "Letheon"
was perfectly safe ; that I might rely upon its safe-
ty, for that Dr. Charles T. Jackson, one of the
best chemists in the United States, discovered it,
and  imparted the  discovery  to Morton ;  that  Dr.
Jackson had given  Morton directions and instruc-
tions how  to  apply the  ether;  that Dr. Jackson
had also used it himself, and considered it perfectly
safe; and  that Dr. Morton,  by the permission of
Dr. Jackson, had taken out his patent.
   Dr. Blaisdell gave me distinctly to  understand,
that Dr. Jackson first  discovered the idea that the
vapor of sulphuric ether would produce insensibility
to pain during  surgical operations, and I received
from  my conversation with Blaisdell the  idea that
" Letheon" was nothing but sulphuric ether.
                 Samuel Lawrence, Dentist.
  Commonwealth of  Massachusetts.  Middle-
sex, ss.  April 20, 1848.—Sworn to before me,    |
                                I.  B. Abbott,    i[
                            Justice of the Peace, i


  I, Daniel S. Blake of Boston, in  the County of ;
Suffolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, den- j
tal surgeon, on oath depose and say, that I was, on •
the twenty-first day of December, 1846, employed j
by Dr. W. T. G. Morton as his agent to sell patent '[
rights of the " Letheon," or the application of  sul- j
phuric ether to the relief of pain attending surgical ,
operations;  and in pursuance of my duty, as his •:
agent, I travelled through parts of New York, New !|
Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and sold  rights
to different persons.  Under Dr. Morton's instruc-
tions, I uniformly said  that  the application of  sul- !'
phuric ether to the relief of pain attending  surgical
operations, was discovered  by Charles T. Jackson,
M. D., of Boston ; that Morton had contrived the
instrument with which  the  ether was applied,  and :
which I carried with me for sale ; and that Morton jj
had purchased of  Dr.  Jackson his  interest  in the '
right to use the ether, and with Dr.  Jackson's con- !
currence, Morton took  out a patent for the new I
application of the ether, and was the proprietor of !
the patent.  I was obliged repeatedly to explain to
every person to whom I sold a right, who Dr. Jack-
son  was,  and who Dr. Morton  was.  The facts !
which I communicated I derived from Dr. Morton j
himself; and  I was  astonished when I heard  that'
he pretended to be the discoverer of  what he had so '
many times told me had  been discovered by  Dr.'
Jackson.                                        :
  The first time that I  had any conversation with I
Dr. Morton upon the subject of the discovery of the'
application of sulphuric ether to the relief of pain J
attending surgical operations was,  when  the  dis-'
covery had  been but lately made known, viz., in'
the fall of 1846.   It was, I remember, on the  day1
that the operation in surgery was performed at the i
Bromfield House,  in which sulphuric ether  was!
used.  I asked Dr. Morton of the origin of the dis- j
covery, and he then told me that Dr. Charles T. \
Jackson had made the discovery, and had  commu-|
nicated it to him a short time previous, and that he.
first applied it under Dr. Jackson's directions.
  Afterwards, on the 22nd  day of December, 1846, j
a  few minutes before I started  as Dr.  Morton's'
agent to sell  patent rights,  I heard Dr. Morton ex-
plain to Dr.  Clark,  of  Lansingburg, New  York,,
(who was then at Dr. Morton's office, having  just|
purchased of Morton a right to use the " Letheon,") ji
the origin of the discovery ; and  Dr. Morton fhen|
said, that Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson was  the  dis-
coverer of the application of sulphuric ether to thel
relief of pain attending surgical operations, and  that!
he, Morton, had got an interest in  the matter by
incurring the expense and  trouble of securing the:
patent and obtaining the instrument  used in apply-],
ing the ether; that this instrument he, Morton, in-ij
vented.   Dr. Alvah  Blaisdell, dental surgeon, of i
this city, was  present when Dr. Morton explained jj
to Dr. Clark  the origin  of the discovery,  and his;.1
connection with Dr. Jackson in the matter.
  Dr. W. T. G. Morton always said, and gave me1
to understand in all my interviews with him, (and'l
I  was his agent in selling patent rights for the  use
of the " Letheon"  or sulphuric  ether for about  two."|
months,) that Dr. Charles T. Jackson was the orig- j
inal discoverer of the application of sulphuric ether i
to the relief of pain attending surgical  operations;
that  he, Morton, had in the autumn of 1846 first I 
26
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
  used sulphuric ether, and then had used it and ap-
   Slied it under the instructions and directions of Dr
   ackson.                   Daniel S. Blake.
    Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Suffolk ss.
  Boston, Aug. 16, 1847.—Then personally appeared
  before me  the above-named Daniel S. Blake, and
  made  solemn oath to the  truth of the statement
 ' above  subscribed by him, before me,
                               John  G. King,
                             Justice of the Peace.

    I, J. A.  Robinson, of Salem, County of Essex,
  and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath de-
  pose and say, that in the fall of 1846 I  called at the
  office of Dr. W. T. G. Morton, in Boston, to nego-
  tiate with  him for  the purchase of a  right to the
  " Letheon," so called.  I spent about  an hour in
  sonversation  with him.   From Morton's conver-
  sation  I  came to the  conclusion  that  Dr. Jackson
  was the discoverer of  the new application  of ether.
  [ remember asking Morton, " How he could sell a
 fright  to  the  new agent, Dr. Jackson having  dis-
  covered it ?"  He replied distinctly and in substance,
  "that  he had purchased of Dr. Jackson the  exclu-
 , sive right to the discovery, and patented it."  Mor-
 i ton unreservedly admitted that there was some one
 I behind himself connected with the discovery as its
 i originator, and that that person was Dr. Charles
 ! T. Jackson.  I was convinced, from Morton's state-
 ments  and admissions, that his own interest in the
  new discovery was exclusively a pecuniary interest.
 He did not seem to consider himself in any sense
 connected with the originating of the discovery, but
 seemed to think of nothing but his patent right.
 "                           J. A. Robinson.
   Essex, ss.—April  22,  1848.—Subscribed  and
  sworn to before me,          A. Huntington,
 '.                              Justice  of Peace.

 - I, Nathan B. Chamberlain, of the City of Boston,
 County of Suffolk, and Commonwealth of Massachu-
 setts, philosophical instrument maker,  depose, that
 'in the  summer of the year eighteen hundred  and
 "forty-six, Mr. W. T. G. Morton called at my rooms,
 No. 9  School street, to consult with me in relation
 j to certain apparatus with which he proposed to fur-
 bish his office.  He first employed me to  construct
 'a turning lathe with the usual appliances.  Subse-
 quently,  and late in the  summer, or early  in the
 (autumn of that year, Mr. Morton asked me  if I could
 ■•pake  for him a compound blow-pipe,  inasmuch as
 |n the fitting out of a dentist'3 office that  would in
 This opinion come next.   He remarked that he wished
 to use  the blow-pipe in soldering.  Mr.  Morton then
 "Stated  that he wanted an instrument which would
 pe snug and convenient, and which he  might easily
 'stow away under his  table, and asked many ques-
 , 'tions as to its construction and expense.  I told him
 that he might have a blow-pipe, furnisher with In-
 'dia-rubber  bags,  and  these would be both cheap
 (and convenient.  Mr. Morton then questioned me
 twith regard to the kind of gas with which he ought
 jto fill  the  bags, and what would be the cheapest;
 whether  he might employ  street gas, and how he
 himself might make it.  During the whole of the
 i ^conversation no allusion whatever was made to the
I subject of sulphuric ether, and 1 feel perfectly con-
 vfident that  he had no idea of using the India-rubber
1 ibag for any other purpose than the one before  men-
  tioned.
";  Upon stating to Mr.  Morton the expense of a blow-
 ipipe, constructed and furnished in the way described,
  he objected to my price, and asked if such apparatus
was made elsewhere in the city.  I referred him to
Joseph M.  Wightman.  He at once asked who Mr.
Wightman was, and where he could find him, where
his place of business was, <tc.   Mr. Morton then
left my room, and I had no further transactions with
him until he sought  my assistance in constructing
the " ether inhaler," so called.   This was in Oc-
tober of  the same year.   He then called  upon me
at my place of business, and stated that he was in
possession  of a " preparation"  to produce insensi-
bility to  pain during  the performance of operations
upon the teeth, and wanted me to provide him with
some instrument for inhaling it.   I believed, from
an  odor  about the  person  of  Mr.  Morton,  that
this  preparation was sulphuric  ether.   I am  cer-
tain  that this was several days after the first of Oc-
tober, of the year 1846.   Mr. Morton, by his con-
versation at the time, gave me every reason to  be-
lieve  that  some  one other  than himself was the
discoverer  of  the  "  preparation."   He  said  dis-
tinctly that it  was the suggestion of another, and
from Mr. Morton's manner of speaking of Dr. Jack-
son in connection with the  " preparation," as he did
quite frequently during the interview, no doubt was
left on my mind that Dr. Jackson was the discoverer.
  I remember that after Mr. Morton left  my room
my brother, who was then  with me, and was present
during the said interview,  spoke of the " prepara-
tion" as  being the idea of  Dr. Jackson.   We both
inferred this from Mr. Morton's conversation with
us, during  the whole of which he did  not  mention
the name of any other chemist, or any one other than
Dr. Jackson, in connection with the discovery which
he wished to apply, and did not speak of,  or in any
way seem to consider, himself as the originator of it.
Subsequently,  as late as the 13th of October, 1846,
he called to get the inhaler, with which I  had  fur-
nished him, repaired. I knew that it was sulphuric
ether for which it had been used.
  At this time he gave me no reason  to change or
modify any impression or belief which I had obtained
from him at the former interview.
  When I  heard that Mr. Morton claimed  the dis-
covery as being his own, I  was  surprised, for it
was contrary to my previous convictions and belief,
as derived from Morton's  own statements.  I  had
never hesitated to pronounce Dr. Jackson  the dis-
coverer of  the application  of ether to  the purposes
before mentioned.
                        N.  B. Chamberlain.

  I, David K. Hitchcock, of the City of  Boston,
surgeon dentist, depose and say, that on the second
or third day of October, in the  year 1846, I had a
conversation with  Dr. Charles T. Jackson, upon
the application of the vapor of ether to produce in-
sensibility to pain.   At this interview, Dr. Jack-
son  related to me the circumstances under which
he had communicated the  discovery to Dr. W. T.
G. Morton, and also gave his opinion relative to the
proper,  safe,  and judicious administration of the
new agent.
  Dr. Jackson stated distinctly, that he had the ut-
most confidence in his discovery, and that he had
no doubt that even severe surgical operations might
be  performed  upon  persons  who  had inhaled the
vapor of  pure  sulphuric ether, with entire  insensi-
bility to pain.   He also  stated,  that the new agent
should only be employed  by careful and   scientific
practitioners; and his chief apprehension seemed to
be, that its use might be perverted in the hands of
the  ignorant,  reckless,  or unskilful,  and  thereby
dangerous  results ensue.   Dr. Jackson was always
very particular in saying, that only pure and highly 
                                  THE ETHER C

rectified ether could be employed with safety.   At
various subsequent interviews, which I had with
Dr.  Jackson, during the  month of October,  he
stated  to me, that  he was opposed to taking out a
patent upon his discovery ;  and,  moreover, that he
was,  in  principle, opposed  to patenting any new
medical agent whatever.
                       David K. Hitchcock.


  I, R. C. Bartlett, of Boston, County  of Suffolk,
Commonwealth  of Massachusetts, depose and say,
that I was a member of the family of Dr. Charles
T. Jackson, in the summer of 1844 ;  that I am  the
aunt of Dr. Jackson's wife, and must be the  person
referred  to in Mr. W. T. G.  Morton's memoir to
the  Academy of Sciences  at Paris, as published
in No. 201  of Littell's  Living Age,  in  Boston
aforesaid, and therein styled the  aunt of Dr. Jack-
son, in the paragraph which here follows. "About
this time," in the summer of  1844, " the wife  and
aunt of  Dr.  Jackson were under my treatment for
dental purposes, and it  was  necessary to extract
teeth  in each case,  the  operation being painful,
and the  ladies showing  an  unusual  degree  of
sensitiveness.  The last named lady, in particular,
before the extracting of each tooth, remained sev-
eral hours in the operating chair, unable to sum-
mon courage to endure the  operation, and begging
to  be mesmerized, or that  I would give her some-
thing  to  make  her  insensible.   Dr.  Jackson  was
present, and  made efforts  to encourage the lady,
but did  not  suggest any mode of producing insen-
sibility," &c.
   Dr. Jackson  was not present  at the time above
alluded  to by Mr. Morton, and I am sure  that he
had no knowledge of the operation until after it had
been performed.  Everything which Mr. Morton
has stated in respect to my  reluctance, my begging
to be mesmerized, or to be made insensible in  any
way, and the time of my remaining in the operating
chair, is wholly untrue.
   I did not remain in his office longer than an hour
in  all.  I subsequently told  Dr.  Jackson that I
had had quite a number of  teeth extracted  by  Mr.
Morton,  when  he expressed  great  surprise,  and
great  displeasure  with Mr. Morton, and thought it
unsafe to have so many teeth extracted at one sit-
ting.
   Dr. Jackson never was present at any operation
performed upon my teeth by Mr. Morton.
                             R.  C.  Bartlett.

   I, Elizabeth Bridge, of Boston, in the Common-
wealth of Massachusetts, on  oath depose and  say,
that  I am  the sister of Rebecca  C. Bartlett, and
that  I went  to Mr. Morton's office with  her, in
June, in  1844,  at the time that  she had her teeth
extracted ; that Dr. Jackson  was not present, and
did not (to my knowledge) know that the said Re-
becca C. Bartlett intended to have  the operation
 performed of extracting the teeth.
                   Signed, Elizabeth Bridge.

   Commonwealth  of Massachusetts.  Suffolk,
 ss.  Boston, the twenty-fourth day  of March, in
 the year eighteen hundred and forty-eight.
   Then personally appeared the  above named Eliz-
 abeth Bridge, and made oath that  the foregoing
 affidavit by her subscribed is true.  Before me,
                       Abraham Jackson, Jr.,
                              Justice of the Peace.
ONTROVERSY.                               27

                            Boston, May 1, 1847.
   Dear Sir,—In compliance with your request, 1
offer you the following account of my experiments!
and observations, made  several years ago, on the'
inhalation of vapor of pure sulphuric ether.  I was;
previously  aware, from  the experience of others,.
and from my own experiments, of the kind of in-
toxication which is produced  by  the inhalation off
that vapor.  It was not known at that time, howl
ever, that an insensibility could be produced by thisl
agent, of safe  and  short duration.   I  moistened *■
cloth and laid it  over my mouth  and nostrils, anc
laid myself back in a rocking-chair, and inhaled th< j
vapor, noticing its effects on the system.  The firs:
impression was that  of coolness, then a sensatioi
of warmth and exhilaration, with a singular feeling
of excitement in the chest.  This was followed bi'
a loss of consciousness, from which I  in  a shor
time  awoke;  soon  afterwards I  entirely recoveret
from  the effects of the ether.
   I have frequently inhaled the vapor of sulphuri<;
ether to relieve the irritation occasioned by breath;;
ing noxious  gases.   During the winter of 1841-'
42, and not long after  the experiment above  dej
scribed, I was  preparing chlorine gas to be used  i|
a lecture before the Massachusetts Charitable Me1
chanic  Association, and, while collecting the chlo
rine in  large glass bottles  filled with boiling wate
and having their necks immersed in a pneumatii
cistern, my assistant, who was  holding a  bottle
accidentally let it fall, and it  broke  while my faci
was quite near to it.  I immediately  inhaled a largi
volume of this gas, which nearly suffocated  me, s*
that with great difficulty I got into the house.
   As soon as I could get assistance, I sent for sul
 phuric  ether and ammonia, and inhaled them alter
 nately, hoping thus to neutralize the chlorine by th
 hydrogen of the ether,  and the  acid so formed b;
 the ammonia.  I received  some relief for the time
 but I was so much depressed, and felt such a weigh
 upon my chest, that I feared I should  not be abl
 to give my lecture.  I gave it, however, withou
 much difficulty.   Afterwards, still  suffering  frorj
 the  effects of the chlorine, I thought  I would trj
 the  ether vapor again,  and  for a longer time.
 went, therefore, into  my office, which is connecte1
 with my house, and, taking the bottle of pure sul
 phuric ether from the laboratory, I soaked a foldei
 cloth in it, squeezed it out  slightly, and seating mj
 self in a rocking-chair, with my feet resting upo
 another chair, I commenced inhaling the ether fror
 the  cloth, which was placed  over my mouth an;
 nostrils, while my head was laid back against m:
 chair, so that  I was quite at ease in a fixed positior
 The  effects of the inhalation were as before de
 scribed, excepting that it  made me  cough at firsi
 I was,  therefore, led  to believe, that the paralysj
 of the nerves of sensation would be so great, durin
 the  continuance of the  insensibility, that a surgics
 operation might be performed upon a patient undt
 its influence, without giving hirn  any pain ;  for th
 loss of consciousness was  remarkable, perhaps re
 sembling that of epilepsy more than any other kin
 of insensibility.  I heard afterwards of other cast.
 of this  insensibility accidentally produced, and  I hi
 came perfectly convinced that the inhalation of th
 ether would  be safe,—an opinion first formed  froi|
 my own earlier experiments.   I  now felt prepare
 to recommend the trial of  sulphuric  ether vapor ft.
 the prevention of pain in surgical operations.  Th
 subsequent history of its application to that purpos
 is known to you from  the evidence of others.  :
 will add, that my interest in the respiration of gasdjl

                                              J 
28
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
  was first excited by  Sir  H. Davy's  experiments,
  pnd that since I became acquainted with them, the
  Bubject has always seemed to me to deserve further
  investigation.
  I      I am, with great regard, your friend,
  ,                      Charles T. Jackson.
  ,  Dr. Martin Gay.

    I, Samuel A. Bemis, of Boston, in the County
  of Suffolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
  dentist, depose and say, that on or about the twenty-
  ninth day of September, in the year eighteen hun-
  dred  and forty-two, I was residing as  a boarder at
  the Mt. Crawford House,  at Harts Location, in the
  County  of Coos,  and State of New Hampshire.
  That, on or about the  said twenty-ninth day of Sep-
  tember, Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, being
  at that time engaged in a geological survey of New
  Hampshire, stopped  at  the  said Mt.  Crawford
  Ilouse.
 v   Dr. Jackson had, for some years prior to the above
  date, been an acquaintance of mine.  During some
 jponversation that occurred  between Dr. Jackson and
 myself, at the time and place above mentioned, and
 1 an presence of several other gentlemen, among them
 ! Mr. William F. Channing, of Boston, then an as-
 . distant of Dr. Jackson, various remarks were made
 j •respecting my own profession ;  and the subject of
 j Jpain and painful operations was introduced by Dr.
 Tackson,  as being  incident to its practice.   Dr.
 Jackson  then remarked that  it was his wish to al-
 leviate or destroy all sensation of pain and suffering
 1 during operations of a surgical nature, and asserted
 i ftiat this result would be secured by the introduction
  of anew mode of practice in such operations.  After
  making several observations upon the importance
 bf some new treatment or agent which would pre-
 sent all consciousness of pain, Dr. Jackson said
 <that, if I desired it, he would give or provide me
  with something which he knew would effect that
 tobject, and also proposed to  me  to introduce the
 same into my profession.  I have no doubt what-
 ever that the plan communicated to me at the time
 (was the same in regard to the substance to be used,
 Jpiz., sulphuric ether, and  in all other respects, as
 i Ihe has since promulgated to the world.  Dr. Jack-
 ijrson also remarked that he  had been induced to try
 its effect upon  himself, when  suffering in conse-
 quence of some accident, and that he had been com-
 pletely successful in its application.  To all of which
 d replied, as a reason why I should not  be willing to
 ^introduce the  use  of this new agent into my own
 practice, that, in such  operations as came under my
 ! ^particular care, there was  seldom  much suffering  ;
 &nd that I had more often found difficulty in impress-
 tnor my patients with a belief that there was really no
 'siecessity for operations, than to persuade them to
  tsubmit  when operations  were  deemed  necessary.
 fan fact, the principle  of my practice  was to save
 l<Leeth, and to keep them in the head, rather than to
 (extract them.   I had  no doubt at the time that Dr.
 ttfackson regarded the  successful application of the
 (hew agent, above referred  to, to the purposes above
 ■mentioned, as not only practicable, but quite within
 the grasp of the scientific operator ; and I expected
 i ,<to  meet with  an account  of it at  some future day
 i Shrough the scientific  journals.
 j                                S. A. Bemis.
 ' ;1  Boston, May 20, 1847.
■hi1                     Sworn  to before me,
                          Josiah Quincy, Jr.,
 ']                             Justice of the Peace.
                           Boston, April 27, 1848.
  My dear Sir,—In reply to your inquiries, yester-
day, I have to remark, that I distinctly remember the
substance of the conversation  which passed between
us, in the spring of eighteen hundred and forty-two,
concerning sulphuric ether.  The conversation took
place at your office, where I was passing the  even-
ing.  Observing that you was suffering from severe
pain in the head, I was about to take leave,  when
you requested me not to do so, remarking, that in
ten or fifteen minutes you would probably be free
from pain.   I replied : " Were I  subject to attacks
so severe, and" of such short duration, I should inhale
nitrous oxide."  My remark  was not intended to
be understood  seriously.   You answered : " Some
of your sulphuric  ether  would be much better;"
and added,  " Are you aware, that when inhaled it
produces complete insensibility?"—or words to this
effect.
  I was aware of  this fact;  but, at the time, my
impression  was, that either  nitrous oxide or the
vapor of ether, inhaled frequently, would be attend-
ed with evil consequences, if not fatal.
  The  ether to which  you referred,  was  some
which I had prepared for use  in my private labora-
tory.  It was  pure sulphuric ether,  and very dif-
ferent from the sulphuric ether of the shops—such
as was then only to be found in the market.
    With kind regards, I remain, dear Sir,
           very truly your friend,
                            John H.  Blake.
  Dr. Charles T. Jackson.

  I, William Francis Channing, of Boston, in the
County of  Suffolk, and Commonwealth  of  Massa-
chusetts, doctor of medicine, affirm that in the month
of March, in the  year eighteen hundred and  forty
six, I accidentally inhaled chlorine in the laboratory
of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston.   The effect
was to produce spasms of the chest and distress of
respiration, of such a character as to make  me ap-
prehend an immediately fatal result.   I  at  once
inhaled the vapor of ammonia and alcohol from the
mouth of the vessels  containing the same, for the
purpose of neutralizing the chlorine, but found very
slight relief.  I also swallowed some brandy, which
gave  momentary,  but  no permanent  relief.   Dr.
Jackson, who had  then  returned  to  his office, ad-
vised  me to try the inhalation of sulphuric (hydric)
ether, which  he stated that  he had himself used
with  success in an accident of the same kind ; and
he directed its application by means of  a handker-
chief.  The inhalation of the  ether produced an
immediate  suspension of the  spasms, with entire
relief from the distress.  They recurred  again after
a time with less violence, but were subsequently
entirely removed by occcasional inhalations of ether ;
so that,  in about one hour after the accident, I was
enabled to  walk  from the laboratory without dif-
ficulty.
  Several  days  after,  inflammation  of the lungs
resulted from the irritation  of the chlorine, con-
nected with exposure to cold.  In consequence of
the great relief produced in my own case by the
inhalation of ether, I recommended it shortly after
my recovery, to be used  as a remedy in ordinary
cases of spasm of the chest.
  I have heard Dr. Jackson speak on several  occa-
sions of the inhalation of sulphuric (hydric) ether,
for producing insensibility to pain during operations
of a  surgical  nature.   These  conversations  with
Dr. Jackson took  place, according to my recollec- 
                                  THE ETHER C

tion, certainly more than a year and a half ago;
and  my own impression is very strong, that the
earliest communication  on this subject took  place
during the summer or autumn of 1842, while I was
acting  as assistant with Dr. Jackson on the geologi-
cal survey of the State of New Hampshire.
                          Wm. F. Channing.
  Suffolk, ss.   Boston, May 12, 1847.—Affirmed
by the said William F. Channing, before me,
                        Ellis Gray Loring,
                            Justice of the  Peace.

  I, Joseph Peabody, of Salem, in the Common-
wealth of Massachusetts,  depose  and say,  that I
have been for some time a student  in chemistry in
the laboratory of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Bos-
ton ; that, in the latter part of the month of  Feb.,
1846, Dr. Jackson related  to me that he had dis-
covered certain remarkable properties in sulphuric
ether ; that, by freely inhaling it, a state of uncon-
sciousness was produced, with insensibility to pain.
   The circumstances under which this communica-
tion was made to me were as follows:—I was suf-
fering  from  a severe toothache;  and, intending to
have two teeth extracted, a fellow-student  urged
me to try the power of  mesmerism to effect  insen-
sibility to pain, offering to attempt  to produce the
magnetic  state.   I consented,  and  he commenced
the experiment.   While we were thus engaged,
Dr. Jackson came into the office, and remarked that
it was a loss  of time and labor to attempt to  repeat
the experiments of the mesmerizers ; for their insen-
sibility was only a pretence.  " If you want to have
your teeth extracted without pain,"  said he,  "I
have mesmerism  bottled up in the other  room—in
the shape of  sulphuric ether."   He then repeated
to me minutely the effects which would be produced
by the inhalation of sulphuric ether.  I asked him
where he got his information from.  He said that
he had tried  it on himself; that, about four  years
before, he inhaled it freely with a view of ascertain-
ing the effects of its vapor  on the system, and was
astonished to find it produced an entire loss of con-
sciousness ; that  this state speedily passed  away,
without leaving any unpleasant effects.  He said
that subsequently, while engaged in  preparing some
chemical experiments, he accidentally got his lungs
full of chlorine, which produced a sudden irritation
and severe distress; that, hoping to obtain  relief,
he applied to sulphuric ether; that he breathed the
vapor copiously—having poured  the ether upon a
cloth which  was  laid over his mouth.   He soon
became unconscious and perfectly free from  pain,
although the  trouble in his lungs returned when the
effects  of the ether had wholly passed off.  He
urged me to apply the ether when I wished to have
my teeth  extracted, assuring me of his confidence
that I would escape the pain of  the operation.  He
added that ether prepared expressly for the purpose,
and freed  from  its alcohol, would ensure success.
I immediately determined  to make  the trial; and,
as I was obliged to return  to Salem, I there com-
menced to re-distill some ether with sulphuric acid.
  In the  mean time I consulted several chemical
and medical works, (in a large  scientific library to
which  I  had access,) in relation to the effects of
sulphuric  ether; and found that all the authorities
stated that the action of ether upon the system was
injurious,  and warned against its use.   My  father
was also  averse  to my breathing  it.  I therefore
concluded that the operation proposed would not be
sufficiently serious to warrant me in using any ap- ]
JONTROVERSY.                              29

 plication pronounced dangerous by high authorities.
 Upon my return to  Dr. Jackson's laboratory, 1,
 stated to him the opinion of chemical and medical
 writers in relation to the use of ether. He said that
 he was aware of the opinions in the works upon the;
 subject; but, notwithstanding their views, he was
 satisfied that he was right—that the application of
 ether would  be perfectly harmless, and its  effects
 would be what he had stated.
   This was  not the only occasion on which the sub-
 ject of the  effects of ether was introduced.  He„
 alluded to it in  several subsequent conversations.
 and always with  the same confidence, so that wher
 I learned the final success of the application I was
 not at all surprised.
   I returned to  Dr. Jackson's  laboratory about i
 week after  he had communicated his discovery tc'
 Mr. Morton, and  since that  time have been con-
 stantly with  him; and I can most  positively state
 that not at any time has he shown the least want of
 confidence in the importance  of his application, anc I
 not for a moment did he undervalue it, nor has he
 ceased to assert his claims as the sole discoverer.  ,
                            Joseph Peabody.

   United States of America, State of Massa
 chusetts.  County of Suffolk, ss. City of Bos-
 ton.—On this eleventh day of May, A. D. eighteer
 hundred and forty-seven, before me, came Josepr
 Peabody, and, being duly sworn, did  depose anc
 say as within written, and did sign the said withir
 writing, as  his deposition in and concerning the
 matters therein specified.
   In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hanc
 and seal of office, on this said 11th of May, A. D
 1847.
             John P. Bigelow,  Notary Public.


   I, George  O. Barnes, of the City of Boston, ane
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath  depose1
 and say, that Mr. W. T. G. Morton did not, on th(
 thirtieth day of September of the year  1846, take
 from the laboratory of Dr. Charles T. Jackson i
 glass  tube or flask, or any apparatus whatever fo:
 the inhalation of  sulphuric ether.  This is the dai
 referred to in my former deposition,  on which Mr
 Morton called upon Dr. Jackson  to  procure an In
 dia rubber bag for the object  therein  mentioned.  ]
 was in the laboratory during the  whole time  tha
 Mr. Morton  remained, and heard the conversatior
 between Dr.  Jackson  and himself.
   He did call two or three days after to procure*
 such apparatus, and Dr. Jackson then gave him the1
 glass flask and tube, with instructions for their use.
                         George  O. Barnes.
   Suffolk,  ss.  Boston, May 2, 1848.—Sworn te
 this day by the said George O. Barnes, before me,
                            S.  W. Robinson,  >
                             Justice of the Peace


   I, George  O. Barnes, of Plymouth, in the Com'
 monwealth of Massachusetts, depose and say, tha'i
 in the fall of  18461 was a student in chemistry wit!
 Dr. Charles  T.  Jackson ; that in  the  month  of
 September I  was  at work in  the back room  of Dr
 Jackson's laboratory when Mr. W. T. G. Mortor.
 passed through the room, as I supposed to go intc
 the house which  adjoins the laboratory.   He soor
 returned, having  in his hand an  India rubber bag
 belonging to  Dr.  Jackson.  As he went into th<!
 apparatus or  glass room, I heard Dr. Jackson ask] 
,30
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
 Morton what he wanted to  do with the bag.  He
 .replied that he had a refractory patient who would
 hot allow him  to take out her tooth, and that he
 wished  to  act  on her imagination so as to induce
 her to submit  to the operation;  that he meant to
 jfill the bag with air, meaning, as  I understood, at-
 jmospheric  air,  which  would give it a formidable
 lappearance.  He then asked how he should go to
 work to distend the bag. " The lungs or a pair of
 bellows," said Dr. Jackson, " can do that." "But,"'
 ^continued Dr. Jackson, " your proposition, Morton,
 jis very absurd ; the patient will not be deceived in
 ithat way ;  you will  produce no result, and will/oe
 [denounced as an impostor."—" I don't know that,"
 ^replied Morton : " I think with this bag under my
 varm, well blown up, that I could  make her believe
 ^anything."   While saying this, he placed the bag
 .under his arm, and, pressing the bag with his el-
 fbow several times, illustrated the  manner in which
 'he would operate.  " If I could once get her mouth
 fopen," said Morton, "I would have her tooth out.
^Why," said he, "a man once bled to death by the
 .■mere force  of imagination."  As he was proceeding
 'to give an account of this experiment, Dr.  Jackson
 interrupted him, and said, " Pooh!  you don't credit
 feuch  a  story  as that,  surely!   I advise you to
 (have nothing to do with this idea of using atmos-
 (pheric air to deceive your patients ; it will  only in-
 jure you."  Morton replied, " I don't  care.   I'll
 Tblow  it up."   Morton then left Dr. Jackson, and
 fwas going  from the glass room, where the latter
 ;<part of the  conversation  had been principally held,
 unto the  front room towards the  street door, with
 Uhe bag swinging in  his hand, when Dr.  Jackson
 'followed  him,  took  the bag from his hand,  and
 threw it on the  floor.  There had been also some
 tconversation concerning nitrous oxide, but not one
^word concerning sulphuric ether ; and Morton had
 Jjiot asked Dr. Jackson to suggest  to him  anything
 (to prevent  pain during his operations of extracting
 Lteeth.  Dr. Jackson then addressed him, and said,
 " Now, Morton, I can tell you something that  will
 ^produce  a  real effect.  Go to Mr. Burnett's, the
^apothecary, and get some very  strong sulphuric
Jjjether, the stronger  the  better ; spatter it  on your
^handkerchief, put it to  your patient's mouth, take
icare that it be well inhaled, and in a minute or two
gperfect insensibility will be produced."  " Sulphuric
aether!" said Morton, " what is that?  Is it a gas?
fcHave you  got  any of it?  Show it to me."   Dr.
jjjackson went to the laboratory case, and took down
fthe bottle of sulphuric ether, which Morton exam-
ined and smelt of as though he had never seen the
Jarticle before, saying, it was " queer smelling stuff."
 "Are you sure," said Morton, "that this will do
 at?"  "Yes," replied  Dr. Jackson, "I am sure."
; The rest of the Doctor's reply I did not hear, as I
 Jpassed into the  other room for some purpose, being
^engaged at the time in analytical work.  After-
fwards I heard  Morton several times repeat, "Are
Ljou sure it will do it?"  He even asked Mr. Mcln-
Styre,  another student in the laboratory,  and  my-
uself, if we  thought it would  do it.  "Won't it hurt
*the patient ?" said  he.   " No," replied Dr. Jack-
 Tson, " it will not do any harm ; for I have tried it
 'on myself."  He then briefly described  his own
^experiments and the effects, and said " that the pa-
rents, after breathing a dozen breaths, would fall
■j back  in the chair insensible ; and you can do with
> them as you please, without their knowing anything
j1 about it, or feeling any pain ; so that you can  take
 . out their teeth at your leisure."  Dr. Jackson dis-
'= tinctly said, " It will  not do the least injury, I as-
sure you."  Indeed, Dr. Jackson urged the matter
very earnestly and with  perfect confidence, taking
on "himself the whole responsibility.  He urged
Morton to  try it  on himself,  saying that it was
the only way to convince himself.  " Shut your-
self  up," said  he, " in your  room, and  breathe
it  as I have directed."  At  the same  time, Dr.
Jackson, taking a handkerchief and  bottle in his
hands, went through the movement of applying the
ether to it, and, placing the handkerchief to his
month, made   several  deep inhalations,  saying,
" This is the way you  must take it."  Morton then
left,  promising  to try it immediately.  After Mor-
ton left, the students in the laboratory conversed
considerably about the proposed  experiment ; and
some one  asking the  question  whether  Morton
would succeed, Dr. Jackson said  confidently, "He
will, if he follows my directions."
  Either on the afternoon of the same day, or the
next day, I am  not positive which, Morton  came to
announce the success of his trial.  He stated that
he tried it on a  patient  with complete success; for,
while he extracted a tooth, the person was  insensi-
ble, and knew nothing about it.  Dr. Jackson ex-
pressed no  surprise, but  appeared as if he  had ex-
pected this result.  Mr. Morton  intended  soon  to
perform another extraction.  Dr. Jackson then said
to him, " You must go to Dr. Warren, and obtain
his permission to administer it at the Massachusetts
General Hospital, and if possible  it should  be on a
capital operation ; for people will not believe in the
insensibility to pain in case of a  mere tooth, since it
is very common for  patients in an  ordinary ca3e to
say that it  did  not hurt them, when the  twitch  is
very  sudden, and the operation skilfully performed :
this proof would not be regarded  by the  public  as
satisfactory."   Morton strongly objected  at first to
going to the hospital—that everybody could smell
the ether,  and it would not be kept secret, which it
was Morton's object to do.  He asked if something
could not  be put into  it which would  conceal the
ether odor.  Dr.  Jackson replied, " Yes;  some
French essence, as the  oil of Neroli, may answer in
a measure, and  a pleasant perfume will be lefuon
the patient;" remarking, laughingly, " The scent
of the roses will hang round him still."  After some
argument, and Dr. Jackson's further insisting upon
it,  Morton promised to  go to the hospital.
  In the course of this conversation, Morton repeat-
edly  begged the doctor to keep the matter a secret.
" No!" answered Dr. Jackson, "I will  have no
secrets with my professional brethren.  I intend to
give  Dr. Keep the same  information which I have
given to you ;"  and, in point of fact, every one who
afterwards came to get information on the subject
was at once told all about iu
  Some time after this, when the  experiments had
proved successful at the hospital and elsewhere, and
while the patent was being negotiated, the right of
using the ether having been assigned to Morton,
Dr. Jackson urged  him in my presence to  present
the free use of it to the hospital,  saying that they
would not buy a patented article, and it ought to be
given to the poor.   Morton was  very reluctant to
do this, and asked if there were not some  pay pa-
tients at the hospital who could afford to remunerate
him for administering the ether.   This was argued
a long time, and Morton finally said that  he would
do so.
  A  few  days after, Morton called  at  the office,
when Dr. Jackson was not in, with a glass bulb in
his hand, having only two openings.   He proposed
to fasten an India rubber bag upon one of the open-
I 
THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
31
  ings to contain the sulphuric ether, a sponge to be
  placed  in the bulb, and the patient to inhale the
  ether from the other opening; there being no aper-
  ture for the admission of atmospheric air.  His in-
  tention was,  he told  us,  that the patient  should
  breathe the ether vapor pure, without admixture of
  atmospheric air.   I told him of the indispensability
  of atmospheric air, knowing very well that it would
  be dangerous to breathe  ether vapor without the
  common air being mixed  with it.  He  was  told,
  also, that the ether would dissolve the India rubber!
  He then said that  he would stop the opening  with
  a cork, instead of the bag ;  intending still to exclude
  the common air.
    Some time  after, I  heard Dr. Jackson speak of
  Morton's being reckless.   He had heard that Mor-
  ton did not manage well in  the administration of the
  ether.  Dr. Jackson expressed his opinion that it
  ought to be in the hands of careful and skilful  per-
  sons.  In fact he was  sorry that he had communi-
  cated  his discovery to Morton, and  that he  had
  employed him to make those early experiments with
  the ether.   He spoke strongly upon these points.
                           George 0. Barnes.
    Boston, May 21, 1847.—Sworn before me,
                           Josiah Quincy, Jr.,
                              Justice of the Peace.

    I, James  Mclntyre, of Bangor, in the State of
  Maine, depose and say, that in the month of Sep-
  tember, 1846,1 was a student in chemistry with Dr.
  Charles T. Jackson, of Boston.   In the latter  part
  of September, I was  sitting in the front room or
  office of  Dr. Jackson's laboratory, when Mr. W.
  T. G. Morton  came inane}  asked for Dr. Jackson,
  and passed through the office into the house adjoin-
  ing the  laboratory.   In a short time Morton came
  into the back room with an India rubber bag in his
  hands, and passed  through into  the glass room.
  Dr. Jackson came in  with  him,  or shortly after-
  wards.  Dr. Jackson asked  Morton what he wanted
  with the bag.   He said he wished to blow up  the
  bag, and act upon a patient's imagination by mak-
  ing her breathe from the bag.  The precise words
 of Morton's answer I do not remember ; but  the
 purport of it was, that  he  wanted to extract some
 teeth from a lady who objected on  account of the
 pain, and that he expected,  by making her breathe
 from the bag, to  believe that she would  suffer no
 pain from the extraction of her teeth.  In order to
 show the effect of imagination, he gave an account
 of an experiment upon  two criminals, one of whom
 was bled to death;  and the other, having his,arm
 pricked and warm water poured upon it, died from
 the effect of the  imagination.   Dr. Jackson said
 that it was absurd, and never occurred.   He told
 Morton that  it  would be useless to try that, as he
 could not act upon her imagination ; and, if he failed,
 she would set him down as  a humbug. There was
 then some conversation about the use of exhilarat-
 ing  gas,  whether it was first mentioned by Dr.
 Jackson or  Morton, I do not remember.  Morton
 asked if he  could  not make  it.  Dr. Jackson told
 him that he  could  not  succeed without apparatus
 and the assistance of some one who had some chem-
 ical knowledge  ; and that, if he undertook to make
 it, he  would get nitric oxide instead of nitrous
 oxide.   He asked Dr. Jackson if he could not pre-
 pare some for him;  this Dr.  Jackson declined to do,
on account of his business.   Morton was then going
away with the  bag, and I have no doubt intended
to use the bag by distending it with atmospheric air.
    As he was going, Dr. Jackson told him that he
  could tell him something  that  would make the
  patient insensible, and then he could do what he had
  a mind to with them.  Morton asked what it was.
  Dr. Jackson then told  him to go to Burnett's, and
  get some pure sulphuric  ether, and pour it on  a
  handkerchief, and put it to the patient's mouth and
  let her inhale it,  Morton  asked what  sulphuric
  ether was, what  kind of looking stuff it was.  I
  stayed in the front room while  Morton and Dr. J.
  went to look at the ether.  From Morton's ques-
  tion about the ether, I am satisfied that  he  knew
  nothing  about its properties or nature.   I  heard
  Morton ask Dr. Jackson very particularly whether
  it would be  safe to use  it.   Dr. Jackson assured
  him that it was perfectly safe,  and  alluded to the
  students at  Cambridge having used  it.  Morton
  appeared to be afraid to use the  ether, and  asked
  him several times if it was safe.  Dr. Jackson ad-
  vised Morton to try it himself.   Morton asked me
  if I would be willing to take it.  I told him that I
  would.   The whole conversation between Dr. Jack-
  son and Morton I did not hear,  as I was not all the
  time in the room  with them.  But I felt sure, from
  the conversation I had  heard, that he came  to the
  laboratory without any idea of using ether, or any-
  thing else which  would destroy sensibility to pain ;
  that he knew nothing about its properties ; that the
  effect which ether would produce was communicated
  to him by Dr. Jackson ; and that he was induced
  to try it only by the repeated assurances of Doctor
  Jackson, that  it would produce insensibility,  and
  could be administered with safety.  The next day
  after  the above conversation, Morton came into the
  office, and told  Dr. Jackson  that the  ether  had
  worked.nicely ; that the patient suffered no pain.
    During the time that I was in Dr. Jackson'3 lab
  oratory, I never heard him express any doubt about
  the effect which ether would produce in causing in-
  sensibility to pain, but  have heard him say that it
  ought to  be administered with care, and by persons
  acquainted with the nature of it.
                     Signed,
                           James McIntyre.
    United States of America, State  of Mas
 sachusetts.   County of Suffolk, ss.  City of Bos-
 ton.— On this first day of April, A. D. 1847, belore
 me, came James Mclntyre, and, being duly sworn,
 did depose and say as within written, and did sign
 the said  within writing, as  his deposition in and
 concerning the matter herein  specified.
   In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand
 and seal of office, on this said 1st of April, A. D.
 1847.             Signed,
                         John  P. Bigelow,
                               Notary Public.

\   I, James Mclntyre, of the city of Boston, County
 of Suffolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on
 oath  depose, that  I  was in the  laboratory  of Dr.
 Charles T. Jackson, on the thirtieth day of Septem-
 ber, A. D. 1846, on which day Mr. W. T. G. Morton
 called to procure an India rubber bag for  the pur-
 pose  declared in my deposition of April  1, A. D.
 1847.  Mr. Morton did not  to  my knowledge ask
 for or take from the laboratory a glass tube and  flask
 of any description whatever, which I should certainly
 have known if he had.
   A few days after the said 30th day of September,
 on the 2d  or 3d day of October, Mr. Morton did
 call and take from  the laboratory the above named
 apparatus.
                           James McIntyre. 
32
THE ETHER  C
ONTUOVKR.sY.
  Suffolk ss.  Boston, May 2, 1848.— Sworn to
this day by the said James Mclntyre, before me,
                           S. W. Robinson,
                             Justice of the Peace.

                           Boston, May IS, 1848.
  Dear Sir : — In answer to your inquiries I would
state that  on the  twenty-sixth day of October, A.
D.  1846,  Dr. Jackson sent  his sister, Mrs. Ralph
Waldo Emerson,  to my office, to have  a painful
dental operation performed.  She requested me, in
Dr. Jackson's name, to administer the vapor of ether,
but, first, to obtain Mr. Morton's permission, as he
had recently purchased her brother's pecuniary in-
terest in this discovery.
  A short time afterwards I  had an interview with
Dr. Jackson, at which he expressed the most entire
confidence in his discovery, and asserted that sulphu-
ric ether,when judiciously administered, was perfect-
ly harmless, and that any surgical operations might
be performed upon persons subject to its influence,
with complete unconsciousness of pain.   Dr. Jack-
son stated, however, that he very much regretted
having first intrusted his  discovery to Mr.  Morton,
and having transferred to him the sole right to apply
the agent, for his ignorance  of its nature, and his
recklessness in ordering its application, might be
the occasion of injurious, if not fatal consequences.
                 Very respectfully,
                                N. C.  Keep.
  Dr.  Charles T. Jackson.

  I, N. C Keep, of Boston, in the County of Suf-
folk, and Commonwealth of  Massachusetts, dental
Burgeon, having  been called upon by Dr. Charles
T.  Jackson, depose and  say, that on the twenty-
eight day  of November, in the year eighteen  hun-
dred and  forty-six, I became  associated in the
business and practice of dentistry with Dr. W. T.
G. Morton,  of said Boston, which connection con-
tinued from that  date until  the thirty-first day of
December following ; during that period the vapor
of ether was administered almost daily to our pa-
tients, for the purpose of producing insensibility to
pain in  dental operations.   It  wa-5  his  pracii'1',
during that  time, to administer  the ether, without
any adequate provision for the admission of atmos-
pheric air, and whenever operations were perlornM-'l
by other persons in the office, and under his super-
vision, he directed its application in the same way ;
by consequence of which, many of the  operations,
at that time, were unsuccessful, and great distress
and suffering were induced.  All of his apparatus
for the inhalation  of  ether was so constructed that
it was a  matter, in my opinion,  of absolute uncer-
tainty, whether the patient could receive  sufficient
atmospheric air to prevent asphyxia.   Dr. Morton
appeared to be in  no  sense aware of the  importance
of admitting atmospheric air.   I believe  that ho
was not at all well acquainted with the nature, prop-
erties, and safe and  proper  application, of the va-
por of ether, and he was  certainly, in my opinion,
reckless in its use, expressing the most  perfect un-
concern as to its effects upon the subjects  of his
practice, provided they were only made  insensible.
  Contrary  to  his clearly and  unequivocally ex-
pressed  wishes and opinion, it  was my practice
during the " thirty days," to make ample provision
for the admission of atmospheric air, while adminis-
tering the vapor of ether,  and I advised the assist-
ants to make the  same provision ; but they, being
influenced by his directions and  known wishes, did
not, at all times, follow my advice.  I remonstrated
with Dr. Morton  in reference to his mode of prac-
tice in this respect, till I found it of no avail.
  With my first acquaintance with the  use of the
vapor of ether, for the purposes above  mentioned,
I was perfectly satisfied of the  expediency,  if not
absolute  necessity,  of admitting atmospheric air
during its inhalation, and  I  immediately, and have
ever since, used it in  that way, and in no other way.
                         N. C. Keep, M. D.
  Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Suffolk,
ss.   Boston, May 24, 1847.—Then personally ap-
peared the within named N. C. Keep, and made
oath that the foregoing affidavit, by him subscribed,
is true.   Before me,         Jona. Chapman,
                             Justice of the Peace. 
  [The following statement of the laws, as recognized by scientific men, by which conflicting claims
to discovery are to be determined, and  the  application of those laws to the facts developed in the
preceding pages, has been kindly furnished  to Dr. Jackson, by Mr. Joseph Hale Abbot, a member of
the American  Academy of Arts and Sciences.  It is believed that his conclusions will be found to be
a fair and logical deduction from the facts which are taken by him as the basis of his argument.]
PRINCIPLES RECOGNIZED BY SCIENTIFIC MEN APPLIED TO  THE  ETHER
                                   CONTROVERSY.
   Eefore  entering  upon  the  subject to  be dis-
cussed, it is necessary to  premise, that  the error
into which Dr. Jackson, through undue confidence
in the judgment of a solicitor of patents, was led,
of supposing  that the  first  painless extraction of
a tooth by Mr. Morton from a patient under the
influence of sulphuric ether, constituted  him  in
the technical  and  legal sense of the term a joint
discoverer with himself of etherization, is entirely
irrelevant to the question now under consideration
past events and their relations to each other and to
truth, which never changes, cannot be affected by
the  subsequent false judgments of the actors in
those events, or of anybody else concerning them.
   It should be further remarked, that discovery, in
the sense in  which it will be used in the sequel,
and  invention  or  discovery, in  the  sense  of the
patent  laws, are two  quite distinct things.  Pa-
tents are  issued, not on the mere ground of scien-
tific discovery, but of useful, original application
of discovery.   Had Sir Humphrey Davy merely
discovered certain scientific principles, and anoth-
er man, without any scientific discovery whatev-
er, first applied those principles to use, in the con-
struction  of a safety lamp, the latter alone would,
under the patent laws of this country and of Great
Britain, have been entitled to a patent for the in-
vention.  It  is the  more important to  bear this
distinction in mind, inasmuch as some of the gen-
tlemen who advocate  Mr. Morton's  claims, have
fallen into great confusion of thought, from over-
looking it.  An able writer in the Edinburgh Re-
view fully sustains  this view of the  subject, and
goes so far as to say, that  " proofs of prior discov-
ery are available, though not disclosed at  the time.'
   In the purely inductive sciences, under which
category  the physiological discovery  of etheriza-
tion falls, discoveries of new  truths  may be  di"
vided into four classes : —
   1. Discoveries, in which the only element is a
legitimate and  true induction from  the experi-
ments and observations of others.  Watt's discov-
ery of the composition of water, belongs  to this
class.   From the experiments  and observations of
Cavendish, repeated by Priestley  and communi-
cated by him to Watt, the latter inferred that wa-
ter is composed of the  two gases now known  by
the names of oxygen and hydrogen.  The truth  of
his induction  was  never  admitted by Priestley;
nor by  Monge,  a  distinguished member of the
rench Academy, till he  had  added the evidenc e
of analysis to that of synthesis.  On the ground
of the above induction, Arago and  Dumas  in
France, Dr.  Henry,  Lord Brougham, Sir David
Brewster, and  the author  of an able  article  in
the Edinburgh  Review, and other men in Great
Britain of like authority in  matters of science,
award this brilliant discovery to Watt.  Among
scientific men, there are only three known dissen-
tients  from this  award, Harcourt,  Peacock, and
Whewell; the  two former of whom, (Whewell's
grounds of dissent are  not  known to the writer,)
claim the discovery for Cavendish on the ground,
though there is  no evidence of the fact, that  he
must have made  the deduction from his experi-
ments himself.   This difference of opinion relates
to a question of fact,  not  of principle.   To this
same class belongs, also, Black's discovery of car-
bonic  acid gas; in reference to which Whewell
thus  remarks: — " This discovery consisted, of
course, in  a  new  interpretation of  observed
changes;" in other  words, of an induction  from
facts  previously ascertained.   It appears, there-
fore, that if Dr. Jackson had  legitimately deduced
the conclusion, that the inhalation of pure sulphu-
ric ether,  would safely and  surely prevent  pain in
surgical operations, solely from the observations
and experiments of others, his claim to the discov-
ery of etherization would have been complete.
   2. Discoveries  deduced by their authors from,
and fully verified by, their own  experiments and
observations.  Davy's discovery of the metallic
base  of potassa,  and Black's discovery of latent
heat, are examples of this class.
   3. Discoveries  suggested by  an existing, but
discredited popular belief.  To this class belongs
the discovery of vaccination.   Jenner generalized
the element of  truth, which  he alone, of all the
neighboring  physicians, had  the sagacity to per-
ceive in the belief of the milk-maids of Sodbury in
Gloucestershire, — that those who had  had the
cow-pox would never  have the small-pox.   By a
legitimate deduction from  his own observations
and experiments, he made the great discovery, that
the virus of an eruptive disease of the cow, intro,
duced by artificial means into the human system-
confers immunity from the most destructive dis-
ease to which humanity is  subject.  This discov-
ery, like that  of etherization, required verification
on an extended scale ; but mankind  have decided
that this detracts nothing from the delusiveness,
of Jenner'i claims to the discovery. 
3D  BY  SCIENTIFIC MEN
34                  PRINCIPLES  REC0GNIZ1

   4. Discoveries  legitimately deduced from  the
experiments and observations of their authors, but
requiring, for  their complete verification, further
experiments, devised, but not performed, by them-
selves, and committed  by them, with full instruc-
tions for  their performance, to others.   To this
class belongs Dr.  Franklin's discovery of the iden-
tity of electricity and  lightning; in reference  to
which a writer in  the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia
uses these words: "Posterity have unanimously
agreed in associating with this brilliant discovery
his  [Franklin's]  name."   Dr. Franklin was  the
first to infer by a process of inductive reasoning,
founded partly on the  results of his own  experi-
ments, and partly on facts observed by others, the
identity of electricity and lightning; and  he also
pointed out the means of verifying his induction
by actual  experiment.   In pursuance of his di-
rections, Dalibard erected a rod at Marly-la-ville,
near Paris, and employed Coiffier, an ex-dragoon
to watch it.  The latter, following the instructions
given him, took the electric spark from  the rod,
and thus became  the first  verifier of Franklin's
discovery.  Franklin's experiment  with the kite
was performed a month later;  that experiment and
others similar  to  it, performed  soon afterwards,
were but the  further verification of a discovery
already complete.  A writer in the Encyclopaedia
Americana justly says: — "To him  [Franklin]
belongs exclusively the glory  of the [above men-
tioned] discovery."
   Dr. Jackson's discovery of etherization  belongs
to the same class  with  that of Franklin, with this
difference, that his  claims  are, in  several impor-
tant respects, much stronger.  No one had before
him, bs was truly and without contradiction af-
firmed, at a large meeting of the  French Academy,
ever conceived the idea of using sulphuric ether
to prevent pain in surgical operations; whereas
other writers before Franklin had  perceived and
clearly pointed out many striking analogies  be-
tween electricity and lightning.
   The very experiment devised by Franklin and
performed  by  Coiffier,  had  often been performed,
more than a hundred years before, by a  sentinel
who mounted guard on one of the bastions of the
castle of  Duino,  on the Adriatic  sea, and who,
whenever he observed indications of an approach-
in^  storm, took  a halberd,  always ready for  the
purpose, applied  it to  an iron  rod standing in a
vertical position, and on observing sparks, or " a
small gerb of fire" at its point, rung a bell  to
warn the peasants in the fields, and the fishermen
at sea, to betake  themselves to a place of shelter.
   Dr. Jackson also personally instructed Mr. Mor-
ton respecting the anaesthetic properties of ether,
and how to perform the experiment committed to
him, and  expressly assumed all the responsibility
of the experiment.  Further, his deductions were
made, in much greater part than Franklin's, from
his own original observations.  This will be 6een
by the  following letter, written  in reply to  a
request made  by the writer to  Dr. Jackson  for a
statement of all the observed effects upon himself
of sulphuric ether, so far as he  could recollect or
had recorded them, together with a specification
of the grounds of the induction, which has resulted
in the complete discovery of etherization.   Such
a statement he has never before  attempted to  draw
up for publication.
                      Boston, May 19th, 184S.
Joseph Hale Abbot, Esq.,
  Dear Sir,
  I cheerfully comply with your  request for a
more minute statement than I have hitherto pub-
lished, of the effects produced upon me by sulphu-
ric  ether, when  I inhaled it  for relief from the
distress occasioned by the inhalation  of chlorine,
in the winter of 1841 -42; and also a statement
of the  precise grounds, which I have never pub-
lished, of the idea then  conceived by  me, that
pure sulphuric ether could  be used, with  safety
and success, to prevent pain in surgical operations.
I will add, that in my published letter to Dr. Gay,
I neglected, through inadvertence, to  state one of
my  principal  reasons, — which as will be seen by
his pamphlet, I had mentioned to him in conver-
sation,— for the  inference I drew from my obser-
vations.  The experiment referred to above, in the
course of which I observed that sulphuric ether
produced insensibility to  pain, was  as follows : —
Having taken a bottle of pure  sulphuric ether
from my laboratory, I went into my office, soaked
a folded cloth with it, squeezed  it out  slightly,
and seated myself in a  rocking chair.   Having
laid my head back against the rocking chair, with
my  feet supported  in another, so as to give me a
fixed position, I placed the cloth  over my mouth
and nostrils, and commenced  inhaling the ether
The effects perceived by me were at first a little
coughing,— a sensation of coolness, then warmth
and fulness of the  heal and  chest, — exhilaration
and giddiness, — numbness,  or want of feeling in
the  feet and legs. — a swimming sensation, as if
I had  been afloat  in the  air, together with a  loss
of all feeling of the rocking  chair in which I was
seated,—loss of all sensation of pain in the throat
and chest, — a state of reverie, and soon entire un-
consciousness, for a space  of time unknown to
me.  Recovering, I felt  a sense of giddiness, but
with no desire to move, — found the cloth I had
moistened  with ether,  had dropped from  my
mouth, — had no  feeling of pain  in the  throat
and chest, but began to feel  a strange thrilling in
the  body.   In a short time,  I feU  the soreness in
the  throat gradually returning, and the distress in
the  chest also, though much less than it had been
before.  From the cessation of all  pain, and the
loss of all feeling of external  objects, a little while
before and after the loss of entire consciousness  I
was led to infer, that the paralysis of the nerves
of sensation would be so great during the contin-
uance  of the unconsciousness and  the total loss 
APPLIED  TO THE  ETHER CONTROVERSY.                     35
 of feeling, that a surgical operation could be per-!
 formed upon a patient, under the full influence of
 ether, without giving him any pain; and, therefore,
 I prescribed it, with entire confidence in the result.
 The effects observed  in a previous experiment, in
 which  I had  inhaled sulphuric ether in order to
 notice its effects upon the system, were, with the
 exception of coughing, and relief from pain, simi-
 lar to those I  have just described.  I had inhaled
 ether on other occasions, but not to such a degree
 as to produce  loss of consciousness;  and  always,
 as well as in  the two experiments I  have spoken
 of, without injurious or disagreeable consequences.
 I heard afterwards of cases of stupor, accidentally
 produced, which, although universally represent-
 ed  as dangerous, and attended with unpleasant
 effects from the administration of alcoholic ether,
 yet so far from impairing my confidence, added to
 my  conviction of the safety of inhalation, when
 pure sulphuric ether  should be used.
             I am, sincerely, your friend,
                        Charles T. Jackson.

   That a  being, invested  with a material body
 should, with a total loss of sensation  to external
 objects, have the full possession of consciousness
 both before and after the period of unconscious-
 ness,— a mode of existence, which, till  it was
 observed by Dr. Jackson, was  never imagined to
 be  posssible in  a state of health, far less to be
 producible at pleasure, and that without danger,—
 is a most  remarkable fact; and if, in connection
 with it, the reader bear  in  mind that this  state
 was  preceded, accompanied, and followed by en-
 tire cessation  of pain ;—and also that Dr. Jack-
 son had repeatedly inhaled pure sulphuric ether,
 without the slightest unpleasant consequences.
 he will, it is not doubted, be  ready to admit
 that  the inference drawn from  these facts by Dr.
 Jackson, was a perfectly legitimate one: — " That,
 the  paralysis  of the nerves of sensation would be
 so  great during the continuance of the  uncon-
 sciousness, and the  total loss of feeling, that a
 surgical operation could be performed upon a pa-
 tient, under the full  influence of the ether, with-
 out giving him any pain."   Let it  be observed,
 that all that  is necessary to the legitimacy of a
 philosophical induction, is, that it should be  logi-
 cally drawn from  the observed facts of the  case,
 and that it should possess, not demonstrative or
 moral certainty, but  probability sufficient to pro-
 duce belief.*    If  this principle be  admitted,—
 and  he must be a bold man who will deny  it,—
 Dr. Jackson's  inference must  be acknowledged to
 have been a legitimate induction.
  They who deny its legitimacy will be compelled
 to concede to Dr. Jackson a discernment, akin to

  * Nothing can  be conceived  less pertinent than the  ques-
 tion put to Dr. Jackson : "Did you know at such time, that
 after a person had inhaled ether,  and was asleep, his flesh
 could  be cut with a knife without his experiencing any
 pain ? "  No philosopher would answer in  the affirmative
 such a question  in respect to any induction whatever, re-
quiring verification by experiment
i the wonderful sagacity which led Newton to infer
 the combustible nature of the diamond, and  the
 existence of an inflammable  substance  in water,
 from their  effects upon light. All  that is essen-
 tial in this  connection, is the  undeniable fact, that
 he made the induction, and that the result of the
 experiment devised by him and committed for per-
 formance to  Mr. Morton, has verified its  truth.
 This, as the world has decided, is all that  is re-
 quired  to render a title to discovery decisive  and
 complete.  No  scientific man will  doubt, that  if
 the science of chemistry had  been sufficiently ad-
 vanced  to enable Newton to verify his conjecture
 by an experiment, devised and committed by him
 to another person, the discovery of the combusti-
 bility of the diamond would belong exclusively to
 him.
   The absurdity of setting  up a claim to discov-
 ery,  or  even  to participation in  it, for the mere
 performance of experiments devised and suggested
 by others, is set in a clear point  of view by the
 fact, that Priestley did not, to the end of his life,
 acknowledge the validity of the discovery deduced
 from his own  repetition of  Cavendish's experi-
 ments.  Dr. Henry J. Bigelow uses the following
 language:  " He who verifies the suggestion is the
 true discoverer."  Let us suppose  that the experi-
 ments  performed by Priestley had been perform-
 ed to verify  a "suggestion"  of Watt: — Will
 any one say that,  either in the actual or in  the
 supposed case, Priestley was, in any degree what-
 ever, the discoverer of a truth in  which he never
 believed 1  Can the hands discover a truth which
 the mind repudiates?  Is discovery the act, not
 of intellect, but of the muscles'?  — Does not the
 discovery of a truth necessarily involve a percep-
 tion of  it as such, and consequently belief in it"?
 Was Coiffier, — and  not Franklin, as  "mankind
 have unanimously agreed," — the true discoverer
 of the identity  of electricity and lightning'?
   It has been said, and with  truth, that from the
 facts expressly admitted, or not  denied by  Mr.
 Bowditch,  the  discovery of etherization may be
 shown to belong to Dr. Jackson.  Admitting, for
 a moment, as  contended by  Mr.  Bowditch,  Mr.
 Morton's alleged study of the anaesthetic proper-
 ties of sulphuric ether, and his alleged experiments
 therewith,  previous to Sept. 30, 1846, to have  had
 an actual existence, the  case will stand thus: —
 Dr. Jackson, long before Mr. Morton had ever even
 thought of sulphuric ether as an agent for pre-
 venting pain, drew from  his experiments and ob-
 servations  the conclusion, that the  inhalation of
 pure sulphuric ether was safe, and would prevent
 pain in surgical operations;—further, he had fully
 devised  and prescribed  to  others an  experiment
 for verifying his conclusion,  and  well nigh per-
 suaded Mr. Peabody to try it  upon himself.  Mr.
 Morton, also, having conceived the  idea that sul-
 phuric ether might be used for the aforesaid pur-
 pose, had administered it a few times to produce
 insensibility, but with no such success as to have 
36
PRINCIPLES RECOGNIZED BY SCIENTIFIC MEN
 induced him to apply it for the prevention of pain,
 in the dental  operations he was daily performing.
 In order to  overcome the difficulties he met with,
 he sought, by artful and  indirect means, informa-
 tion from Dr. Jackson; affecting, all the while, not
 to know even whether ether was a gas or a liquid,
 and  inducing Dr. Jackson to assume, in express
 terms,  all  the responsibility  of  an  experiment
 which he, without the least suspicion of Mr. Mor
 ton's duplicity, instructed him fully how to per
 form; which he committed to him for performance
 as his own, and  which  Mr. Morton accepted  as
 such, intending, however, at the same time, should
 the experiment be successful, to claim the great
 discovery verified by it for himself. Mr. Morton
 goes to  his room, and with the aid of the new
 knowledge obtained from Dr. Jackson,  he pulls a
 tooth without causing pain.   It is submitted that
 on moral grounds he is forever estopped from  after-
 wards claiming that experiment as his.  He has
 by acts stronger than words, agreed to perform it
 as Dr. Jackson's experiment;  and he can morally
 no more release himself  from  that contract, than
 he can from a positive legal contract. He is equally
 estopped on  scientific grounds from claiming the
 experiment as his.  It is different  in two points
 essential to its safety and success, from any which
 Mr. Morton could, from  his ignorance, as appears
 from the testimony of Barnes and others, and from
 his own admissions, have previously himself de-
 vised; namely, the purity of the ether from alcohol
 and acids, and the admixture of atmospheric air.
 For a knowledge  of these cardinal facts, Mr. Mor-
 ton was indebted wholly to Dr. Jackson ; through
 ignorance of them, and of the simple mode of ad-
 ministering  the ether prescribed  by him to Mr.
 Morton, and still  used in the hospital in this city,
 many eminent  surgeons' early experiments with
 ether in England  and  France, were for the  most
 part  failures.  Even  Liston,  the great English
 surgeon, is represented, in the London  Lancet,  to
 have said that " at one time he had doubts about
 the utility of ether," in consequence of the faulty
 manner in which it had  been  administered in his
 operations. From what has been said it necessarily
 follows,  that inasmuch   as the experiment was
 neither  in a moral nor in a scientific sense, Mr.
 Morton's, the discovery  verified  by it was in no
 sense his, either.
  Again, it is an admitted principle among scien-
 tific men, that it is not essential to the validity  of
 claims to prior discovery against those of a later
 date, that it should first  be disclosed, or that its
 truth should be acknowledged even by a single
 individual.   This princip'e is taken for granted
 by all the eminent men of science in Great Britain,
 who have taken part in  the controversy, respect-
 ing the  rival claims of Watt  and Cavendish.   It
 is agreed by all, that  if  Cavendish had left ev-
 idence in his private note book, that he made the
 deduction alleged by his  friends, though without
disclosing it, in the year  1781, which Watt  made
 in the year 17Sfl. his claims to priority of dis-
 covery would be beyond  dispute.   Harvey left a
 manuscript containing an outline of his discovery
 of the circulation of the blood, dated twelve years
 before he published that discovery to the world.  No
 man of science will deny that that manuscript, if
 authenticated, would have been decisive evidence
 of priority of discovery against any  claims of a
 later  date.  Now, to say nothing of earlier facts,
 it is undeniable  that Dr. Jackson communicated
 to Mr. Peabody and others in February, 1846, his
 induction respecting the anaesthetic properties of
 sulphuric ether, and gave to him complete instruc
 tions  for verifying it, and that too several months
 before Mr.  Morton's  alleged  experiments with,
 sulphuric ether.   On grounds similar to these, so
 far as  verification  by another person  is con-
 cerned, the world  has  adjudged to Dr. Franklin
 the exclusive honor of his brilliant discovery; and
 it remains yet to be shown that on Mr. Bowditch's
 own admissions, Dr. Jackson's claims to the orig-
 inal  discovery of etherization  are not  equally
 good.   This  view of the  case is confirmed, not
 le»s by the obvious suggestions of common sense,
 than by the unanimous decisions,in similar cases,
 of scientific  men.  All that remained to be done,
 to verify the  discovery, was, to perform with the
 hands a prescribed act, and watch and report the
 result.  To  attribute  scientific discovery to Ihe
 mere  performance of such an act, were no less
 absurd, than  to  ascribe it to the shepherd's dog
 that, in obedience to the teachings of his master,
 barks to give notice of the expected approach of the
 wolf.   All that is intended to be shown by these
 remarks, is, that according to principles admitted
 by scientific men, Dr. Jackson's claim  to the in-
 tellectual glory  of the discovery of etherization
 was complete, when he communicated his induc-
 tion and experiment to Mr. Peabody, in February,
 1846, — inasmuch as nothing but verification by an
 experiment already devised, was  required to com-
 plete it.
  It has been objected that Dr. Jackson could not
 have made his  induction  at the time he is posi-
 tively proved to have made it, because he was not
 more prompt to announce it to the world. They
 who argue thus, manifest great ignorance of the
 history  of science.   The  objection, if admitted
 to be  valid,  would  be  subversive, in  not a  few
 cases, of the most  clearly established rights  of
 discovery.  Harvey, as  has been seen,  did not an-
 nounce to the world his great discovery, till twelve
 years  after it had been  made.  It was more than
 a quarter of a century after Jenner  had conceived
 the idea of vaccination, and sixteen after his friend
John  Hunter was accustomed to  allude  to his
 views in  his  lecture room in  London, before he
made the direct application of vaccine  matter  in
the manner which is  now common.   It is well
known that Newton forebore to  publish  most of
 his great  discoveries, for  many years  after they
 were made.   The same cautiousness in regard  to 
APPLIED TO  THE ETHER  CONTROVERSY.
37
 the publication  of his discoveries characterized
 Wollaston in a remarkable degree, as it has many
 other minds of the highest  order.  Much of this
 same cautiousness  is$ known to belong to Dr.
 Jackson, and hence  the  confidence with which
 his discoveries are received in Europe at their first
 announcement.  It is neither very graceful nor
 very grateful, in the recipients of a gift of inappre-
 ciable value, to quarrel with the donor  about the
 time or the manner of his bestowing it.
   The reader is now prepared to judge what con-
 fidence is due to the following  assertions.  Mr.
 Bowditch says in his Report: " He [Mr. Morton]
 certainly administered  it [sulphuric ether] to a
 patient.   By so doing he made the discovery."  The
 reader .is requested to observe that the last sen-
 tence is italicized by Mr.  Bowditch himself.  Mr.
 Dana says,  Dr. Jackson "discovered  nothing."
 Dr. Henry J. Bigelow says, as we have seen: " He
 who verifies the suggestion is the true discoverer."
   Before  these gentlemen can make good these
 assertions, they must show that a great original
 discovery can be  made  in the inductive sciences,
 without a single  original  experiment; without a
 single independent, original observation;  without
 a single philosophical induction, the essential, the
 only common element,  as has been seen, in all
 discoveries in the inductive sciences;  without, in
 fine,  originating  a single new idea.  The most
 Mr. Morton can claim, is, not in  any degree, dis-
 covery, but performance, verification, endeavors
 to introduce into practical  use the  discovery of
another man.   To all who, by fair and  honorable
means, by their influence,  their acts, or by verifi-
 cation, have promoted the diffusion of one of the
 greatest blessings that humanity has received  at
the hands of science, belongs the glory of partici-
pating in a noble undertaking.  .
   The author has  now  completed a labor per- '
formed in  the midst of pressing occupations, and
in such  haste, as to leave  little  opportunity for
revision, and none for condensation.  He is aware '
that much which he has written will seem, to per- |
sons conversant with the principles of inductive
science,  to be a  work of supererogation.  It is
proper, therefore, to  say, in apology for the numer- I
ous, and, he fears,  prolix illustrations by which i
he has sought to render himself intelligible  to |
unscientific readers, that the  erroneous notions
prevalent  in  this  community, respecting  what
constitutes scientific  discovery, and  the  conse-
quent  withholding  from  Dr. Jackson of what is
due to him, were thought to demand  a somewhat (
careful consideration.  The  author may be per-
mitted to add, that  he had no intimate acquaint-
ance with Dr. Jackson before the commencement
of the present controversy;  and that he  has been
prompted to make this effort in behalf of what he
deems the cause of  truth  and justice, by his sym-
pathy  for him as an injured  man  and benefactor
of his species ; and by his conviction that a con-
spiracy, unparalleled  in the history of scientific
discovery, and so far successful as to have deceived
many  upright  and  honorable men, has  been
formed to  rob him, not  merely of his rights of
discovery,  but of his  fair fame as a man.  The
final judgments of mankind  are generally right;
and it cannot be doubted that they will ultimately
do full justice to the benefactor  to whom they
owe so much.
                                    J. H. A.
  Temple Place, May 26,1848. 
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