Cambridge Sketches
by Frank Preston Stearns

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William T. G. Morton

INVENTOR AND REVEALER OF ANAESTHETIC INHALATION BY WHOM, PAIN IN SURGERY WAS ARRESTED AND ANNULLED BEFORE WHOM, IN ALL TIME, SURGERY WAS AGONY SINCE WHOM, SCIENCE HAS CONTROL OF PAIN

Doctor Morton was a self-made man, but not a rough diamond,—rather one of Nature’s gentlemen. The pleasant urbanity of his manner was so conspicuous that no person of sensibility could approach him without being impressed by it. His was a character such as those who live by academic rules would be more likely to misjudge than to comprehend.

The semi-centennial of painless surgery was celebrated, in 1896, in Boston, New York, London, and other cities, and the credit of its discovery was universally awarded to William T. G. Morton. About the same time it happened that the Massachusetts State House was reconstructed, and William Endicott, as Commissioner, and a near relative of Robert Rantoul, had Morton’s name emblazoned in the Hall of Fame with those of Franklin, Morse, and Bell. This may be said to have decided the controversy; but, like many another benefactor of mankind, Doctor Morton’s reward on earth was a crown of thorns.

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Preface • The Close of the War • Francis J. Child • Longfellow • Lowell • Cranch • T. G. Appleton • The Whip of the Sky • Pompeii • Doctor Holmes • Frank W. Bird, and the Bird Club • Sumner • Chevalier Howe • The War Governor • The Colored Regiments • Emerson’s Tribute to George L. Stearns • Elizur Wright • Dr. W. T. G. Morton • William T. G. Morton • Leaves From a Roman Diary • My Last Visit to the Longfellows • Centennial Contributions • The Emerson Centennial • The Hawthorne Centennial • Hawthorne and Hamlet

Cambridge Sketchesby Frank Preston Stearns

William T. G. Morton

Cambridge Sketches
by Frank Preston Stearns