310 out pain. On every hand eager but incredulous faces. The patient, a young man of twenty-five, suf- fering with a tumor on the mouth, was brought in. “ Are you afraid?’’ said Morton to him. “ No, I feel confident, and will do precisely as you tell me,” was the reply. Grave, but with perfect self-possession, the young student began his work. In four or five minutes the patient was soundly asleep, and then, in a si- lence like the tomb, with surprise and amazement growing on every face, Doctor Warren cut out the tumor, saying slowly and emphatically, “Gentle men, this is no humbug.” When consciousness returned, the patient said, “‘T have experienced no pain, but only a sensation like that of scraping the part with a blunt instru- ment.” - ; At once, doubt among the spectators gave place to joy and congratulations. The student had become in one brief hour, not only sure of fame and honor, but also the benefactor of every race, through unending ages, and those learned men recognized these facts. : Meanwhile the young wife was waiting at homein suspense almost unimaginable, About one o’clock he came, his bright, enthusiastic face tinged with sadness, as though he saw in the distance the hard fate and the long struggle to come. He seemed lost in thought as in a dream, and embracing her tenderly, he simply said, “ I have succeeded.” But that meant that surgery had been forever robbed of its terrors, and good news of escape from ° pain was to go out over all the world from this memorable day, October 16, 1846. Mr. Robert Hinckley, a distinguished artist in Paris, is now at work upon a large picture repre- senting this impressive scene; the surgeons and physicians of the Massachusetts General Hospital grouped about the patient, and in the centre the manly face of young Doctor Morton, then only twenty-seven years of age. After the exhibition of the painting in the Paris Salon, and in this country, it will probably be hung in. the same room in the hos- pital where this never-to-be-forgotten demonstra- tion was made. The newdiscovery was talked about everywhere, presently, at home and abroad. Said Doctor War- ren: “It will awaken the gratitude of the present, and of all coming generations ;”’ said Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes: “The deepest furrow in the knotted brow of agony has been smoothed forever.” English journals were eloquent it its praise: “Itis a victory not for to-day nor for our own time, but for another age, and all time; not for one nation, but for all nations, from generation to generation, as long as the world shall last.” Doctor Morton understood well the value to the world of his discovery, and he spared no Pains to spread the knowledge everywhere. Pamphlets were published at his own expense, giving examples of LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES,—HOW SUCCESS IS WON. e the safe use of ether; agents were sent into all the larger cities and towns to instruct people’ in its use, and with properinstruments. Says his lawyer, Richard H. Dana, jr., the author of Zio Years be: Sore the Mast: “ Doctor Morton hardly knew a full night’s rest, or a regular meal, for three months.” But he had but just begun his struggles, his bit- ter experiences. Several dentists at once issued a “circular,” to physicians and to the newspapers, setting forth the alarming effects of ether, and up- braiding him for announcing the discovery of a “humbug.” Some of his medical brethren, too, - seemed to be envious, and hoped “no one would be reduced from the high professional path of duty, into the quagmire of quackery!“ Even some religi- ous teachers called it “a decoy of Satan,” because God had condemned man to suffer pain, and “ it would rob him of the deep earnest cries which arise in time of trouble for help!” All this incited the young physician to greater energy. Having already been at so much expense to introduce the new agent and defend it, his + friends advised that he apply for a patent, that he might reap some necessary pecuniary benefit from- his discovery. This was granted; but the Govern- ment soon using ether in the Mexican War, yet paying no regard to the patent, contracts made with other parties were boldly broken, and much loss fell upon Doctor Morton. Atonce prominent men, among them Doctors Warren, Bowditch, Bigelow, Holmes, Parkman and others, asked Congress to reward the author of this great boon to his country. It had given the heirs of Robert Fulton ever seventy-six thousand dollars for his improvement in the steam-engine; to S. F. B. Morse, eighty thou- sand dollars for the telegraph ; to one firm twenty- five thousand dollars for the right to use the im- proved method of refining gold bullion; to another twenty thousand dollars for elevating and point- ing heavy cannon; surely the Government would give generously to him, who, Lecky declares in his Liistory of European Morals, “has done more for the real happiness of mankind than all the moral philosophers from Socrates to Mill.” But now came the most disheartening trial yet, the same which had confronted Jenner and Watt and Morse and Harvey: several men came boldly forward and declared themselves the discoverers of the way to produce insensibility to pain! One said he had known it in his laboratory for five years. To this Doctor Jacob Bigelow well replied : “If he did make the discovery, as he asserted, he stands accountable for the mass of human misery which he has permitted his fellow creatures to undergo,” during all this time. Another said he had used nitrous oxide in extracting teeth and deserved to be considered the discoverer, though he had gone out of dentistry, and given up experimenting. Others still claimed to have had this knowledge— only they had failed to make it known.