William Thomas Morton

William Morton. American physician and dentist, he was the first to perform surgery with local anesthesia, using inhaled ether . This operation was performed for the first time at the General Hospital in Boston , Massachusetts on October 16 , 1846 .

Summary

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• 1 Biographical Summary
  • 1 Childhood and Youth
  • 2 Work History
    • 2.1 Achievements Achieved
    • 2.2 Morton Failure
    • 2.3 Contributions to science
  • 3 Death
• 2 Sources

Biographical Summary

Childhood and Youth

He was born on August 9, 1819 , son of James and Rebecca Morton. His father was a potter. Morton was never interested in his father’s work, he was always inclined towards medicine, but his father could not pay for his studies. Despite this, William managed to graduate from the University of Baltimore in Dental Surgery in 1840 , at the age 21 years old.

From this moment he began to practice dentistry , in 1844 he married Elizabeth Whitman, from this happy union five children were born.

He began studying with Horace Wells in Hartford , Connecticut , he abandoned dentistry and studied medicine at Harvard University and was a private student of Charles T. Jackson . Because of his interest and dedication , Jackson invited Morton to live in his own house.

Work History

Morton begins to work in search of a way to relieve pain when performing dental operations, he studied and used Ether as anesthesia for the first time in an operation he performed. In this way he remained in history as the first to use Ether as anesthesia.

His studies on gases continued in the United States , where he moved after his first discovery. Morton knew that there were some gases that eliminated sensitivity to pain in the human body , for this reason he discovered new substances , among them, nitrous oxide ( laughing gas). In a lecture given by William Morton, he gave one of these substances to a prestigious professor who was part of the audience. The reaction upon inhaling the Ether was very clear, the professor staggered as if in a state of intoxication.

There were many who doubted the sedative effect of these substances, it was not until November 1846 that Dr. Wendell Holmes defined the use of these substances with the name ” anesthesia .”

Achievements Achieved

In this same year , 1846 , Morton and his friend Horace Wells were working together on research into substances. Wells himself offered to have Morton extract one of his teeth, using nitrous oxide , the result was as expected, Wells did not feel any pain.

In an experiment carried out in Boston , in front of a group of medical students, Wells extracted a tooth from a volunteer, but the bag with the nitrous oxide was removed prematurely and the patient complained of a lot of pain, this ended the career of Wells, who ended up committing suicide in prison in January 1848 .

After these events William Morton, decided not to repeat the mistakes of his friend Wells, consulted with one of his professors, Charles T. Jackson , who suggested that he use Sulfuricether , ( sulfuric ether ), Morton studied the possibility and disguised the smell of the sulfuric ether mixing aromatic chemicals to the compound finally obtained Morton called it, “ Letheon ”, this compound worked successfully.

Morton’s fame began to grow from this moment, a Boston newspaper wrote of his success the next day.

A month after the success, on October 16 of the same year, Morton applied another experiment with the patient Gilbert Abad , using ether . William Morton removed a tumor from his jaw. After the operation, the patient reported not having felt any pain. pain.

After these triumphs Morton made a serious mistake by not allowing other doctors to use his ether anesthesia , this exposed him to strong criticism and he faced a legal battle with Charles Jackson , over who was really the discoverer of the anesthetic properties of Ether.

Morton’s failure

According to the writings, Morton warned that his discovery would be very lucrative. From this moment on, he began a career in which he joined Jackson in a sales contract. This contract left out Wells, who had experienced and helped Morton in his work with nitrous oxide .

Morton drew up an ambitious plan, his strategy was to divide the United States into jurisdictions, each one would have a representative of Morton himself who would raise the money, he set the amount of anesthesia for each jurisdiction, according to the number of inhabitants of each one.

Morton, who suffered great criticism, always claimed that he was the only one who knew the anesthetic formula, but in a short time it became clear that it was just ether, disguised with a mixture of other substances.

This collapsed the empire that Morton intended to build, patenting his formula, when it was known that it was only ether, anyone who wanted to use anesthesia only had to buy Ether at any drugstore.

Despite everything, Morton did not give up, he continued in his efforts to obtain a monetary benefit from anesthesia, he was proposed several times to the United States Congress for a large award for his contribution to humanity.

Finally, Morton, after 20 years trying to take credit for the discovery of anesthesia, lost all his savings, in lawsuits and lawsuits, in lawyers and officials with whom he surrounded himself, and had to face several rivals such as Jackson himself, Dr. Crawford. W. Long, both disputed Morton’s discovery of ether as anesthesia.

Contributions to science

Morton’s discovery, the first surgical anesthesia , is one of the great milestones in the history of medicine and meant a radical change in surgery .

Death

Finally defeated, Morton is left in total poverty and falls into madness. At the age of 49, he dies alone in New York City on July 15 , 1868 , without being recognized for his work, his important discovery and dedication.