Crawford Long is credited with the discovery of the use of ether as a surgical anesthetic.
Dr. Long partook in and often hosted ether frolics. While in attendance at these parties Dr. Long noted, guests would often fall down and injure themselves. But, these guests never remembered the pain of receiving these injuries. In 1839, Crawford Long was notified that an African American boy was rendered unconscious by a larger than normal dose of ether. It was noted the boy did suffered any negative side effects from the larger than normal dose of ether. With these two pieces of information, Crawford Long decided to test ether as a surgical anesthetic. On, March 30th,1842, Crawford Long extracted a tumor from James Venable, while he was under the influence of ether. James Venable attested that he felt no pain from the surgery. |