office of Dr. Long, my husband extracted a tooth from a boy who was under the influence, by inhalation, of sulphuric ether, without pain—the boy not knowing when it was done. I further certify that the fact of Long using sulphuric ether, by inhalation, to prevent pain, was frequently spoken of in the county of Jackson at this time, and was quite notorious."
It is to be regretted that Long did not at once make known to the world his great discovery of anesthesia. Considered from a present point of view, his delay seems extraordinary. But it must not be forgotten that since that period the world has moved with exceeding rapidity. Sixty-five years ago, for a young medical practitioner in an obscure village, far from contact with centers of thought, removed from railroads, enjoying but modest postal facilities, with no great hospital organizations or medical associations to confirm his professional research, for a modest, diffident, young physician to claim so startling a discovery as anesthesia has proven to be without first securing most exhaustive proof of its worth, would have brought upon him the adverse criticism of his elders, and possibly the laughter of his colleagues.
Dr. William H. Welch said that Long "is necessarily deprived of the larger honor which would have been his due had he not delayed publication of his experiments with ether until several years after the universal acceptance of surgical anesthesia … we need not with hold from Dr. Long the credit of independent and prior experiment and discovery but we cannot assign to him any influence upon the historical development of our knowledge of surgical anesthesia or any share in its introduction to the world at large." A careful examination of the question clearly shows that two and a half years elapsed after the discovery by Crawford W. Long, before Dr. Wells (q.v.), of Hartford, knew the anesthetic power of nitrous oxide; that four and a half years passed after Dr. Long's initial experiment before Dr. Morton (q.v.) claimed to have the same knowledge. Morton is declared to have received the suggestion from C. T. Jackson (q.v.); the latter claim to have made the discovery about the time Dr. Long made it, but left it to Morton to prove it practically. Hugh H. Young of John Hopkins' Hospital, in his interesting pamphlet entitled "Long, the Discoverer of Anesthesia," says "The immediate and universal use of anesthesia in surgery is due to the great Boston surgeons, Warren, Hayward and Bigelow."
In 1849 Morton petitioned Congress for a reward as the discoverer, but he was opposed by the friends of Wells and Jackson. The friends of Morton and Wells presented volumes of testimony to the Senate of the United States in behalf of their candidates, but Jackson afterwards acknowledged the justice of Dr. Long's cause. For five years Crawford W. Long refused to take any part in the controversy, but he naturally desired to be recognized as the discoverer of anesthesia, and to that effect wrote an article for the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.
Confronted by so formidable an opponent as Dr. Long, the friends of Morton and Wells finally seemed to lose hope, the bill before Congress was allowed to die, and it was never resurrected. In 1877 Dr. J. Marion Sims investigated the claims of Dr. Long to the discovery of anesthesia, and was convinced of their merit. He demanded their recognition by the medical profession, Dr. Long especially desiring the endorsement of the American Medical Association. It was but a short time afterwards that Dr. Long died, on the sixteenth of June, 1878, in the city of Athens, Georgia, for many years the place of his residence. In 1910 an obelisk, given by Dr. L. G. Hardman, was set up in the city of Athens in memory of Long.
He married, in 1842, Caroline, niece of Gov. Swain of North Carolina.
Long, David (1787–1851)
David Long, son of Dr. David Long who came from Shelburne, Massachusetts, was born in Hebron, Washington County, New York, September 29, 1787. He was descended from David Long, who came from Scotland to Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1747. After studying medicine with his uncle, Dr. John Long, of Shelburn, he afterwards graduated M. D. in New York City and came to Cleveland in June, 1810, presumably influenced by a letter written by Stanley Griswold and dated May 28, 1809. This letter is to be found in a scrap book in the Historical Society of Cleveland.
Dr. Long was a surgeon in the western army
