Papers, 1846-1876.

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Papers, 1846-1876.

Papers and testimonials related to W.T.G. Morton's claim as the sole discoverer of the anesthetic use of ether, and specifically to the controversy over the discovery between Morton and Charles T. Jackson. Included are letters and documents accompanying medals presented to Morton for his discovery; letters supporting Morton's claim from eye witnesses of the first experiment at the Mass. General Hospital, physicians, trustees of the hospital, and other prominent individuals; and a summary of his opinion of the situation written by Henry I. Bowditch. Correspondents include John C. Warren, Louis Agassiz, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, Charles T. Jackson, Oliver W. Holmes, and Edward Everett.

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SNAC Resource ID: 6997298

Massachusetts Historical Society

Related Entities

There are 10 Entities related to this resource.

Everett, Edward, 1794-1865

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g844rz (person)

Edward Everett was an American statesman, clergyman, and orator, as well as professor of Greek at Harvard University and president of Harvard University, 1846-1849. Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard with highest honors in 1811, completing an M.A. in Divinity in 1814. After a brief stint as a minister, Harvard offered him the newly created position of Professor of Greek; brilliant but untrained, Everett went to Göttingen to prepare for...

Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68h99sx (person)

Swiss-American zoologist and geologist. Professor of zoology and geology at Harvard University. Louis Agassiz was born in Môtier-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zürich, Erlangen (Ph.D., 1829), Heidelberg, and Munich (M.D., 1830). Agassiz studied medicine briefly but turned to zoology, with a special interest in fishes and fossils, while studying under the French naturalist Cuvier. In 1832 he became professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel, Sw...

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qp6xrj (person)

Holmes (Harvard, M.D. 1836) was Parkman Professor of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School from 1847 to 1882, dean of the Medical School from 1847 to 1853, and a noted essayist and poet. A paper on the contagiousness of puerperal fever, presented at an 1843 meeting of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, was his most famous contribution to medicine. His indictment of physicians for their role in causing and spreading the fever was one of the most controversial treatises of the time...

Webster, Daniel, 1782-1852

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s865sc (person)

Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. As one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, he argued over 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1814 and his death in 1852. During his life, he was a member of the Federalist Party, the Nati...

Massachusetts general hospital

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jd8rnk (corporateBody)

Dr. James Jackson and Dr. John C. Warren initially sought funds for a hospital in Boston, Mass. which would also be made available to student s of the Harvard Medical School for clinical training. It was incorporated in 1811 as Massachusetts General Hospital, and in 1817 Jackson and Warren were appointed as acting physician and surgeon, respectively. The first patients were admitted in 1821. McLean Hospital was chartered in 1811 and opened in 1818 as the psychiatric facility of Massachusetts Gen...

Bowditch, Henry I. (Henry Ingersoll), 1808-1892

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sf3174 (person)

Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, the son of Nathaniel Bowditch and Mary Ingersoll Bowditch, was a physician, author and abolitionist from Salem, Massachusetts. From the description of Life in the woods for a fortnight : or a trip to Katahdin & Moosehead Lake in the summer of 1856. 1856. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 704274320 U.S. specialist in diseases of the chest. From the description of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch letter, 1882, Apr. 7, Boston, to Dr. S. McMurtry. ...

Warren, John Collins, 1778-1856

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m90bjt (person)

John Collins Warren, surgeon and naturalist, was born in Boston in 1778, the son of Harvard physician John Warren and Abigail (Collins) Warren. He graduated from Harvard College in 1797 and began the study of medicine with his father. From 1799 to 1802 he studied medicine in Paris and London. When he returned, he went into practice with his father. In 1809, Warren became adjunct professor in anatomy and surgery at Harvard Medical School and in 1815 succeeded his father as professor, a position h...

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x34xv4 (person)

Massachusetts lawyer and U.S. Senator, 1851-1874. He was an ardent abolitionist who attacked the south in his "crime against Kansas" speech in 1856. Two days later he was assaulted in the Senate, receiving injuries that took him years to recover from. From the description of Letters, 1858-1869. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat record id: 55768315 Born in Boston, Mass., the U.S. statesman Charles Sumner studied law at Harvard and practiced law in his native ci...

Morton, W. T. G. (William Thomas Green), 1819-1868

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6794b16 (person)

Physician, one of the first to discover the anesthetic properties of ether. From the description of Papers, 1853 and undated. (Duke University). WorldCat record id: 35230311 ...

Jackson, Charles T. (Charles Thomas), 1805-1880

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gh9msh (person)

Physician, chemist, and geologist. From the description of Papers of Charles T. Jackson, 1829-1915. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71066585 Physician and chemist. From the description of Papers, 1871, July 21-Aug. 9, Boston. (Duke University). WorldCat record id: 35149330 ...