fAo rlo^n   T*fT;rna^i*i    *AsS3< i<rft't> m
TESTIMONIAL  TO  WILLIAM  T.  G.  MORTON.
                                             Boston,'Mass'., U.S.A., April, 1861.

    More than  fourteen years  have elapsed  since the first  application of Sulphuric
Ether as an Anaesthetic agent.   During this period its use"'has been extended over the
whole civilized world;  it has been employed in  private dwellings, in hospitals, and upon
the field of battle, and has been  hailed, as the most beneficent gift conferred upon
mankind since the discovery of Vaccination.  It  has enabled every  human  being to
contemplate  pain, disease,  and death, with comparative composure; and  its loss, were
such ^ thing possible, would be universally regarded as a calamityxo our race.
    The Anaesthetic  properties  of Ether, if before  known,  had never been before
practically applied; and except for the courage,  energy, and perseverance of Dr. Morton,
they would not probably have been  applied to*^|his  day.  The peculiar  claim of Dr.
Morton is, not merely that he introduced the^ ttte^of 4ther, but that he first demonstrated
the fact  that the human system can be safely reduced to a condition in  which it becomes
unconscious  of the sufferings of disease, the pain of surgical operations, and the  pangs
of childbirth.  The same purpose has since been  effected by 'Chloroform and other
agents,  but  it  is not assuming too much to say that  except  for the  demonstration of
this great fact of  the possibility and safety of Anesthesia, their employment  would
have never  been suggested.
    But while all mankind have  been benefited,  Dr. Morton has been a loser, to a
large amount,  by his  discovery,  in a worldly point of view;  and in consequence of
the time consumed, the expenses incurred in  its  introduction, and the  suspension of
his professional labors, he  is less advantageously situated than before. This  does not
seem just, and it is now proposed to  procure and present to him an adequate Testimonial,
not as a compensation,  for a full compensation is in its nature impossible,  but as  a
remuneration for his  expenditure,  and  an expression  of  the  deep and grateful sense
entertained by his fellow-creatures  of the inestimable benefit  he has conferred upon
them.

    With the view of obtaining effectual  cooperation in other  places,  a  meeting of
a  committee of  fifty  gentlemen was held  at  the house  of  JDr. J.  Mason  Wabeen,jJ&
January 26,  1861,  and as a result of  this meeting  the following organization  has bejfn
adopted.  The aid of  the medical profession, and the public in  general,  i^now 
w
respectfully solicited  to  assist in  carrying  into  effect  this  laudable  purpose.    It  is

proposed  that a public .subscription be instituted, the avails of which shall  be paid  into

the  hands  of  Amos  A.  Lawrence  and John  Lowell,  of  Boston, Trustees,  to  be  held,

appropriated,  and  invested  for  the benefit of  Dr.  Morton and his family.

                                   %  '.
                                          4 *KESIDEST.

                                 l5E.   JAMES  JACKSON,
                               ■-.-    ■•■*
                        Emeritus Professor of Theory and Praqfice of Medicine, Harvard University.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
De. JACOB BIGELOW,
         President American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Db. GEORGE HAYWARD,
         Consulting JSurgeon Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dk. s. d. townsend,
         Surgeon Massachusetts General Hospital.
Db. EDWARD REYNOLDS,
         Consulting Surgeon Massachusetts General Hospital-
C. C. FELT ON, LL. D.,
,_..j.      President Harvard University.               v
De. JOHN HOMANS,
         President Massachusetts Medical Society,
         Consulting Physician Massachusetts Gt.:erS Hospital.
De. JOHN JEFFRIES,                    '   *
         Consulting Surgeon Massachusetts General Hospital.
JARED SPARKS, LL.D.,
         Late President of Harvard University.
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, LL. D.
ROBERT  C WINTHROP, LL. D.,
         President of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
G E N E^ A I*  COMMITTEE.
De. JOHN C. DALTON.
De. D- H. STORER,
         Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence in
             Harvard University.
De. CHARLES G. PUTNAM.   *
Dk. A. A. GOULD,
         Physician to Massachusetts General Hospital.

De. CHARLES H. STEDMAN.         X
De. CHARLES GORDON.              *
De. HENRY 1. BOWDITCH,
         Physician to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Db. HENRY G. CLARK,
         Surgeon to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dk. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES,
         Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Harvard
             University.
De. ROBERT W. HOOPER,
         Surgeon to the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear
             Infirmary.
De. J. MASON WARREN,
         Surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dk. WILLIAM J. DALE,
DB.MENRY J. BIGELOW,
   ^    Surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital.
De. CHARLES E. BUCKINGHAM.
De. FRANCIS MINOT,
         Physician to the Massachusetts General Hospital.
De. GEORGE H. LYMAN.
De. EDWARD H. CLARKE,
         Professor of Materia Medica in Harvard University.
De. LUTHER PARKS,  Jb.
De. J. BAXTER  UPHAM.
Dk. JOHN  WARE,
        Late Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine in
             Harvard University.

De. DAVID W. CHEEVEK.

Db. J. N. BORLAND.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

                   De.  C. D. HOMANS.
Dk. ROBERT WARE.
De. JAMES C. WHITE.
Db. RICHARD M. HODGES.
Dk. Calvin G. PAGE.
TRUSTEES.
AMOS A. LAWRENCE,
     Treasurer of Harvard University.
JOHN LOWELL.
        SECRETARY.

FRANCIS  MINOT.