Excerpt from A History of the Massachusetts General Hospital The chapter on the Ether-discovery is very much longer than I desired or expected. It contains nothing new, except perhaps the award of the French Academy, and also a note showing the extent to which ether is used in the Hospital. Readers of the present generation will probably omit it entirely; but the extracts from various pamphlets which it contains, familiar as these now are, may hereafter be of some interest and value, when time Shall have rendered the originals difficult of access. The short letter of Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, in page 337, presents, as I conceive, 1n almost the condensed form of an algebraic equation, a clear, striking, and conclusive view of the merits Of the whole controversy. The Academy, as will be seen, accord to Dr. Morton the idea, thought, or purpose (pens e) of making this discovery, and to Dr. C. T. Jackson the fact (26 fait o'bserv ) of the safety of the agent used; and attributes the final result equally to them both, regarding the mental pre-occu pation or engrossment (pr occupation) of the one, and the observations of the other, alike indispensable. This award is obviously an entire triumph of Dr. Morton over the exclusive claims of his Opponent, and must be to him the more gratifying, inasmuch as it has been gained from a tribunal, most if not all of whose members, though strangers to himself, are the scientific correspondents or personal friends of Dr. Jackson. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.