LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES.—HOW SUCCESS IS WON. 309

self a thousand times if nothing could be found to
deaden pain. One day in applying sulphuric ether to
a sensitive tooth of one of his patients, he observed
that the surrounding parts became benumbed. At
once he began to question whether the whole body
could or could not be benumbed in some manner,
But how, with safety! Sir Benjamin Brodie, a well-
known scientist abroad, had written, “ I have given
ether to guinea-pigs, and it killed them! ”

The young medical student determined to experi-
ment upon — himself. if he died, the world would
at least only say, “he was foolish.” It took courage
of a high order to ‘mix, in the interests of science and

 

DR. WM. T. G. MORTON.

humanity, morphine, opium and etherin aretort, put
a hot towel around it, and slowly inhale it. But head-
aches so terrible resulted that he was obliged to dis-
continue experiments foratime. Like James Watt
when working upon his engine, he scarcely knew
whether he ate or slept; now experimenting with
animals, and then again upon himself with pure
ether. Finally, so firm became his faith in the knowl-
edge he believed himself to have gained that he
calmly soaked his own handkerchief in this liquid
that killed guinea-pigs and deliberately placed it
over his mouth‘and nostrils. As regards the natural
question as to whether he would ever come out of

the sleep into which he knew he must enter, he said
afterward :

I looked at my watch, then soon lost consciousness. AsI
recovered, I felt a numbness in my limbs with a sensation like
nightmare, and would have given the world for some one to
come and arouse me. I thought for a moment I should die
in that state, and that the world would only pity or ridicule
my folly. . Gradually I regained power over my limbs
and full consciousness. I immediately looked at my watch,
and found that I had been insensible between seven and eight
minutes.

The young student was overjoyed at the result,
and impatient now to try the effect upon others.
Toward evening, September 30, 1846, a man came
into the office nearly frantic with toothache, and
ready to try anything in his pain; he inhaled the
ether, and the tooth was removed before he was con-
scious of it. Young Morton was now fully confi-
dent that he had found the great “ pain destroyer ”’
of the world, and he at once began to consider how
he should bring the knowledge to the public use?
He wished that he might give one trial before the
renowned physicians at the Massachusetts General
Hospital. How else would they believe that a young
student had found that for which learned men in all
ages had been seeking —an annihilator of pain?
And yet, what if by any possibility the experiment
should prove a failure, and he should meet with ridi-
cule? What if, indeed, the patient should die, and
he be arrested and thrown into prison?

He called upon Doctor Warren, the senior sur-
geon, who expressed much interest ; he said he had
always hoped for the discovery, and that he would
immediately give an opportunity for the test upon
one of the inmates of the hospital. As the time
drew near, young Morton applied himseif night and
day to continued investigation and continued test,
and to the perfection of his instruments for inhala-
tion. The night previous to the experiment at the
hospital, he worked till four o’clock in the morning,
to make sure that all was in readiness. His young
wife of nineteen, who had watched every step in the
progress of the discovery, was unable to sleep from
her anxiety, and she met him as he came home, and
implored him for the sake of herself and her little
son, to give up the engagement. “You will ruin
yourself ;’’ she said. ‘ You wil! be the subject of
universal ridicule.” He playfully rallied her failing
courage, and then with solemnity and in tones of
assurance said, ‘‘I will not fail. ‘To-morrow the
world will greet my success.” With a reassured
heart, but sleepless, she waited, while he, saying he
had but two hours to sleep, almcst immediately fell
into profound slumber. At six he arose, and with-
out breakfast hastened to the instrument-maker’s,
and thence to the hospital. The large amphitheatre
was filled with distinguished surgeons, physicians,
students and others invited to witness a difficult
surgical operation which was to be undergone with-