We will now quote directly from Doctor Warren's lecture on "The Influence
of Anaesthesia on the Surgery of the Nineteenth Century," delivered
before the American Surgical Association in 1897:
"Morton having acquainted himself by conversation with Mr. Metcalf and
Mr. Burnett, both leading druggists, as to purity and qualities of ether,
and having also conversed with Mr. Wightman, a philosophical instrument-
maker, and with Doctor Jackson as to inhaling apparatus, proceeded to
experiment upon himself. After inhaling the purer quality of ether from a
handkerchief he awoke to find that he had been insensible for seven or
eight minutes.
"The same day a stout, healthy man came to his office suffering from
great pain and desiring to have a tooth extracted. Dreading the pain, ho
accepted willingly Morton's proposal to use ether, and the tooth was
extracted without suffering. Morton reported his success the next day to
Jackson, and conversed with him as to the best methods of bringing his
discovery to the attention of the medical profession and the public.
Jackson pointed out that tooth-pulling was not a sufficient test, as many
people claimed to have teeth pulled without pain. It was finally decided
that the crucial test lay in a public demonstration in the operating
theatre of a hospital in a surgical case.
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