AN
APPEAL TO  THE PUBLIC,
MEMBEES
MEDICAL  PROFESSION.
       NEW-YORK:
G. F. NESBITT & CO., PRINTERS AND STATIONERS, .
    OORNKR OF PEARL AND PINE STREETS. 
                                                                             J




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 r  A) a c\e jI A -e"f < c  l/jr-/
AN
APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC,
MEMBERS
MEDICAL  PROFESSION.
:  i<fi
        NEW-YORK:
G. P. NESBITT & CO., PRINTERS AND STATIONERS,
    OORNKK OF FJBAKL AND PIM: STREETS. 
v.: o j\ 
Sir:
    We desire your attention for a moment to a subject  that  concerns us
 all.   About twelve years ago it was discovered that physical torture was
 no longer a necessary  accompaniment of the  surgeon's  knife, and that
 generations yet to be born might come into the world unattended by the
 pain  and dread which had caused tears to flow since the  expulsion  from
 Eden ; that, by a few inspirations of a simple vapor, the most acute pangs
 of human suffering, whether from  wound or  sickness,  might be quieted
 and laid asleep.
    Twelve years of experience have proved this, and  that  it is one of the
 greatest medical discoveries the world has ever known.
    Our National Government, competent institutions, and  the great  bulk
 of the medical profession, after most careful and  patient investigation,
 have  declared  by whom this all-important fact was  brought  to light  and
 promulgated.   Their decision stands unshaken, notwithstanding the most
 persevering efforts of rival contestants.  Yet, strange to say, to this day,
 it  would have  been vastly better for its author,   his wife,  and their
 children, if  he had buried the  secret, and permitted ages more to pass
 before it came to light.
   In experimenting and establishing its  importance, "in  making it public,
 and in appeals to Government—which, through its army and navy, has for
 years used it, and failed to.pay for it—he has lost money, years and health.*
   The battle-field in war, the cottage in  peace, the hospitals  throughout
 the land, have been blessed by  its  alleviation  of misery; but no arm of
 power or hand of  sympathy has been  stretched in aid  of the  neglected
 benefactor, though millions of  dollars could be raised- to   recover the
 discovery, if lost.

  * " He became  poor in a cause which has  made the world his debtor. The  committee have the
highest medical authority for saying, that from living so much of late in an atmosphere of-, ether
from the anxiety  attending the various trials and experiments connected with the discovery and
from the excitement caused by the controversies which it has occasioned, the health of Dr. Morton
has become such  that he is unable to attend to his professional duties.''—Report  of the Massachusetts
General Hospital, 1848. 
4
   All must admit that its value to mankind is such as to justly merit for
its author a fit acknowledgment, especially in our own country, which is
his birthplace, and which is honored by the discovery.
  The undersigned, acting as an Executive Committee of the Physicians
and Surgeons of New-York, who are participating with their professional
brethren in  Boston in raising  a national fund to recompense  Doctor
Morton, are confident that they but interpret the sentiment of thousands
when they assert that the  wealthy of this great and  prosperous city, who
have been, and must continue to be, benefited to an incalculable extent
by this appliance, will desire to see its author, (whcse expenditures to
secure these benefits have left him poor in a cause which has made the
world his debtor,) in the  absence of Government  recompense, at  least
reimbursed and indemnified for his losses by individual subscriptions.
  Entertaining  these  views,  we have  the  honor of  soliciting  the
subscriptions of our fellow-citizens in aid of this fund.
  A person duly authorized by Mr. James Brown, receiver for New-York
will wait upon you.
                 (Signed,)
                         JOHN  WATSON,  M.  D., Chairman,
                         VALENTINE MOTT, M. D.,
                         JOHN  W. FRANCIS,  M. D.,
                         JOSEPH M. SMITH, M. D.,
                         WILLARD PARKER, M, D.,
                         GURDON  BUCK, M.  D.,
                         JAMES R. WOOD, M. D.,
                         J. MARION SIMS,  M.  D.,
              Executive Committee in behalf of the
                      Medical Profession in the City of New-York, 
               PROCEEDINGS
At  a Meeting of the  Medical  Profession of Mew- York.
   On the 24th of June, a meeting  of medical gentlemen, interested in
raising  a national  testimonial   for the  benefit  of the  discoverer of
Anaesthesia, was held at the residence of  Dr. Willard  Parker.
   The hour for organization  having  arrived, Dr. Parker addressed the
meeting, explained its objects, and proposed for President Dr. Joseph M.
Smith ;  which nomination, having been seconded, was  voted upon,  and
carried.  Dr. Gurdon Buck was then elected  Corresponding Secretary,
and Drs. Bibbins and Thomas, Recording Secretaries.
   The meeting being now  duly  organized, the business of the evening
was called for, and proceeded in this wise :—
   1st.—Dr. John Watson read a list of the names of some of the most
prominent, benevolent  and wealthy of the citizens' of New-York,  and
proposed that each gentleman present should charge himself with visiting
such  of them  as  he had most influence with,  and  raising  as large
subscriptions  as possible to head the  list.   This was. acted upon; a list of
one hundred names was read, and the duty of canvassing  them assumed
by various gentlemen composing the meeting.
   2d.—Dr. Buck moved that a committee of medical men be appointed
to confer with gentlemen out of the  profession  as  to the  most efficient
means for accomplishing the end  in view.  This  was seconded  by Dr.
Parker, and  carried.   On the Committee, the  President then _ appointed
Drs.  John W. Francis, Valentine Mott, James  R.  Wood, Willard
Parker, James Minor, Gurdon Buck, John  Watson, and J. Marion
Sims ; and upon motion of Dr. Sayre, the President was added to it.
This committee, it was agreed, should meet at  the  house of Dr. Parker
at an early date.
   3d.—It was  then  moved  by Dr. Parker,  that a committee  of  one
selected from  the Medical Board of  each public charity of the city and 
fi
its vicinity should be appointed to wait upon the Boards  directing the
various institutions, and solicit donations in behalf of the object which
has called us together this evening.  This motion  was seconded  by Dr.
Watson, and carried.  The following appointments were then made by
the Chair:—
New-York Hospital, -	- Dr.	Gurdon Buck.
Bellevue " -	u	Jas. R. Wood.
Emigants1 " - - -	a	J. M. Carnochan.
St. Vincent's " - -	u	Wm. H. Van Buren.
St. Luke's '• -	a	Benj. Ogden.
Jews' '• ...	it	J. Moses.
Women's " -	a	J. M. Sims.
Child's " ...	u	G. T. Elliott, Jr.
Quarantine " ...	u	Elisha Harris.
New-York Lying-in Asylum, -	t(	T. F. Cock.
Brooklyn City Hospital,	41	Hutchinson.
Long Island College Hospital, -	U	Ayres.
Colored Home Hospital,	u	Fitch.
New-York Eye Infiimary,	(1	Dubois.
New-York Ophthalmic Hospital, -	(1	Garrish.
     ********
 . 4th.—It was moved by Dr. Watson, that the minutes of this meeting
be transmitted  to Dr. Wm. T. G. Morton, by  the Secretary, which was
carried.
  No further business appearing, the meeting then adjourned.

                           JOSEPH M. SMITH, M. D., President.

  Gurdon Buck, M. D., Corresponding Secretary.
  T. Gaillard  Thomas, M. D., Recording Secretary. 
THE  XEW-YORK   APPEAL.
   The Medical  Profession have, from  the  earliest ages, felt the need of
 some safe and efficient agent for annulling pain.
   The ordinary anodynes, long in  use, have never supplied this  defi-
 ciency, and the various new agents which, within the past sixty or eighty
 years, have been substituted for these, have, until recently, proved either
 too dangerous or too unreliable to be employed in general practice.
   Wine and strong alcoholic drinks, given in such  quantity as to induce
 intoxication, were occasionally employed, even before the commencement
 of the present century, for rendering persons  insensible to the pain of
 surgical operations.    With  the same end in view, some surgeons,
 addressing the  intellect, were in the habit of exciting sudden fear, alarm,
 or astonishment, to divert the attention  of their patients.." Others, again,
 resorted to  the uncertain and  inexplicable influence of mesmerism.
 Still more  recently, the nitrous  oxide  gas,  administered by inhalation,
 has, as originally  suggested by Sir Humphrey Davy, been employed for
 producing temporary loss  of consciousness.   But this, too, after a fair
 trial, has failed, and the hopes founded upon  it have proved nugatory
 and delusive.   So that up to this point, the want of  a reliable agent  for
 rendering the human body insensible to pain—a want  so  long felt, and
 to obviate which so many fruitless efforts had  been made—was  still to
 be supplied.  That want, however, has since been fully met.
   The first great triumph of placing in  the  hands of the profession an
 agent capable of rendering the patient safely, and, at will,  utterly insen-
 sible to the stroke of the surgeon's knife, was in detecting and establish-
ing by experiment by anaesthetic powers of sulphuric  ether.  For this
discovery the world is indebted to Dr. Wm. T. G. Morton, of Boston.
   Whatever  may  have been  the  steps preliminary to this remarkable
discovery, Dr. Morton's claim to it is established beyond all controversy;
! 
s
 and his merit in this respect,  with those  who have  taken  the  trouble to
 inform  themselves  on  the  subject,  can  be  no  longer  a  question  of
 dispute.*
    Nor can the  importance  of his early  investigations  and  experiments,
 under  the guidance of Providence,  in  reference to the  properties and
 uses of ether, be, at the  present  day,  too highly estimated.   The intro-
 duction of this  agent as  an anaesthetic,  and  of the  various  other agents
 of  the  same  class—as chloroform, amyline, and the like—to which  this
 directly led, has done more for  the mitigation  of human  suffering than
 any  other discovery, with  the  exception,  perhaps, of  vaccination,   for


    * The following extract  from a  letter  addressed to the Editor of the New-
 York Times, by Dr. John Watson, President of the Academy of Medicine  and
 Chairman of the Executive Committee, is  a sufficient verification of this state-
 ment :—
 2b tlie Editor of tlie New- Tork Times ;
   An article appeared in your issue of  the 15th,  under the  caption " Who invented  Ansethesia?"
 which though written in an apparently candid spirit, and with a desire to present to your readers the
 facts in the history of the discovery of  Anaethesia,  is nevertheless vitiated by an  imperfect .know-
 ledge of the controversy to which that discovery has given rise, besides being of a nature  to obscure
 truth and do great injustice, (where I am sure there was no such intention.)
   You state what  is very true when you say that " it  is a source of national pride that the boon is
 of American origin, and none could hesitate,  were  its undoubted author indicated, to award to him
 the highest honors ;" and it is no impulse of mere enthusiasm, but a sober judgment of the reason
 which leads you to add—" It still remains, and always will, that  the man who convinced the world
 that by the simple inhalation of an agreeable vapor, surgery could be divested of its terrors, half the
 primal curse that  was laid upon woman be removed, and innumerable lives saved to the world, was
 the noblest benefactor of the human race, that the nineteenth century has yet produced."
   Be assured, sir,  it is no longer a matter of doubt to  whom we are indebted for this noblest bene-
 faction of the nineteenth century to the human race, and I  am happy to believe that the people of
 this city. State and country, will not hesitate to discharge their debt.  Twelve years of controversy
 with post facto claimants have ouly established more and more impregnably, the  claims of Dr.  Wm.
 T. (J. Morton, of Boston, Mass., to the exclusive honor of placing  in the hands of the medical profes-
 sion, an agent capable of rendering the patieut safely and at will, utterly insensible to the stroke of
 the surgeon's knife—the'honor of detecting and establishing by experiment, the anaesthetic powers of
 sulphuric ether.   Twelve years of bitter and relentless  persecution, such as  has rarely fallen to the
 lot of any public benefactor in an enlightened age or  community, a competency entirely expended in
' discovering and making knowu this agent, professional prospects  destroyed, health ruined, and years
 of unsuccessful application to Congress for justice,  have ouly increased the obligation under which
 this community rests.
   The great body  of the medical profession of this city, and of the physicians and surgeons to the
 various hospitals and infirmaries, in  their  appeal  for  a national testimonial for  the benefit of Dr.
 Morton, say : " Whatever may have been the steps preliminary  to this remarkable discovery  Dr.
 Morton's claim to it is established beyond all controversy, and  his merit in this respect, with those
 who have taken the trouble to inform themselves on  this subject, can be no longer a  question of
 dispute."
   As the chairman of their Exccutivo  Commit tea, I  feel it incumbent upon me, not to  recite the 
9
which  the  world is  indebted   to medical  science  in  either  ancient  or
modern times.
   The  benefit derived from these newly discovered agents is not confined
to the hardier procedures of operative surgery.   They are now in hourly
requisition  in  every  quarter  of  the  civilized  world for suspending  all
sense of suffering during the  severest  throes of childbirth, for  arresting
 convulsions, for relaxing spasms, for suspending volition and overcoming
muscular resistance  during the  reduction  of fractures and dislocations,
 for allaying restlessness, wakefulness, and morbid excitability;  even  for
assuagiug  the  pangs of  approaching  dissolution,  not to  speak  of the

history of this  obsolete controversy, which no man who is thoroughly informed upon the subject will
now attempt to renew, but to refute  the mistaken statements of your  article in a more simple and
expeditious way, by showing you the immeuse preponderance of competent, unprejudiced, and in
many cases unsolicited, testimony standing on record in Dr. Morton's favor—testimony, I venture to
say, which, whether  tried  by the  rule of quality or quantity, was never surpassed, and never
equaled in behalf of any previous discoverer.
  In his application to  Congress for remuneration, Dr. Morton has had favorable reports from the
majorities of every committee in both branches of every Congress, which has  ever examined his
claims, with a  single informal exception—the consequence of a proposition made by Dr. Morton him-
self, in order to promote a complete judicial inquiry.
  After repeated failures to obtain justice from Congress—failures  which no one familiar with the
 political  history of the past ten years, and the difficulties which all private claims encounter, will
wonder at—Dr. Morton received an  indorsement of bis claim from a majority of both branches of
Congress, embracing the names of Senators Bell, Brown, Seward, Shields, Hamlin, Sumner,Rockwell,
Gwin, Clayton, Johnson, Houston and Chase, and the leading members of the Lower House, including
the present Speaker and Vice-President.  All these gentlemen united  in petitioning the Executive to
purchase Dr. Morton's patent for the use  of the departments.  In this petition the  chiefs of the
Army and Navy Bureaus of Medicine and Surgery concurred.
  The most eminent statesmen and jurists in the United States, who professionally have examined the
subject, have unanimously recognized Dr. Morton's claim to the sole honor of the discovery.  Among
them are such  names as Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, Geo.  T. Curtis, Chas. Sumner, Geo. S. Hil|ard,
Judge McLean, Robert C. Winthrop, Governor Banks, ex-Governor Briggs, ex-Governor Morton, P. W.
Chandler R. H. Dana, Jr., W. Whitting, J. M. Carlisle, and many others.  Some of the most distinguished
citizens of Boston, the city of Dr. Morton's residence, and professional study and practice, award
him  the exclusive honor, and  for years many of them have contributed liberally of their influence
and aid to enable him to secure from Congress his just claims, and have stood by him in every  storm
of obloquy, persecution and malevolent  misfortune  he suffered.  Amos A. Lawn-lice, J. A. Lowell,
Wm. H. Prcscott, Jared Sparks, H. W. Longfellow, Samuel A. Appleton, John Lowell, John P. Gush-
ing J.  T. Stevenson,  John Gardner, Tlios.  B.  Curtis, X. J. Broditch, Charles H. Mills, Samuel A.
Elliott  David Sears, Ed. Wigglesworth, J. B.  Bradlee, Josiah Bradlee, James A. Lawrence, Thos. Lee,
J. B. Forbes, Moses Grant, Wm. Kopes,  C. C. Chadwick, Win. Perkins, Chas. Amory, Alexander H.
Vinton  D. D.,  S. K. Lothrop, D. D., Edward N. Kirk, D.  D., Bp. John B. Fitzpatrick, N. Adams, D.
D., Prof.  Benjamin Pierce, F. D. Huntington, D. 1>., and hosts of others whom it would be tedious to
enumerate, now support his claims.
  Among the members of his own profession, Dr. Morton has  been not less successful in securing an
almost unanimous verdict.  The Massachusetts Medical Society, which includes the bulk of the  pro-
fession in that State, almost to a man have acknowledged Dr. Morton's claims as a discoverer, recog- 
10
 almost innumerable minor uses to which they are  applied, as well in the
 investigation as in the treatment of disease.
    In view of these advantages from the  use of anaesthetics, we feel that
 Dr. Morton—the first to  demonstrate their safety and efficiency,  and to
 establish them in general practice—has conferred a boon upon humanity
 as imperishable as  it  is  important, and  one of such a character as to
 entitle him to  rank among the benefactors  of mankind.
    As members of the medical profession in the city of New-York, and
 as physicians and surgeons to the various hospitals  and infirmaries  in
 this  city and its vicinity, we therefore rejoice to  learn that  a movement
 has been commenced by our  professional brethren and other gentlemen
 of Boston, to establish a national  testimonial, by voluntary subscriptions
 for the benefit  of Dr. Morton.  In this movement, after full  deliberation
 and  consultation among ourselves, we are ready to participate in accord-
 ance with  the  plan of those who  originated it, which plan  is  set forth
 by the gentlemen of Boston in the following terms.*
    Under governments more arbitrary and  restrictive than  our own, but
 more capable of meeting  the  claims of science, the awards of merit are
 not usually left, as with us, to the bounty  of private  individuals.   Dis-
 coveries and improvements  of infinitely less  importance to science or
 humanity,  than that for which we are indebted to Dr.  Morton, are at the
 courts of Europe promptly met by national honors  and emoluments.
    In our own country, it  is true, the National Government, after  care-
 fully investigating Dr. Morton's claims, has  acknowledged the benefit he
 has conferred  upon  it, but has  nevertheless failed, as  yet, to supply the
 recompense.

 nized  their debt as physicians and men, and have appended their signatures, numbered by hundreds,
 t p a memorial askins; aid from Congress—a  memorial headed by such honored names as John C
 Warren, Geo. Hay ward. S. D. Townsend, J. Mason Warren,  S. Parkman, Henry J. Bigelow, Henry S,
 Clark, Jacob Bigelow, President of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Oliver Wendell Holmes, H. J.
 Bowditch, Walter Chanuing, John Ware, James Jackson, and many others of equal or less repute. It
 is noteworthy  that many of these gentlemen were connected with the Massachusetts General Hospital
■ at the time Dr. Morton made his first successful  public exhibition of the use of ether : and in this
 enumeration I should not forget to mention that so competent a  tribunal as the Trustees of that
 Hospital—the most competent and most familiar  with every fact in the history of the discovery-
 after a thorough investigation, decided, once and for all, in Dr. Morton's favor, and one hundred
 other  citizens united iu presenting him a silver casket containing $1,000, and subsequently petitioned
 in his behalf.
   No body, either legislative or scientific, has ever overruled this decision.    *****
* See Appendix A. 
11
  With these remarks, we have  the honor  of recommending  Dr.
Morton's claims for remuneration to  the  consideration of  our  fellow-
citizens, and of soliciting their subscriptions in behalf of the fund which
it is proposed to raise for his benefit.
  What the Government  in this respect  has  failed  to  do, it is to be
hoped, for the credit of the American  name, and from the noble indi-
vidual examples already set, that the discerning and liberal people of the
United States will not leave entirely unaccomplished.
      PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

Of the New  York Hospital and Bloomingdale Asylum.
THOS. COCK, M.D., Conslt'g Phys.
JOS. M. SMITH, M.D., Attn'g Phys.
JOHN H. GRISCOM. M.D.,   "
HENRY D. BULKLEY, M.D., '■
THOS. F. COCK, M.D.,
VALENTINE MOTT, M.D.,
                    Conslt'g Sur.
ALEX. H.STEVENS, M.D..   "
RICH'D K. HOFFMAN, M.D., "
ALFRED C. POST. M.D.,
                     Conslt'g Sur.
GURDON BUCK, M.D., Attn'g Sur.
JOHN WATSON, M.D.,
THADDEUS M. HALSTEAD,
    M.D.,
THOS. M. MAKKOE, M.D.,   "
WM. H. VAN BUREN, M.D., "
WILLARD PARKER, M.D.,   "
              PHYSICIANS  AND SURGEONS

Of Bellevue Hospital, and of the other Institutions under the charge of
             the Board of Governors of the Aims-House.
JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D.,
                     Conslt'g Phv.
ISAAC WOOD, M.D.,
B. W. McCRE ADY, M.D., Attn'g Phy.
JOHN T. METCALFE, M.D.,   "
ISAAC E. TAYLOR, M.D.,   "
B. FORDYCE BARKER, M.D.,"
GEO. T. ELLIOTT, M.D.,
VALENTINE MOTT, M.D,
                     Conslt'g Sur.
ALEX. H. STEVENS, M.D.,   "
JAMES R. WOOD, M.D., . Attn'g Sur.
CHAS. D. SMITH, M.D.,
LEWIS A. SAYRE, M.D.,
J. J. CRANE, M.D.,
W. PARKER, M.D.,
STEPHEN  SMITH, M.D.,   '  "
         Nursery Hospital, Randall's Island.

  HENRY N. WHITTELSEY, M.D., Resident Physician.

          Quarantine Hospital, Staten Island.

R. N. THOMPSON, M.D., Health Officer Port of New-York.
THEO. WATSON, M.D., Ass't Physician, Quar. Hospital.

             Blackwell's Island Hospitals.

(Penitentiary Hospital, Small-pox HosriTAL and Alms-House.)
WM. H. SANGER, M.D., Resident Physician. 
12
PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS

      New-York Lunatic Asylum.

   M. H. RAXNEY, Resident Physician.

     Of the State Emigrant Asylum.
J. M. (ARNOCHAN, M.D.,
                  Surgeon-in-Chief.
T. C. SELDEN, M.D., Surgeon.
II. GULEKE, M. D.,
HENRY B. FAY, M.D.,Phys-in-Chief.
FRANCIS SIMROCK, M.D., Phys.
G. FORD, M.D.,
St.  Vincent's Hospital.
THOS. E. BURTSELL, M.D.,
                     Attn'g Phys.
JAMES O'RORKE, M.D.,  "
WM. H. VAN BUREN, M.D.,
                     Attn'g Sur.
ALEX'R B. MOTT, M.D.,   "
THOS. C. FINNELL, M.D., "
           St. Luke's Hospital.

D. E. EIGINBRODT, M.D., Resident Physician.


              Jews' Hospital.
V. MOTT, M.D.,       Conslt'g Sur.
W. PARKER, M.D.,
T. M. MARKOE, M.D.,  Attn'g  "
ALEX'R B. MOTT, M.D.,   "
J. MOSES, M.D., Attn'g Sur.
C. R. OILMAN. M.D.,  Attn'g Phys.
W. H. MAXWELL, M.D.,  "
New-York Eye Infirmary.
A. DUBOIS, M.D.,         Surgeon.
GURDON BUCK, M.D.,
T. M. HALSTED, M.D.,
C. R. AGNEW, M.D.,      Surgeon.
F. J. BUMSTEAD, M.D.. Assist. "
J. H. H1NTON, M.D.      "   "
                  New-York Ophthalmic Hospital.

MARK STEPHENSON, M.D., Surg. | JOHN P. GARRISH, M.D., Surgeon.


                     Colored Home Hospital.
G. A. SABINE, M.D., Cons'g Surg'n. I J.  S. THEBAUD, M.D., Cons'g Surg.
W. PARKER, M.D.,     "     ••   | J.  D. FITCH, M.D., Resident Phys'n.


                        Women's Hospital.

                  J. MARION SIMS, M.D., Surgeon


                    New-York Lying-in Asylum.

T. F.  COCK,  M.D., Cons'g Physic'n. I G. T. ELLIOT, M.D., Cons'g Physic'n.
J. T. METCALFE. M.D.,  " 
13
                  Nursery and Child's Hospital.

G. T. ELLIOTT, M.D., Att'g Phys'n. I GEO. A. PETERS. M.D., Att'g Phy'n.
H. C.  COX, M.D.,      " '    "| F. U. JOHNSTON, M.D., "

                       Demilt Dispensary.
JNO. 0. BRONSON, M.D.,
                 House Physician.
WM. B. B1BBINS, M.D., Visit'g "
D. L. COX ANT, M.D., Attend'g Surg.
T. G. THOMAS, M.D.,    '•   Phys.
GOUV. M. SMITH, M.D., At'g. Phy.
I. C CM MINGS, M.D.. As't V'g. Phys.
W. R. DONAGHE, M.D., Att'g Surg.
ELISHA HARRIS, M.D., Att'g Phys.
JNO. A. BARTHOLF, M.D. "   "
 ISAAC WOOD, M.D., Resd't Fellow.
 J. R. WOOD, M.D.,
 JAS. ANDERSON, M.D.,
 E. ACOSTA. M.D.,
 E. II. DAVIS, M.D.,
 A. K. GARDNER, M.D.,
 ED. DELAF1ELD, M.D.,
 JOEL FOSTER, M.D.,
 J. C. BEALES, M.D.,
 R. W. BARRY, M.D.,
 H. W. BROWN, M.D.,
 J. C. FORRESTER, M.D.,
 H. S. DOWNS, M.D.,
 F. S. EDWARDS, M.D.,
 F. ELLIOT, M.D.,
 R. PEXNELL, M.D.,
 T. W. RICHARDS, M.D.,
 A. UNDERHILL, M.D.,
 JOS. WOOSTER, M.D.,
 J. W. S. GOULEY, M.D.,    •  ,
 E. H. JANES, M.D..
 C. HENSCHEL, M.D.,
 A. GESCHEIDT. M.D.,
 A. N.GUXN. M.D.,
 WM. H. MAXWELL, M.D.,   "
 E. HALL, M.D.,
 JARED LINSLEY, M.D.,
 JOHN M( ( LELLAND, M.D., "
 WM. MINOR, M.D.,
 JOS. MARTIN, M.D..
 J. AV. RANNEY, M.D.,
 JOHN PRIKSTLEY, M.D.,   "
 ALEX. H. STEVENS, M.D.,  «■
 W. 0. LIVINGSTON, M.I>..  •'
 STEPHEN SMITH, M.D..    ••
 GEO. LEWIS. M.D.,
 JAS. D. FITCH, M.D.,
 CHAS. A. HCDD, M.l)..
 N.  C. HUSTEI). M.D.,
ITH'S. W.  HORSFIELD,M.D.,"
  New-York Academy of Medicine.

J. P. BATCHELDER, M.D., President.
JOHN WATSON, M.D., Vice-Pres't.
W. H. VAN BUREN. M.D., "
S. CON ANT FOSTER, M.D., "
C. E. ISAACS, M.D.,
C. T. HEYWOOD, M.D., Rec'g Sec'y.
S. T. HUBBARD, M.D., Dom. Cor. Sec.
JAS. O. POND, M.D.. Treasurer.
SAMUEL ROTTEN, M.D., Librarian.
W. W. BLAKEMAN, M.D., Trustee.
ED. L. BEADLE, M.D.,
BENJ. OGDEN, M.D.,
F. U. JOHNSTON. M.D., Ass't  Sec.
B. F. BARKER, M.D.. Resd't Fellow.
GURDON BUCK. M.D.,
H. D. BULKLEY, M.D.,
F. J.  BUMSTEAD, M.D.,
THOS. COCK, M.D.,
THOMAS F.  COCK, M.D., "
J. J.  CRANE, M.D.,
GEO. T. ELLIOT, M.D.,
T. C. FINNELL M.D.,
J. W. FRANCIS,  M.D.,
J. P.  GARRISH, M.D.,
C. R. OILMAN, M.D.,
J. H. GRiSCOM, M.D.,
T. M. HALSTED,  M.D.,
E. HARRIS, M.D..
J. H. HINTON, M.D.,
E. LEE JONES, M.D.,
B. W. McCREADY, M.D.,   "
W. PARKER, M.D.,
G. A. SABINE, M.D.,
L. A. SAYRE, M.D.,
J. M. SIMS, M.D.,
C. D. SMITH, M.D.,
M. SMITH, M.J).,
MARK STEPHENSON,M.D.,»
J. E. TAYLOR, M.D.,
T. G. THOMAS. M.D..
W. II. VAN BUREN, M.D.. " 
14
New-York Medical College.
HORACE GREEN, M.D.,
                  Pres't of Faculty.
E. II. DAVIS, M.D.. Prof, of Mat.Med.
B. F. BARKER, M.D.,
                Prof, of  Obstetrics.
R. OGDEN DOREMUS, M.D.,
                Prof, of  Chemistry.
J. M. CARNOCHAN, M.D.,
                   Prof, of Surgery.
H. G. COX, M.D.,
        Prof, of Theory and Practice.
E. R. PEASELEE, M.D.,
               Prof, of Physiology.
CHAS. A. BUDD, M.D.,
             Lecturer on Obstetrics.
New-York Pathological Society.
E. R. PEASELEE, M.D., President.
E. HARRIS, M.D., Vice-President.
E. LEE JONES, M.D., Secretary.
W. B. BIBBINS, M.D., Treasurer.
T. C. FINNELL, M.D.. Curator.
JAS. CRANE, M.D.
H. S. SMITH, M.D.,
GEO. COCHRAN, M.D.,
 Brooklyn City Hospital

Attn'g Phys
C. E. ISAACS, M.D.,
DANL. E. KISSAM,
J. C. HUTCHINSON,
JOS. M. MINOR, M.D.,
Attn'g Sur.
      College of Physicians and Surgeons.

THOS. COCK, M.D., President.
ED. DELAFIELD, M.D., Emeritus Prof, of Obstetrics.
WILLARD PARKER, M.D., Professor of Surgery.
JOS. M. SMITH, M.D., Professor of Mat. Med.
0. R. OILMAN, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics.

          University Medical  College.

WM. H. VAN BUREN, Professor of Anatomy.
ALFRED  C. POST, M.D., Professor of Surgery.
J. T. METCALFE, M.D., Professor of Practice. 
15
Appendix A.
                 THE  BOSTON  APPEAL.

                         To the  Public.

  The power of etheric vapors to produce a  safe insensibility to pain
during surgical operations, and on other occasions of great physical  suf-
fering, is one of the most beneficent discoveries that has been conferred
upon  the human race.   It  is  generally conceded that Dr. W. T.  G.
Morton, of Boston, was instrumental in  presenting this fact to the world.
Nearly the whole of the Medical Profession  [see page  17, et seq.~\ of this
city, in the midst of whom the discovery was made,  together with other
bodies of competent persons, who have investigated its origin, have, after
careful scrutiny, concurred in assigning this merit to Dr. Morton—and
public opinion has long since affirmed their  verdict.
  It is not necessary to enter in detail into the  circumstances which have
prevented Dr. Morton from receiving any  pecuniary benefit from  this
discovery.
  The fact is certain, that Dr. Morton  has  been an  instrument, under
Divine Providence, of introducing to the world one of the most remarkable
discoveries of this or any other age, and that he has received no reward
for it  but the consciousness of having done so.
  We are sure that we interpret the feelings of thousands, when we say
that a substantial national  memorial should  be presented to  Dr. Morton.
  How often has the poor sufferer risen from beneath the surgeon's knife,
with nerves untouched by the slightest sensation of the torture that would
otherwise have been his!   How  often has the  mother  passed in uncon-
scious slumber, through " the perils of childbirth," to wake to her new
happiness, without one memory  of its agonies, and  breathed,  with the
prayer of thanksgiving to  God, a thought of him—to her  perhaps, the
unknown discoverer—whose happy conception, perseverance  and  courage,
first established the astonishing  fact, that the human frame may suffer
all the conditions, and not one of  the sensations of  pain !  What has
already occurred throughout the whole  world, since this discovery was
made—in hospitals, in private chambers of  the sick, on  fields of battle,
on the ocean, and on the land—wherever humanity undergoes the " ills
that flesh is heir to,"—is to occur through countless ages, while the race
is left upon earth !  And yet, year rolls after year, and the  spontaneous
gratitude that is felt and uttered, whenever and  wherever this great dis-
covery is used or contemplated, finds no permanent voice, because no
efforts are made to concentrate and direct it to its object. 
it;
«*
  We propose that such efforts be now nlade.  We think that the people
of the United States, acting individually, should do what their government
has neglected, or been unable to do.  [See page 20 et seqJ\  National
testimonials, established  by  the voluntary contributions of individuals,
have been adopted in all countries, to mark the public sense of services
to the human family, especially when such services have reflected honor
and distinction upon the country where they  have been performed.
  We propose that a national  subscription  be  instituted, the avails of
which shall be paid into the hands of Thomas B. Curtis and  Charles
H. Mills, Esquires, as Trustees—to be held,  appropriated, and invested
upon such trusts, and for such uses, for the benefit of Dr. Morton, as the
Trustees may determine.
  The following gentlemen, as Bankers, have agreed  to receive for the
Trustees any sums paid to them for the purpose above mentioned :—

    James Brown, New-York.      W. E. Bowen, Philadelphia.
    W. H. Graham, Baltimore.      James Adger, Charleston.
             Samuel Nicholson & Co., New Orleans.

  Persons who are willing to co-operate in this measure  are respectfully
invited to subscribe their names, and the amount of their subscription.
A duly authorized agent will call upon them for the amount.
JAMES JACKSON,
JACOB BIGELOW,
S. D. TOWNS END,
JOHN JEFFRIES,
EDWARD REYNOLDS,
JOHN HOMANS,
M. S. PERRY,
O. W. HOLMES,
JOHN WARE,
GEORGE HAYWARD,
J. MASON WARREN,
HENRY J. BIGELOW,
CHARLES G. PUTNAM,
RICHARD H. DANA, Jr.,
ALEXANDER H. VINTON,
S:j_. LOTEIROP,
JOHN B. FITZPATRICK,
           Bishop of Boston.
WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT,
N. ADAMS,
RUFUS CHOATE,
CHARLES P. CURTIS,
F. C. LORING,
G. S. HILLARD,
WILLIAM DEHON,
BENJAMIN PEIRCE,
F. D. HUNTINGTON,
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW,
JARED SPARKS,
R. B. FORBES,
P. W. CHANDLER,
ALEXANDER H. RICE,
ROBERT C.  WINTHROP. 
17
                      MEMORIAL

                            OF THE

MEMBERS OF THE  MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY.
To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
  States, in Congress assembled:

  The undersigned hereby testify to your honorable  body, that in their
opinion Dr. WUliam T. G. Morton first proved to the world that  Ether
would produce insensibility  to the pain of surgical operations, and that it
could be used with safety.   In their opinion, his fellow-men owe a debt to
him for this knowledge.   Wherefore, they respectfully ask a recognition
by Congress of his services to his country and mankind:—

JOHN  C  WARREN, M.D., Senior Surgeon Massachusetts General Hospital'
      and late President American Medical Society,  and Emeritus Professor of
       Anatomy of Harvard University.
GEORGE  HAYWARD, M.D., President  Massachusetts Medical Society, and
       Surgeon Massachusetts General Hospital.
J  MASON WARREN. M.D.,  Surgeon  Massachusetts General Hospital.
S. D. TOWNSEND, M.D.,
S. PARKMAN, M.D.,
HENRY G. BIGELOW, M.D„     "        "        "              and
       Professor of  Surgery Harvard University.
HENRY G. CLARK, M.D.,  Surgeon Massachusetts General Hospital, and City
       Physician.
JACOB BIGELOW, M.D., Professor Materia Medica Harvard University, and
       President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Physician to
       Massachusetts General Hospital.
OLIVER W.  HOLMES, M.D., Professor of Anatomy Harvard University.
HENRY I. BOWDITCH, M.D., Physician Massachusetts General  Hospital.
D. HUMPHREYS STORER, M.D.,
M.  S. PERRY, M.D.,
JAMES JACKSON, M.D.,      )
GEORGE C. SHATTUCK,  M.D.,f Consulting Physicians and  Surgeons Mas-
JOHN JEFFRIES, M.D.,       (  sachusetts  General Hospital.
EDWARD REYNOLDS, M.D.,  )
EDWARD REYNOLDS, M.D.,  )
t, ™  tt^-d™  \t n          \ Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear In-
R. W. HOOPiAi, M-.U.,         /  firmary.
GEORGE  A. BETHUNE, M.D., )
JOHN L.  FOX, M.D., Surgeon  United  States  Navy,  Chelsea  Naval Hospital. 
18
Members of Massachusetts Medical Society.
Walter Chauning,
John Homans, President
   Suffolk Bistrict Medical
   Society.
Z. B. Adams,
John C. Hayden,
John Ware,
Ephraim Buck,
George Bartlett,
Jonas H. Lane,
Anson  Hooker,
Henry Dyer,
Augustus A. Gould,
Charles Gordon,
Joseph S. Jones,
Samuel Kneeland, Jr.,
T. Fletcher Oakes,
George Hubbard,
Charles W. Moore,
Richard H. Salter,
Fytche Edward Oliver,
William J. Dale,
William Edward Coale,
James W. Stone,
B. W. Newell.
Francis A. Willard,
William Hawes,
Charles Mifflin,
J. Wippasne,
Abraham A. Watson.
Aaron P. Richardson,
Henry A. Ward,
William Bowen Morris,
James B. Gregorson,
William W. Morland,
M. C. Greene,
Horace Stacey,
Franklin F. Patch,
Samuel L. Abbott,
John H. Dix,
James Ayer,
Joseph J. Fales,
P. Wilbrand,
Ezra Bartlett,
S. F. Parcher,
Jame3 Hyndman,
Henry S. Lee,
E. D. Cleveland,
John Stevens,
Ira W. Tobie,
J'. Everett Herrick,
■fiT. C. Stevens,
Enoch C. Rolfe,
Henry Willard,
A. Alexander,
D. McGowan,
Thomas R. Owens,
Luther Clark,
Charle3 T. Hoffenvane,
Samuel Morrill,
Silas Durkee,
George Stevens Jones,
Jesse Chickering,
J. A. Tarbell,
George H. Lyman,
Henry W. Williams,
J. Randolph Lincoln,
George Derby,
Warren J. Whitney,
Francis Mi not,
D. D. Slade,
W. E. Townsend,
John B. Alley,
George H. Gay,
Luther Parks. Jr.,
William G. AVheeler,
F. H. Gray,
James  F. Harlow,
George Russell,
Charles E. Ware,
E. W.  Blake,
Edward H. Clark,
Samuel Gregg,
E. D. Miller,
C. G. Putnam,
Charles A. Phelps,
John Odin, Jr.,
Joseph Reynolds,
George Hay ward, Jr.,
Henry  Osgood Stone,
G. Newton Thomson,
J. M. Phipps,
Abner  Phelps,
Josiah  Curtis,
E. D.G. Palmer,
Daniel  V. Folts,
R. L. Hinckley,
J. W. Hinckley,
M. B. Leonard,
P. E. Molloy,
Henry  Bryant,
Charles E. Buckingham,
J. W. Warren, Jr.,
I). D. Smith,
George Tower,
Wi liam Read,
J. F. AY'. Lane,
Const.  B.  O'Donnell, M.
  R. C. S. E.
John S. H. Fogg,
 Edmund T. Eastman,
 William S. Coffin,
 John C. Sharp,
 Alexander S. Butler,
 Benjamin  B. Appleton,
 M. Mattson,
 David Thayer,
 J. C. Sanborn,
 E. A. Kittredge.

      ciiarlestown.
 E. E. Braun,
 A. J. Bellows,
 Benjamin  Seabury,
 George  W Otis, Jr.,
 Charles H. Allen,
 A. C. Webber,
 I. P. Alden,
 W. W. Wellington,
 II. L. Chase,
 Charles F. Foster,
 A. J. Cummings,
 Thomas J. Stevens,
 Hutchinson Germaine,
 Alexander Poole,
 James B. Forsyth,
 John Toomy.

        CHELSEA.
 William Ingalls,  Physi-
  cian and Surgeon U. S.
  Marine Hospital.

        SALEM.
 A. L. Peirson,
 William Mack,
George Choate,
William Henry Prince,
J. G. Wood,
James Stone, Jr.,
E. B. Pierson,
George C.  S. Choate,
George A. Perkins,
H. Wheatland,
Samuel Johnson,
Edward A. Holvoke.
Alfred Baylies,
H. B. Hubbard,
Horace Bowen,
Ebenezer Dawes,
William Dickinson,
Daniel King,
George Leonard. 
f       19
Members of Massachusetts, Medical Society—Continued.
      newburyport.
E. Cross,
S. M. Gale.

         LYNN.
A. S. Adams,
J. T. Galloupe,
Daniel Perley,
D. A. Johnson,
E. Porter Eastman,
James M. Nye,
John Ronton,
Nathaniel Ruggles,
Charles M. Weeks,
Edward Newhall.

       WORCESTER.
Henry Clarke,
Samuel Flagg,
George A. Bates,
Charles W. Whitcoiiib,
Joseph Sargent,
Oramel Martin,
William Workman,
Rufus Woodward,
Henry Sargent,
A. Goulet,
P. B. Mignoult,
Benjamin Heywood,
John E. Hathaway

      SPRINGFIELD.
James M. Smith,
Edwin Seeger,
N. Adams,
A. S. McClean,
Alfred Lambert,
C. C Chaffee,
H. A. Hamilton,
Henry B. Vaille,
D. C. Perkins.

       PITTSFIELD.
H.  II.  Childs,  President
     of Berkshire Medical
     Institution.
N. S. Barnes,
O. S. Root,
Frank A. Cady,
O. E. Brewster,
Nathaniel Foote,
Avery Williams,
A. N. Allen,
L. E. Humeston,
Willard Clough,
Clark F. Hall,
N. J. Wilson.

     NEW BEDFORD.
T. S. Mayhew,
Johnson Clark,
John H. Jennings,
William A. Gordon,
Elijah Colby,
C. D. Stickney,
John Howell Mackie,
Paul Spooner.

      FALL RIVER.
James W. Hartly,
P. A. Smith,
Jerome Dwelly,
Foster Hooper,
E. T. Learned.
John 0. Green,
Henry Whiting,
J. P. Jewett,
J. D. Pillsbury,
Elisha Huntington,
John W. Graves,
Charles A. Savory,
Joel Spalding,
David Wells,
Benjamin Skelon,
H. Pillsbury,
P. P. Campbell,
L. B. Morse,
Charles A. Davis,
Ployer G. Kittredge,
Daniel Holt,
Daniel Mowe,
J. W. Scribner.

       LAWRENCE.
George W. Sanborn,
William D. Lamb,
David Dana,
J. H. Morse.

    SOUTH AND0VER.
James Howarth,
W. H. Kimball.

        DEDIIAM.
Jeremy Stimson,
D. P. Wight,
II. F. Spear.
      FITCIIBURG.
Thos. R. Boutelle,
Levi Pillsbury,
T. W. Wadsworth,
W. M. Barrett,
Henry M. Linrad.

      PLYMOUTH.
James L. Hunt,
Winslow Warren,
Benjamin Hubbard,
Timothy Gordon.
Ezra Stephenson,
Robert T. P. Fiske.

        QUINCY.
Ebenezer Woodward,
William G. Pattee,
W. Goddard.
Andrew Nicholls,
Joseph Osgood,
David A. Grosvenor,
George Osgood.
      MARBLEHEAD.
James C. Briggs,
Chandler Flagg,
Daniel Gill.
       BEVERLY.
W. C. Boyden,
Charles Haddock,
Ingalls Kittredge.
     GLOUCESTER.
Isaac P. Smith,
C. H. Hildreth,
George W. Smith.
       ROCKPORT.
Benjamin Haskell,  •
Lemuel Gott,
Oscar D. Abbott.
       NEWTON.
Henry Bigelow,
Cyrus K. Bartlet.
      framingha.m.
Simon Whitney,
Allston W. Whitney.
       MILFORD.
Francis Leland,
Theodore 0. Cornish. 
20
MEMORIAL
SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES OF  CONGRESS.
To the President and Secretaries of War and Navy of the U. S.:

  The undersigned, members of the Senate and House of Representatives,
concur in recommending that  the right to use  Dr. Morton's discovery,
commonly called  " Practical Anaesthesia," be purchased for the public
service, or that the use thereof be discontinued, because the  government
is manifestly bound by its own patent, duly issued, to  respect the said
discovery as private property,  and because "private property" ought not
to be " taken for public use without just compensation."*
James C. Jones, Tenn.
Jno. Bell.
Geo. W. Jones, Iowa,
Ben. Fitzpatrick, Ala.
C. C. Clay, Jr.    "
A. G. Brown, Miss.
S. Adams,     "
Jas. Shields, 111.
J. D. Bright,  "
J. P. Walker, Wis.
Henry Dodge, "
United  States Senators.
J. B. Thompson, Ky.     j
Chas. T. James, R. I.     j
Philip Allen,
J. AY. Williams, Me.
H. Hamlin,
Charles Sumner, Mass.
Julius Rockwell,   "
James Cooper, Pa.
t John B. Weller, Cal.
AV. M.  Gwin,
J. M. Clayton, Md.
' AY. K. Sebastian, Ark.
j R. W Johnson,   "
 Samuel Houston,  Texas.
 f Wm. H. Seward, N. Y.
| Arch. Dixon, Ky.
 J. P. Benjamin, La.
 B. F.  AYade, Ohio.
 S. P. Chase,   "
 f S. R. Mallory, Florida.
 A. C. Dodffe,
Samuel P. Benson,
Samuel May all,
E. AY Farley,
L AVashburn, Jr.,
T. J. D. Fuller,
Representatives  to  Congress.
Me.
Samuel H. AYalley, Mass.
Alex. De Witt,
Charles AV. Upham, "
Thomas 1). Eliot,
J. Z. Goodrich,      "
N. P. Banks, Jr., Mass.
Edward Dickinson,  *'
J. AViley Edmands,  '■
Samuel L. Crocker,  "
Alvah Sabin, Xt.
  * Constitution United States, Amendment, Article V.

,. f Mr. Mallory, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Weller sign under the following qualification :—,; I respectfully
 suggest that the patentee of the anaesthetic agent known as Dr. Morton's  discovery, should receive
 from the United States a liberal compensation for their past and future use of it." 
21
Representatives  to Congress—(Continued.)
B. B. Thurston, R. I.
Thomas Davis,    '•
Tho's W. Cumming.N.Y.
T. R. Westbrook,    -;
John Wheeler,
Gerrit Smith,        "
Peter Rowe,
Wm. M. Tweed,
Charles Hughes,     "
G. Dean,            "
Jared Y. Peck,      "
R. AV.  Peckham,
Bishop  Perkins,     ''
Henry Bennett,      "
George  Hastings,
A. Oliver,           '•
A.C. M. Pennington, N.J.
George  Vail,        "
Roland  Jones, La.
Hend'k B. AVright, Penn.
Thomas B. Florence, "
AV. H. Wittu,
Asa Packer,        "
N"er Middleswarth,   "
John Robbins, Jr.,   "
AVilliam Everhart,   "
Joseph  R. Chandler, "
J. Glancy Jones,     "
C. M. Straub,
C. B. Curtis,        "
Thomas M. Howe,   "
Jacob Shower, Md.
G. R. Riddle, Del.
Sion H. Rogers, N. C.
W. S. Ashe,    N. C.
R. C. Puryear,     "
John Kerr,        "
H. M. Shaw,
James L. Orr, S. C.
P. S. Brooks,   "
W. AV. Boyce,   "
L. M. Keitt,    "
D. A. Reese, Geo.
James Abercrombie, Ala.
AV. R. Smith,
J. F. Dowdell,
P. Phillips,
A. E. Maxwell, Florida.
AVilliam Barksdale, Miss.
AVilliam S. Barry,
I). B. Wright,
AV. P. Harris,
0. R. Singleton,
Samuel Caruthers,  Mo.
M. Oliver,
John G. Miller,
James J. Lindsley,  "
A. AV. Lamb,
A. B. Greenwood, Ark.
F. K. Zollicoffer, Tenn.
AVilliam Cullom,   "
Em.  Etheridge,    "
R. M. Bugg,
Fred. P. Stanton,   "
N. G. Taylor,
AVm.M.Churchwell, Tenn.
John C.Breckenridge,Ky.
William Preston,    "
L. M. Cox,
R.H. Stanton, Kentucky.
John M. Elliot,
James S. Chrisman,  "
C. S. Hill,
Lewis D. Campbell, Ohio.
W. R. Sapp,
J. R. Giddings,     "
Ed. Wade,
M. H. Nichols,
J. S. Harrison,     "
J. L. Taylor,       "
A. Harlan,         "
H. H. Johnson,    "
Thomas Richey,    "
AV. A. Richardson, 111.
James Knox,
E. B. Washburne,  "
J. O. Norton,
John Wentworth,  '■
Richard Yates,     "
J. C. Allen,
Willis Allen,
H. L. Stevens, Alich.
D. Stuart,
Ben. C. Eastman, AVi.s.
John B. Macy,
Daniel Wells, Jr., '•
Daniel Mace, Ind.
Brenhart Henn, Iowa.
J. P. Cook,
P. H. Bell, Texas.
J. A. McDougall, Cal.
M. S. Latham,
T. S. Russell. 
22
Appendix  B.
               HISTORICAL  STATEMENT.

   The foregoing pages set forth in outline the fact that there is a very
 general movement among the American people, inaugurated  by leading
 members of the profession in Boston and New York, in behalf of one of
 the most praiseworthy objects which can appeal to patrons of science or
 the friends  of humanity.  They show  that  the noble work is at  last
 undertaken, which for more than twelve years has been neglected  by
 Congress, to preserve the shelter of a home for the family of a nation's
 benefactor, still living, from the clamorous creditors  to whom it was
 pledged  for debts incurred  in  making  and  promulgating a discovery
 which, though leaving the discoverer poor, has made  the  whole world
 his debtor, and to place their future life beyond the chances and vicissi-
 tudes of fortune, by the purchase of an  annuity.
   The discovery  made by Dr.  Wm. T. G. Morton of Boston, of  the
 anaesthetic  properties of  sulphuric ether, and the safety, certainty and
 reliability of its effects in  making the severest surgical operations, child-
 birth and  other scenes  and conditions  of physical suffering, perfectly
 painless, is a discovery already ranked by the medical profession above
 that of vaccination by Jenner, to  whom the  English Parliament voted
 large sums of money, and for whom national  testimonials were raised
 and  medals struck in other nations; a discovery whose benefits are not
 Gonfihed to the subjugation of pain, but which are continually unfolding
 •i_,new departments of the healing art.
\'\ '._Tiis national  movement was with great  propriety inaugurated in
' Boston, the  city where the discoverer lived and practised his profession,
 and where  the first successful painless surgical operation was performed.
 An' organization to raise a national testimonial fund in his behalf, with
 trustees residing in Boston, and  treasurers in the  principal cities in the
 United  States, is already established.   Though it has hardly passed 
23
beyond its inchoate period, it has enlisted  the energetic co-operation of
some of the most  eminent and patriotic persons in the Union.  All will
learn with surprise that two hundred thousand dollars will not more than
reimburse  the  discoverer of this  anaesthetic  agent for his  outlays  in
making experiments which led to the discovery, in establishing its value,
in compelling  its acceptance by  the world in spite of incredulity and
indifference,  in establishing the priority of his claims over post facto
discoverers, and in applications to  Congress to induce them to reimburse
him for his actual expenditures.*
   A handsome beginning for the collection of this sum has already been
made, though much remains to be done.  The fund has received, as was
most fitting, from the medical institutions of Boston and vicinity, and
from eminent and wealthy persons residing in that seat of  literature and
science,  munificent subscriptions.   New-York, too, represented in the
same way by  her medical institutions, and her wealthy citizens, has
shown an equal promptitude in discharging this debt of honor, too long
owing to a nation's benefactor.
   Such  is a brief and general statement of the objects  to  be accom-
plished, and the present state of the enterprise.
   It  is not necessary to  argue at any great  length for the character  or
success of this undertaking.   That would be almost an insult to the long
list of men distinguished in all the professions, and honorably known  in
commerce or in the more secluded walks of private life, who now appeal
to the public at large to do justice in this matter.  To doubt its success
would be to challenge the sincerity of the great bulk of the medical
profession in Massachusetts and New-York, who ask subscriptions to this
fund ; would be to say, that the world had gone back in the present cen-
tury, and that  the justice given to Jenner  who conquered small-pox in
the last  century, would be denied to  Morton, who may be said to have.
conquered pain in this.
   It may not be out of place, however, to recall here the universal thrill
of joy that was felt when it was first announced  to the world, how the
subtle spirit  of ether would almost  everywhere  subdue pain,  in the"
severest surgical operations, in the pangs of parturition, in the number-
less cases at the hospitals, on battle-fields in time of war, in cottages,'.' in
piping times of peace," removing,  as has been well said, " half the primal
   * Vide j. U9. - Trials of a Public Benefactor," by X. P Rice.  Pudney & Russell, Xew-York.  . 
^
                                 24   ■■

curse," and more than justifying the unstinted prjrfse  of the foregoing
appeal of the medical profession in Newiiork, whjgh says :—
  " In view of these advantages from thoiise of anaesthetics, we feel that
Dr. Morton—the first to demonstrate their safety and efficiency, and to
establish them in general practice—has conferred a boon upon humanity
as unperishable as it  is important,  and one of such a character as to
entitle him to rank among the benefactors of mankind."
  Neither is this the place or time to set forth as they deserve the labors
and the sufferings which Dr. Morton has  undergone in the twelve years
which have succeeded his great discovery.  The story of his wrongs, his
patience, his perseverance,  his unconquerable energy, his poverty, his
enthusiasm, his success in achieving an imperishable honor,  and his
failure in obtaining the slightest emolument for an invaluable discovery,
which the world now freely and daily uses, has more than the  interest of
a romance *  They constitute a record which, except it is ended by the
success of the movement whose inauguration  has  been set forth in the
foregoing pages, will stand  a burning disgrace and  scandal  to the pro-
fession and the world which have appropriated and  used a discovery, and
left the discoverer to starve.  Shall it be said that, through his connection
with so great  a benefaction  to  the human  race, Dr. Morton  is to be
left unable  to  preserve  to  his children the paternal  acres pledged in
securing it, unable to educate his children, without any adequate means
of  support; and worse than all, unable to secure  for himself that quiet
mode of life demanded by the ruined health consequent upon his hazard-
ous experiments and upon living in an atmosphere of ether for so many
months, and upon the  labors and  sufferings which he underwent in
detecting and  establishing  the anaesthetic properties of the  sulphuric
ether ?  These appellants have therefore  left his claims upon Congress to
be settled in another manner, and  now appeal directly to the heart of
the country, which rarely fails to  disprove the  heartless maxim that
(" republics are ungrateful," and which will never suffer a state of things
.so discreditable as that which we have briefly depicted, long to last.
    Some misapprehensions to be removed, which are not unusual in cases
 of this kind, and which in the case of the appeal for the subscriptions to
 the Mount Vernon fund, Mr. Everett did not think it unworthy of con-
 siderable effort to obviate, will justify us for protracting these remarks  a
* See "Trials of a Public Benefactor." 
page or two farther.  These 'toiisapprehensions arise from Dr.  Morton's
course in not enforcing his p£l#ent from the first, and in seeking redress
from government al'driie for itsvjnfringement.
  Let  us here  remark  that ^Ir. Everett,  in  his  appeal  to the Mount
Vernon fund, has said, mutatis mutandis, precisely what may be said of
this discovery of etherization, the sole and only patent of which rests in
Dr. Morton's possession, violated innumerable  times, but whose infringe-
ment has  been  punished in the case  of no individual.  These are Mr.
Everett's  words:—" Nominally private  property,  and belonging  to a
private individual, the public in  effect lays  claim to it, takes possession
of it, occupies it, or at  least overruns  it.   They ought to possess them-
selves  legally of the property, and  not insist upon using  it  illegally,
*   *   *   they ought not to permit him to be burdened with a nominal
possession, unaccompanied with any genuine enjoyment of his property,
while they  are  exercising upon  it themselves  the most absolute acts of
ownership."
  These are incontrovertible  arguments, the  dictate at once of justice
and of common sense.   While  it remains a  fact, that the public disre-
gard the rights of the discoverer of etherization, it is unfair  to reproach
the government, as many do  ; for, considered as  a constitutional ques-
tion, it is doubtful if Congress has any power  to do more than make a
fair appropriation to pay for  its  use of ether in  the national hospitals,
and army and navy, leaving the public at large still to pay  for its own
use.  To what an almost incredible extent  the labors  and  discovery of
Dr. Morton have been appropriated by the public, a few  facts  show.
Setting aside the grand  fact of the  patent  which  he  possesses, and of
which, and  to  which, every use of  ether is  an injunction, there  still
remain the  unrewarded, onerous and unremitting labors of more than
eleven years.  Passing over the enervating results of his experiments, it
is  well known  that scientific men from  all parts of this and  other
countries, the press, the public, the medical  and surgical professions-, at
once seized, appropriated and used his results, to which  he, in tlje
exercise of the purest  philanthropy, gave the  widest publicity.  Mean-
while he was answering, with his own hand, thousands of letters, hurry-
ing hither and thither for month  after month in administering the  ether
safely and carefully in public institutions and private practice, instructing
competent agents  and  dispatching  them to  all parts of the  country,
writing, talking, publishing, hardly ever knowing a full night's  rest,  de- 
26
fending his discovery against the opposition of incredulous, or indifferent,
or envious persons, and finally triumphantly  vindicating the  safety, cer-
tainty, and  success  of the  anaesthetic  properties  of sulphuric ether,
placing the human race under a lasting obligation, but leaving himself,
as we have said, homeless, penniless, with a lost profession,  and a ruined
health.   Saying nothing of all the  subsequent labor in vindicating  his
claims, such is the extent to which other men  have entered  into and
appropriated his labors, and such has been his reward.
   It is not to be wondered at that the human race  should wish to avoid
the pains of  childbirth or the tortures of surgery, but because  the boon
is priceless, there is therefore no reason for setting at naught all the laws
of private property in securing it.  The correct dictates of simple morality
will add that if an equivalent for his discovery can never be  paid, as it
never can, at least he should  be  reimbursed for actual deficits  and loss.
   Nor is the discoverer barred from the right to  require remuneration
from the hands of the people because he  has  not  seen  fit  to enforce  hi_
patent.   No one will deny his right to enforce it if he had  chosen.   To
say that he has been generous is not to say that they may be  unjust.   If
they demand that he shall for any reason of generosity or professional
etiquette make his discovery  itself free, let them begin by  reimbursing
his actual expenditures establishing its value.  For  until  that was done
he could never have been in  a position to  exercise his philanthropy or
his patriotism.   His discovery seemed incredible ; many doubted, others
disbelieved,  some  were indifferent, and  all  more or less  incredulously
wondered.  Years of labor  and  expensive publicity were  necessary to
reveal the value of the  boon he gave to the race.   Without such labor,
without the obstinate incredulity and indifference still more  obstinately
overcome, his discovery would have fallen  valueless from his  hands, and
by this time have been forgotten by the great majority of the profession,
and feared by patients  to such an extent  that those who remembered the
first marvellous  result of the operations in  the Massachusetts General
Hospital in 1846, would rarely or never have  been permitted an opportun-
ity to repeat them.
   Nor can the public longer avoid the obligation imposed upon them by
using the discovery of  anaethesia on the ground that there is  a doubt  as
to whom rightfully the return should be  made.  After  many years  of
controversy, bitter and relentless on the part of his rival claimants, and
which has constituted no small part of his labors and sufferings, the 
27
claims of Dr. Morton are virtually everywhere recognized and the ques-1
tion set aside by the great bulk of the medical profession, both in quality
and quantity, as no longer a mooted one.*  Besides these numberless and
incontrovertible  certificates to its authenticity, a patent  secured  under
the Constitution of the  United States stands  unquestioned, from which
none have ever appealed to a legal tribunal, to which there  are  no rival
patents, and which it has never been attempted for one moment by  any
person whatever  to set  aside.  In justice  to  Dr. Morton, it should be
known that he has repeatedly refused  offers of a tempting amount  from
private parties desirous to  purchase his patent and  to organize  a joint-
stock company and take measures for  its universal enforcement.   If his
object had been a selfish or mercenary one, he  might have placed himself
and his children in affluence long ago.   But he  has invariably refused
these offers, and still continues in poverty and distress of mind, body and
estate, rather than sully  the  bright  record which it  is his privilege to
have filled with the history of a benefaction to  humanity.  And it should
not be forgotten that the efforts  now  in  progress  to  obtain justice from
Government were instigated at  the  suggestion of the President of the
United States, and in order that the Government might see its way clear
legally and fairly to pay for the benefits it had received, thus aiding the
national testimonial fund now in process of accumulation.
f* Upon the Government his reliance might be vindicated  by the orderly
processes of law.   Upon the public at large,  his reliance must  be vin-
dicated by their sense of justice  and generosity.  He has not appealed,
and will not appeal, to any less lofty  motive.   This is  sacrifice enough
for him to make.  No more can be asked.  Therefore, excluding  the idea
of enforcing the  patent  in private cases, there is  no way in which the
public can turn its present illegal enjoyment of the discovery (the char-
acter of which is not essentially altered by the  consent of the owner, and
which rises into a shame and disgrace,  when is considered the duress of
circumstances under which he labors and has labored) into a legal, honest
possession, except by paying the discoverer a fair  equivalent, or at least,
since that is impossible,  by reimbursing him in  some way or other.  It
was hoped that Congress would  have done this for  themselves and the
public.  There were strong reasons in favor of that course, while it  was

  * Vide Letter of the Chairman of the Executive Committee to the Editor of  tho New-York Timesi
p. 8 of this pamphlet. 
28
urged by others that Congress has no power to purchase discoveries for
the use of the  people, and thus far  all proposals made in Congress for
this purpose have met with no success.
  The only remaining course, therefore, by which the public can honestly
become possessed of the discovery of etherization, is  that now actually
resorted to.   It is set forth in  the foregoing pages.
  It is true that this mode of raising funds  to  consummate a simple  act
of justice  is laborious and tedious.  The present success of the movement
shows, however, that that is the only great objection, and that individuals
and institutions, and the  country at large, are ready  and anxious to dis-
charge their obligations.  The " ether  controversy" '-has had the one
good effect of waking up the public to the existence of those obligations.
The sum required to accomplish the  reimbursement  and effect the  de-
signs of the appellants, is, as we have said, a large one, and its  collection
by  individual contributions over an extent  of country so vast as ours, is
one of time;  but it  will  derive an  additional value as  coining directly
from the  people, and the zeal  and energy with which it has been entered
upon  by the profession in this  city  and elsewhere, is the best augury  of
success.  May  it soon be impossible for one of the greatest benefactors of
the human race who has  appeared  in this century, to say,  "It were
better  for me, infinitely better  for me and my wife and children, better for
me and them in all  respects, if I had  buried the secret  of  the victory
over pain in my breast forever, and suffered centuries to elapse before it
came forth to the knowledge of the world by some other hand, than to
do  as I did—hasten to make it known by all forms and modes of speech,
and at every risk of health, property, and even life!" 
 
V
f
*• '.