Cambridge (Mass.) -- Biography; United States -- Biography
He exempted the Massachusetts Hospital from the application of his
royalty, and it was only right that he should do so; but, unfortunately,
it was the only large hospital where etherization was regularly
practised. In order to extend its application Doctor Morton secured the
services of three young physicians, practised them in the use of the gas,
and paid them a thousand dollars each to go forth into the world as
proselytes of his discovery; but they met everywhere with a cold
reception, and were several times informed that if the Massachusetts
Hospital enjoyed the use of etherization, other hospitals ought to have
the same privilege; so that his enterprise proved of no immediate
advantage.
The Mexican War was now at its height, and Doctor Morton offered the use
of etherization to the government for a very small royalty, but his offer
was declined by the Secretary of War. He soon discovered, however, that
surgeons in the army and navy were making free use of it,--contrary to
law and the rights of men. Individuals all over the country--dentists and
surgeons--were doing the same thing; and it was more difficult to prevent
this than to execute the game-laws. For such an order of affairs the
decision of the French Academy was largely responsible, for if men only
find a shadow of right on the side of self-interest, they are likely
enough to take advantage of it.
Meanwhile Doctor Jackson, with a few friends and a large body of
Homoeopaths who acted in opposition to the regulars of the Massachusetts
Hospital, kept up a continual fusillade against Doctor Morton; but this
did him little harm, for early in 1847 the trustees of the hospital
decided, by a unanimous vote, that the honor of discovering etherization
properly belonged to him.
Doctor Jackson questioned the justice of this decision, and applied for a
reconsideration of the subject. Whereupon the subject was reconsidered
the following year, and the same verdict rendered as before. Doctor
Jackson then carried his case to the Boston Academy of Arts and Sciences,
when Professor Agassiz asked him the pertinent question: "But, Doctor
Jackson, did you make one little experiment?" adding drily, after
receiving a negative reply: "It would have been better if you had."
It is to be regretted that Doctor Jackson should have attacked Doctor
Morton's private life (which appears to have been fully as commendable as
his own), and also that R. W. Emerson should have entered the lists in
favor of his brother-in-law. In one of his later books Emerson designates
Doctor Jackson as the discoverer of etherization. This was setting his
own judgment above that of the legal and medical professions, and even
above the French Academy; but Emerson had lived so long in intuitions and
poetical concepts that he was not a fairly competent person to judge of a
matter of fact. It is doubtful if he made use of the inductive method of
reasoning during his life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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