William Thomas Green Morton

Dentist

  • Born: August 9, 1819
  • Birthplace: Charlton, Massachusetts
  • Died: July 15, 1868
  • Place of death: New York, New York

American dentist and medical pioneer

In his discovery and development of the anesthetic uses of ether inhalation, Morton made one of the most important contributions to medicine of the nineteenth century. However, rival claims to the discovery produced one of the most acrimonious debates in the history of medicine.

Area of achievement Medicine

Early Life

William Thomas Green Morton was born to James Morton, a farmer of Scottish descent, and his wife, Rebecca Needham, a native of Charlton, Massachusetts. A sternly religious upbringing, a wholesome and plain family life, and a boyhood filled with farm tasks formed Morton’s character. His father insisted on a proper education, enrolling him in several country academies from the age of twelve. The boy wanted to become a physician, but his hopes vanished when a business venture undertaken by his father failed.

In 1836, Morton moved to Boston, making a living as a clerk and salesperson for several firms. He hated the drudgery and crassness of business life, choosing a career in dentistry with the opening of the first American dental school, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, in 1840. One year later, he apprenticed himself to Horace Wells, a young dentist from Hartford, before establishing his own practice in Farmington, Connecticut. In 1842, he met Elizabeth Whitman, daughter of a prominent Farmington family. The Whitmans were disturbed by their daughter’s interest in him, the owner of no property and a dentist, dentists then being regarded as ignorant “tooth-pullers.” Determined to marry, Morton convinced them that dentistry was a temporary occupation; he intended to become a physician. The marriage took place in May of 1844; the first of the Mortons’ children, William James Morton, became an important neurologist and a pioneer in the use of X rays.

Morton was a tall, dark-haired, handsome man, neat and methodical, mild and agreeable in manner. He maintained his dignity and composure through the long years of the bitter ether controversy, never attempting to retaliate against his enemies despite the relentless attacks on his character.

Life’s Work

Prior to his marriage, Morton had formed a partnership in Boston with Wells in order to exploit the development of a noncorrosive dental solder for attaching false teeth to plates. Artificial teeth were hinged monstrosities set over the roots of old teeth, leaving the face swollen, the solder coloring and corroding the teeth. The two young dentists devised enameled teeth that they attached with their new solder to a hingeless plate. To fit the plate snugly in the mouth, however, required the removal of the roots of the old teeth. No one would accept their innovations unless they found a means to overcome the extremely painful extractions.

By the end of 1843, the partnership failed for lack of patients. Wells returned to Hartford and Morton remained in Boston, both intent on succeeding in dentistry. During their development of the solder, they sought the advice of an expert chemist, Charles T. Jackson, a European-trained physician, chemist, and geologist. In 1844, Morton became Jackson’s private student, boarding in his house, first alone and then with his wife, hoping to prepare himself for entrance into Harvard Medical School.

During 1844-1845, his dental practice flourished, and his income enabled him to buy a farm in West Needham (modern Wellesley) near Boston. Morton became a specialist in prosthetic dentistry and prospered by his thoroughness and his skill in excavating and filling cavities.

During the summer of 1844, Morton discussed with Jackson the need to control pain. He had tried many pain remedies, but none was satisfactory. Jackson gave him a bottle of ether and urged him to try his “toothache drops” as a local painkiller for filling teeth. He also learned from Jackson that physicians used ether as an inhalant in treating respiratory ills, believing it to be a possible cure for tuberculosis and other lung diseases.

Morton used the ether drops, finding that he could remove tooth decay and fill cavities painlessly. He noticed that often the region near the tooth became numb and wondered whether ether had wider possibilities. Morton wanted to experiment with ether. What happens upon inhaling it? Was it dangerous? Might it be an effective painkiller for all aspects of dentistry, including the extraction of the stumps and roots of old teeth? He experimented with ether inhalation into 1846, using animals of all kinds, including his pet spaniel.

In August of 1846, Morton purchased a new supply of ether in Boston. His two apprentices submitted to ether inhalation but became excited rather than quieted. He sought Jackson’s advice on September 30, careful not to tell him about his inhalation experiments but only about the problems he was having with different samples of ether. Jackson informed him that ether varied considerably in quality and that he must use only pure, highly rectified ether.

Events happened swiftly on September 30; obtaining the best-quality ether, Morton induced unconsciousness in himself for about seven minutes, recovering with no ill effects. On that same day, a patient, Eben Frost, came to him with a painful toothache. Morton persuaded him to have his tooth extracted under ether.

During the next two weeks, he successfully etherized about one hundred patients, developing an inhaler in the form of a glass globe that had two necks to allow both ether and air to be inhaled. Suddenly, his horizons widened beyond dentistry. A young surgeon, Henry Jacob Bigelow, appeared at his office, having become aware of his ether experiments and wanting to observe some painless tooth extractions. Through Bigelow, Morton arranged a public demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846. John Collins Warren, the preeminent surgeon in Boston and founder of Massachusetts General and of the New England Journal of Medicine, agreed to perform surgery on an etherized patient.

Warren removed a three-inch tumor from the neck of a young man, Gilbert Abbott, with Morton administering the inhalant. Before a large audience, the hitherto exceedingly painful operation proceeded smoothly, with no cry or struggle from Abbott, the first public demonstration that ether could prevent the pain of surgery. Anesthesia quickly became routine at Massachusetts General. (The Boston physician Oliver Wendell Holmes introduced the name “anesthesia” in November.) The very newness of the procedure caused concern, however, and the case records of etherized patients at the hospital never mentioned anesthesia; only after its general acceptance were the records altered to record that it had been used.

Prior to the surgical demonstration, Morton visited Richard M. Eddy, patent commissioner in Boston, to inquire whether his painless tooth extraction method could be patented. The visit reveals his determination to secure a monopoly; he planned to sell licenses for the use of ether and gain a royalty on the price of all inhalers. On October 21, Eddy informed him that the process was patentable but that Jackson should be included, because he had provided essential information. Jackson knew Eddy and convinced him that he had been essential to the discovery. Although Morton did not share their opinions, he agreed to an arrangement whereby Jackson received 10 percent of the profits, while turning over the responsibility of the patent to Morton. He received the patent on November 12.

Morton failed to appreciate the professional opposition to his scheme of licenses and royalties. Bigelow, in a hectic meeting, told him that he should give his discovery to the world for the relief of human suffering. Morton, however, believed that he had to control his procedure to prevent its misuse, granting licenses only to qualified people, and candidly admitted that he wanted to make a living from his discovery. He did convince Bigelow of his good intentions and expressed his willingness to surrender the patent if the government would take it over and reward him for the discovery.

Problems began immediately. Morton had just received a bill for one thousand inhalers when he learned that they were inferior to a simple bell-shaped sponge saturated with ether. The Massachusetts Medical Society protested the procedure because it was for private profit and a secret remedy. (Morton had disguised the nature of the agent by adding a red dye and calling it “Letheon.”) He soon saw his hopes of controlling anesthesia and gaining a financial reward dashed. As physicians realized that the readily available ether was the active agent, there was no need to buy a patented preparation.

Morton may have been disappointed by the turn of events, but surgeons were not. Surgical anesthesia spread with unprecedented speed, far more rapidly than earlier innovations such as vaccination or later ones such as antisepsis. Bigelow was once again the key figure in alerting physicians to the discovery. His detailed report in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal was the first in a professional journal, copies of which spread the news throughout the United States and Europe. Etherization was in use in American, English, and French hospitals by the year’s end. By 1848, anesthetics were in use in dentistry, obstetrics, and therapeutics, as well as in surgery.

The ugliest aspect of the ether controversy was the dispute between Morton and Jackson. In mid-November of 1846, Jackson was claiming full credit for the discovery of anesthesia. He asserted that he had been experimenting with ether since 1841, had discovered its anesthetic properties, and had instructed Morton in how to use it in his dental practice and in how to seek a surgical demonstration. Jackson used his prestige and influence to press his case in both the popular press and professional journals and before such bodies as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the French Academy of Sciences.

For the remainder of his life, Morton had to face attacks on his character and ability, Jackson using Morton’s faulty education and the fact that he was a mere dentist to make him out to be an unscrupulous profit-seeker and fraud. His life became exceedingly troubled. He lost his dental practice, and creditors demanded payments on loans; he was ruined financially. Supporters petitioned Congress to give adequate compensation for his discovery of anesthesia. During the 1850’s, Congress introduced two bills appropriating $100,000, but active supporters of Jackson, Wells (who successfully used nitrous oxide for tooth extractions), and several other claimants prevented any appropriation. A direct appeal by Morton to President Franklin Pierce led to a promise of a reward, but the presidential promise proved worthless. With the coming of the Civil War, the cause was lost. During that war, Morton served with distinction as an anesthetist in field hospitals.

In 1868, Morton went to New York in an agitated state over a pro-Jackson article in the Atlantic Monthly, determined to defend himself with a reply. While there, he suffered a fatal stroke. Following his interment, Boston citizens donated a monument bearing a moving tribute to him as the inventor of anesthetic inhalation. In 1873, Jackson visited the site; still obsessed with Morton, he began to scream and flail wildly. He had to be restrained, and he remained confined to a mental institution until his death in 1880.

Significance

Anesthesia is the greatest contribution of American science to nineteenth century medicine. Until 1846, all surgical operations were done without anesthesia: Patients were strapped or held down, struggling in agony over the cutting, speed being the prime requisite of surgeons. Anesthesia freed patients of pain, while giving surgeons the gift of time.

The ether controversy reflected the medical profession’s disarray during the 1840’s: full of disputes over causes and cures with no central authority to confer legitimacy to an innovation. In addition, Morton violated four norms of the medical profession. He patented his “Letheon,” patented pain cures being synonymous with quackery. He indulged in promotional advertising. He was a dentist, dentists being regarded with mistrust as mere empirics. Last, he engaged in a bitter, unprofessional quarrel over priority that tarnished both the image of anesthesia among physicians and whatever reputation the disputants possessed.

Despite the violation of these taboos, Morton’s discovery spread with remarkable speed, because the benefits of ether were so evident. It did prevent pain. Leading surgeons saw ether as primarily benevolent and humane; it relieved human suffering, hence its rapid, general acceptance.

Bibliography

Davis, Audrey B. “The Development of Anesthesia.” American Scientist 70 (September/October, 1982): 522-528. A superb essay by a historian of science, relating the development of anesthesia to the context of nineteenth century surgery and dentistry.

Fülöp-Miller, René. Triumph over Pain. Translated by Eden Paul and Cedar Paul. New York: Literary Guild of America, 1938. A comprehensive study of the search for pain relief, focusing on the American discovery of anesthesia. Not a scholarly work, but absorbing reading.

Ludovici, L. J. The Discovery of Anesthesia. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1962. A fine biography of Morton. More concerned with the personalities of the characters and why they behaved as they did than other works.

MacQuitty, Betty. Victory over Pain: Morton’s Discovery of Anaesthesia. New York: Taplinger, 1971. A clear, dramatic story of Morton and his career set against life in pre-Civil War America. Well written, with an emphasis on Morton’s struggle to secure recognition.

Pernick, Martin S. A Calculus of Suffering: Pain, Professionalism, and Anesthesia in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985. A brilliant book. Pernick goes beyond a history of surgical anesthesia to consider how the medical profession confronted the discovery and the implications of anesthesia for society. Social history at its finest.

Wolfe, Richard J. Tarnished Idol: William Thomas Green Morton and the Introduction of Surgical Anesthesia: A Chronicle of the Ether Controversy. San Anselmo, Calif.: Norman, 2001. Meticulously researched revisionist biography of Morton. Wolfe acknowledges that Morton conducted the first successful public demonstration of anesthesia in 1946 but credits him with little else regarding the discovery of anesthesia. In Wolfe’s opinion, Morton created a “sanitized and idealized” image of himself, when he was actually a man of “limited talent” and “many faults.”

Woodward, Grace Steele. The Man Who Conquered Pain: A Biography of William Thomas Green Morton. Boston: Beacon Press, 1962. A vivid, elegantly written biography of Morton. Woodward’s study was based on hitherto unavailable letters and other unpublished material of the Morton family. Very good at describing the medical atmosphere of early nineteenth century Boston.

October 16, 1846: Safe Surgical Anesthesia Is Demonstrated; November 4, 1854: Nightingale Takes Charge of Nursing in the Crimea.