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{{Short description|American dentist and physician (1819–1868)}}
{{Infobox scientist | name = William Thomas Green Morton
| image = WTG Morton.jpg
| image_size = 220px
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1819|8|9|}}
| birth_place = [[Charlton, Massachusetts]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1868|7|15|1819|8|9|}}
| death_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]]
| spouse = Elizabeth Whiteman
| field = [[Dentistry]]▼
| known_for = First use of Ether in surgical operations▼
▲| field = [[Dentistry]]
▲| known_for = First use of Ether in surgical operations
}}
'''William Thomas Green Morton''' (August 9, 1819 – July 15, 1868) was an American dentist and physician who first publicly demonstrated the use of inhaled [[diethyl ether|ether]] as a surgical [[anesthetic]] in 1846.
==Early life==
Born in [[Charlton, Massachusetts|Charlton]], [[Massachusetts]], William T. G. Morton was the son of James Morton, a miner, and Rebecca (Needham) Morton. William found work as a clerk, printer, and salesman in [[Boston]] before entering [[Baltimore College of Dental Surgery]] in 1840. In 1841, he gained notoriety for developing a new process to solder false teeth onto gold plates.<ref>{{Cite book | title = Biographical sketch of Dr. William T. G. Morton | place = Philadelphia and London | publisher = J. B. Lippincott Company | year = 1901 |url = https://archive.org/details/historymedicine00packgoog| page = [https://archive.org/details/historymedicine00packgoog/page/n527 475] }}</ref> In 1842, he left college after graduating<ref name=":1" /> to study in [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]], [[Connecticut]] with dentist [[Horace Wells]] and Dr. [[Nathan Cooley Keep]].<ref name=":
==Career==
[[File:The First Operation Under Ether - Robert Hinckley.jpg|thumb|Painting by Robert C. Hinckley, "The First Operation Under Ether" depicting the public demonstration of October 16, 1846.]]
[[File:Morton inhaler.jpg|thumb|Replica of the inhaler used by William T. G. Morton in 1846 in the first public demonstration of surgery using ether.]]
On September 30, 1846, Morton performed a painless tooth extraction after administering ether to
▲On September 30, 1846, Morton performed a painless tooth extraction after administering ether to a patient. Upon reading a favourable newspaper account of this event, Boston surgeon [[Henry Jacob Bigelow]] arranged for a now-famous demonstration of ether on October 16, 1846 at the [[operating theater|operating theatre]] of the [[Massachusetts General Hospital]], or MGH. At this demonstration [[John Collins Warren]] painlessly removed a [[tumor|tumour]] from the neck of a Mr. [[Edward Gilbert Abbott]]. News of this use of ether spread rapidly around the world, and the first recorded use of ether outside the USA was in London, England, by the dentist [[James Robinson (dentist)|James Robinson]] in a tooth extraction at the home of Francis Boote, an American doctor who had heard of Morton's and Bigelow's demonstrations.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Boote F. |title=Surgical operations performed during insensibility produced by the inhalation of sulphuric ether |journal=Lancet |volume=49 |issue=1218 |pages=5–8 |year=1847 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(02)88271-X}}</ref> The MGH theatre came to be known as the [[Ether Dome]] and has been preserved as a monument to this historic event.<ref>{{cite web | title = National Historic Landmarks Program: Ether Dome, Massachusetts General Hospital | url = http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=249&ResourceType=Building | access-date = 2010-11-02 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110605225236/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=249&ResourceType=Building | archive-date = 2011-06-05 }}</ref> Following the demonstration, Morton tried to hide the identity of the substance Abbott had inhaled, by referring to it as "[[Lethe]]on", but it soon was found to be ether.<ref>{{cite web | title = "Letheon" Inhaler | url = http://www.general-anaesthesia.com/images/the-letheon.html | access-date = 2009-05-01}}</ref>
A month after this demonstration, a [[patent]] was issued for "letheon",<ref>U.S. Patent No. 4848, November 12, 1846, [http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=00004848&SectionNum=1&IDKey=F54CC5CFDC6D&HomeUrl=http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%2526Sect2=HITOFF%2526u=%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsearch-adv.htm%2526r=1%2526p=1%2526f=G%2526l=50%2526d=PALL%2526S1=0004848.PN.%2526OS=PN/4848%2526RS=PN/4848 Improvement in surgical operations.]</ref> although it was widely known by then that the inhalant was ether. The medical community at large condemned the patent as unjust and illiberal in such a humane and scientific profession.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Smith | first = Stephen | title = The Ether Patent | journal = Medical Times | volume = 4 | issue = January to July | pages = 83–84|year = 1862 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-C4TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA83}}</ref> Morton assured his colleagues that he would not restrict the use of ether among hospitals and charitable institutions, alleging that his motives for seeking a patent were to ensure the competent administration of ether and to prevent its misuse or abuse, as well as to recoup the expenditures of its development. Morton's pursuit of credit for and profit from the administration of ether was complicated by the furtive and sometimes deceptive tactics he employed during its development, as well as the competing claims of other doctors, most notably his former
In December 1846, Morton applied to [[United States Congress|Congress]] for "national recompense" of $100,000, but this too was complicated by the claims of Jackson and Wells as discoverers of ether, and so Morton's application proved fruitless.
Morton's notoriety only increased when he served as the star defense witness in one of the most notable trials of the nineteenth century, that of [[John White Webster]], who had been accused of the murder of [[George Parkman]]. Morton's rival, Dr Jackson, testified for the prosecution, and the residents of Boston were anxious to witness these nemeses in courtroom combat.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sullivan |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/disappearanceofd00sull |title=The Disappearance of Dr. Parkman |publisher=Little, Brown, and Company |year=1971 |url-access=registration}}</ref> His former tutor Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep, who had made the artificial teeth Parkman used, and identified it in the found remain, claimed the body was the victim's. Morton initially denied Keep's claim,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Webster |first=John White |url=http://archive.org/details/0120223.nlm.nih.gov |title=Report of the case of John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of George Parkman, before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts : including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error, the prisoner's confessional statements and application for a commutation of sentence, and an appendix containing several interesting matters never before published |last2=Bemis |first2=George |last3=Massachusetts. Supreme Judicial Court |date=1850 |publisher=Boston : Little and Brown |others=U.S. National Library of Medicine}}</ref> but later changed his mind and agreed to Keep's observation.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keep |first=P. |date=March 1995 |title=Nathan Keep—William Morton's Salieri? |url=https://associationofanaesthetists-publications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2044.1995.tb04563.x |journal=Anaesthesia |language=en |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=233–238 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2044.1995.tb04563.x |issn=0003-2409}}</ref>
In 1852, he received an honorary degree from the Washington University of Medicine in Baltimore, which later became the College of Physicians and Surgeons.<ref>{{Cite web | last1 = Pinsker | first1 = Sheila | last2 = Harding | first2 = Robert S. | title = The Morton Family Collection 1849–1911 | year = 1986 | url = http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8118.htm | access-date = 2008-12-02}}</ref>
[[Image:Ether monument-Boston.JPG|thumb|Panel from monument in Boston commemorating Morton's demonstration of the anesthetic use of ether.]]
In the spring of 1857, [[Amos A. Lawrence]], a wealthy Bostonian, together with the medical professionals and influential citizens of Boston, developed a plan to raise $100,000 as a national testimonial to Morton, receiving contributions from both public and private citizens.<ref>{{
== Death ==
Morton was in New York City in July 1868. He was riding in a carriage with his wife when he suddenly demanded the carriage to stop, and he ran into the lake in Central Park "to cool off". This peculiar behavior was because he had suffered a major stroke (cerebrovascular
Morton was taken to nearby [[Mount Sinai Morningside|St. Luke's]]. It is reported by his wife that upon recognizing Morton, the chief surgeon made the following remark to his students:<blockquote>Young gentlemen, you see lying before you a man who has done more for humanity and for the relief of suffering than any man who has ever lived.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Dr. Morton's Death|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HDVNAQAAMAAJ&q=%22a%20man%20who%20has%20done%20more%20for%20humanity%20and%20for%20the%20relief%20of%20suffering%20than%20any%20man%20who%20has%20ever%20lived%22&pg=PA318|journal=McClure's Magazine|year=1896|volume=7|pages=318}}</ref></blockquote>
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==Legacy==
{{Blockquote
|text=Before whom, In all time, Surgery was Agony
By whom, pain in surgery was averted
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In 1871, a committee of those involved in raising the aforementioned national testimonial published ''The Historical Memoranda Relative to the Discovery of Etherization'' to establish Morton as the inventor and revealer of anesthetic inhalation and to justify pecuniary reward to Morton's family for the "fearful moral and legal responsibility he assumed in pursuit of this discovery."<ref>{{Cite book | last = Committee of Citizens of Boston | title = Historical Memoranda Relative to the Discovery of Etherization and to the Connection with it of the Late William T.G. Morton | place = Boston | publisher = Rand, Avery, and Frye | year = 1871 | url = https://archive.org/details/historicalmemor00conggoog| quote = William T.G. Morton. }}</ref>
Morton's life and work were later to become the subject of the 1944 [[Paramount Pictures]] film ''[[The Great Moment (1944 film)|The Great Moment]]''.
The first use of ether as an anesthetic is commemorated in the [[Ether Monument]] in the [[Boston Public Garden]], but the designers were careful not to choose sides in the debate over
Morton's first successful public demonstration of ether as an [[inhalation]] anesthetic was such a historic and widely publicised event that many consider him to be the "inventor and revealer" of [[anesthesia]]. However, Morton's work was preceded by that of Georgia surgeon [[Crawford Williamson Long]], who employed ether as an anesthetic on March 30, 1842. Although Long demonstrated its use to physicians in Georgia on numerous occasions, he did not publish his findings until 1849, in ''The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal''.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Edward J. Huth |author2=T. J. Murray |title=Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zO8ehgKQMmMC&pg=RA1-PA481|access-date=22 July 2012|date=1 January 2006|publisher=ACP Press|isbn=978-1-930513-67-9|pages=1–|author-link2=Thomas John Murray }}</ref> These pioneering uses of ether were key factors in the medical and scientific pursuit now referred to as [[anesthesiology]], and allowed the development of modern surgery. Spread of the news of this "new" anesthetic was helped by the subsequent feud that developed between Morton and Horace Wells and Charles T. Jackson.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}
His son [[William J. Morton]] was a noted doctor and authority in [[electrotherapeutics]].
==Personal life==
He had five children with his wife: [[William J. Morton|William James Morton]] (1845–1920), Marion Alethe Morton (1847–unknown, after 1865<ref>"Massachusetts State Census, 1865", , ''FamilySearch'' (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQCD-1WM : Sun Mar 10 11:36:37 UTC 2024), Entry for William J Morton and Elizabeth Morton, 1865.</ref>), Edward Whitman Morton (1848<ref>"United States Census, 1850", , ''FamilySearch'' (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDS4-KRZ : Sat Mar 09 09:01:12 UTC 2024), Entry for William T G Morton and Elisabeth W Morton, 1850.</ref>–unknown, after 1870<ref>"United States Census, 1870", , ''FamilySearch'' (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDQ3-21S : Tue Mar 05 06:29:28 UTC 2024), Entry for Elish W Morton and Wm J Morton, 1870.</ref>), Elizabeth Whitman Morton (1850–1922), Bowditch Nathaniel Morton (1857–1909).<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mould |first=Richard F |date=2018 |title=William James Morton (1845–1920). Author of America’s first X-ray textbook |url=https://journals.viamedica.pl/nowotwory_journal_of_oncology/article/view/NJO.2018.0026 |journal=Nowotwory. Journal of Oncology |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=2}}</ref>
== References ==
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== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite journal |author=Alper M. H. |title=The Ether Controversy Revisited (Morton WT), (Jackson CT) |journal=Anesthesiology |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=560–3 |year=1964 |pmid=14192801 |doi=10.1097/00000542-196407000-00017|doi-access=free }}
*{{cite journal |author=Andreae H. |trans-title=The discoverer of ether anesthesia, dentist Morton, born 150 years ago |language=de |journal=Zahnärztliche Praxis |volume=20 |issue=23 |pages=276 |year=1969 |pmid=5263393 |title=The discoverer of ether anesthesia, dentist Morton, born 150 years ago}}
*{{cite journal |author=Asbell M. B. |title=William Thomas Green Morton |journal=Worcester Medical News |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=15–8 |year=1970 |pmid=5277344}}
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*{{cite book |last=Figuier |first=Louis |chapter=Expérience d'Horace Wels à l'hôpital de Boston avec je gaz hilarant |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4M8EAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA212 |title=Exposition et histoire des principales découvertes scientifiques modernes |location=Paris |publisher=Masson |year=1851 |volume=1 |page=212 |language=fr |oclc=312611474}} Contains an account, in French, of the discovery of anaesthesia with ether by Morton and Jackson and of its reception in Europe.
*{{cite journal |author=Heynick F |title=William T. G. Morton and 'The Great Moment' |journal=Journal of the History of Dentistry |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=27–35 |year=2003|pmid=12641171}}
*{{cite journal |author=Keys T. E. |title=William Thomas Green Morton (1819–1868) |journal=Anesthesia and Analgesia |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=166 |year=1973|pmid=4572338 |doi=10.1213/00000539-197303000-00004|doi-access=free }}
*{{cite journal |author=Leonard A. G. |title=Stamp recognition for William Morton |journal=British Dental Journal |volume=158 |issue=9 |pages=345 |year=1985 |pmid=3890908 |doi=10.1038/sj.bdj.4805605|s2cid=2357056 }}
*{{cite book |first=William T. G. |last=Morton |year=1847 |title=Remarks on the Proper Mode of Administering Sulphuric Ether by Inhalation |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bookres.fcgi/history/pdf_morton.pdf |location=Boston |publisher=Button and Wentworth |access-date=22 July 2009 |oclc=14825070}}
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{{refend}}
* [[Grace Steele Woodward|Woodward, Grace Steele]]. ''The Man Who Conquered Pain: A Biography of William Thomas Green Morton''. [[Beacon Press]], 1962.
* {{Cite book |last=MacQuitty |first=Betty |title=Victory over pain: Morton's discovery of anaesthesia |date=1971 |publisher=Taplinger Pub. Co |isbn=978-0-8008-8014-9 |location=New York}}
== External links ==
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* {{Cite news | title = William Thomas Morton | url = https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1759 | periodical = Find a Grave | access-date = 2008-12-02}}
* {{Cite web | title = Boyhood Home Sign in Charlton, Massachusetts | url = http://img.geocaching.com/cache/120e0605-793f-40fe-84a0-baff7629c173.jpg }}
*{{Cite news|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=I6EC62JXMTIyNDcxODczOS40MzEyMzg6MToxMjoxMjguMjIwLjguMTU&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=3&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=3&p_docnum=19&p_docref=v2:114CF48AE24B9638@EANX-1190F44183842D50@2422154-1190F441D599ADA8@3-1190F4432010A610@Gentennial+of+First+Man+to+Employ+an+Anaesthetic
*{{Cite news
|url= http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=I6EC62JXMTIyNDcxODczOS40MzEyMzg6MToxMjoxMjguMjIwLjguMTU&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=3&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=3&p_docnum=16&p_docref=v2:1126152C152E4978@EANX-119AD8F7317502C0@2420131-119AD8F79FB48038@11-119AD8F94179B368@Men+Who+Have+Eased+the+World%27s+Paon+William+T.+G.+Morton
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{{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, William T. G.}}
[[Category:1819 births]]
[[Category:Harvard Medical School alumni]]
[[Category:People from Charlton, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1868 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery]]
[[Category:Physicians from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees]]
[[Category:19th-century American dentists]]
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