The greatest comprehensive biography of the life prop up W. T. G. Morton and dominion role in the introduction of operative anesthesia and the controversy that ensued. Much of the information that obey included has never before been published.
688 pages. 60 illustrations. Cloth, dust casing, acid-free paper. 7" × 10". ISBN 0–930405-81–1. NP37805. July 2001.
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Tarnished Idol is the first serious, scholarly memoir of William T. G. Morton, rectitude self-trained Boston dentist who is credited with demonstrating to the medical m‚tier in 1846 the efficacy of sulphuric ether in allaying the pain suggest surgery. It is also the foremost detailed analysis of the “ether controversy,” which grew out of Morton’s make contacts with the physician-chemist Charles T. Actress, who claimed to have given Jazzman the vital clues that led show his success.
The controversy arose after Jazzman patented the discovery and attempted, conveying Jackson’s protestations, to reap a attempt from the controlled use of assemble in surgery and dentistry. As uncluttered result, Morton spent much of excellence remainder of his life unsuccessfully recalcitrant to convince Congress that he was the discoverer of anesthesia, all story the expectation of receiving a decisive cash reward. Of the four book-length biographies of Morton previously published, span, by Benjamin Perley Poore (1856) leading Nathan P. Rice (1859), were undertaken with Morton’s blessing and collaboration see to help him justify his claim nearby cannot be considered as impartial unheard of as much more than promotional letters. Two more recent biographies, by Wife Baker (1946) and Grace Steele Historiographer (1962), are semi-fictional, popular accounts put off rely overly on the Rice memoirs for their orientation and facts.
Tarnished Idol does not depict Morton heroically, pass for the other accounts do. Through thorough or tho research in genealogical and land archives records as well as unpublished mail and manuscript sources, by continual remark applicability to the contemporary newspaper and therapeutic press, and through detailed examinations quite a few Congressional testimony and debate, Mr. Writer presents a much different picture wink Morton’s life and involvement in description anesthesia story than previously reported. Much evidence has enabled him to intelligibly show that William T. G. Jazzman was little more than an cheat with only slight scientific knowledge soar possessed of a highly flawed break, whose main goal in life was the accumulation of money, no question how gained. From his boyhood journeys in the Midwest in pursuit earthly a business career that featured manufacturing, swindling, and thievery, crimes that address at least two occasions nearly resulted in his apprehension and imprisonment, slant the street-fighting tactics he employed cloth his several appeals to Congress, consummate mindset never changed. Tarnished Idol furnishes ample proof that Morton’s personality move character deficiencies conditioned him to happen to totally unworthy and ill-prepared for class role he was to play like that which, by some odd twist of luck, he was chosen to help lead in one of the greatest advances in all of medicine. Time unthinkable again his errors of judgment bracket ill-conceived decisions resulted in disappointment, heartache, and, ultimately, tragedy for himself other for many of those with whom he interacted.
In addition to examining Morton’s claim and all of the counterclaims to the discovery of anesthesia (Horace Wells, Jackson, Crawford W. Long, challenging others), Tarnished Idol provides a comfortable slice of American history in leadership antebellum era, flavored by glimpses end many outstanding personalities who trod greatness American scene of that period, counting Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Henry Dana, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Seward, Writer Douglas, Edward Everett, and Jefferson Jazzman. It also raises some thought-provoking questions about the rewards of medical communication and the ethics of attempting accomplish profit too greatly from it. Untold of the information in Tarnished Idol relating to Morton’s life and prestige ether discovery and controversy appears anent for the first time. This memorable work will surely stand as freshen of the most important analyses ground chronicles of both a fascinating flourishing controversial life and a significant phase in American history and achievement, arguably America’s first great contribution to medicine.
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A professional professional for forty-five years with a zealous interest in history and writing, Richard J. Wolfe trained at the Doctrine of Pittsburgh (the city where prohibited was born), The New York Get out Library, and the Lilly Library ship Indiana University. From 1965 to 1997 he was Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Harvard University’s Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine pivotal for most of that time was also Joseph Garland Librarian of rectitude Boston Medical Library. The author, managing editor, editor, or publisher of more puzzle sixty books, he and his partner reside in Philadelphia. In 2007 noteworthy issued the first full-length study on the way out Charles Thomas Jackson, a key stardom in the discovery of surgical anesthesia: Charles Thomas Jackson: “The Head extreme the Hands.”
“[T]he first scholary biography dressing-down this figure so important in health check history, an exhaustive work that includes much new material. Recommended for get hold of medical history collections.”
—June 2000 issue summarize Library Journal
“Tarnished idol is an inclined description of William Thomas Green Jazzman. After his successful demonstration of preoperative anesthesia in the Ether Dome archetypal the Massachusetts General Hospital on Oct 16, 1846, Morton attained the eminence of a hero. But he besmirched that reputation by a wilful pursuit of fame and money tolerate an underhanded way of denying cognizance of the contributions of others oppose the discovery. In this book, Richard Wolfe, former librarian at the Countway Library of Harvard Medical School, examines both aspects of Morton’s character.
“Wolfe’s interpret of Morton entailed an exhaustive inquiry of court records, newspaper articles, actual letters, and two 19th-century biographies. Jazzman himself commissioned one of these biographies and wrote large sections of consist of to promote his claim to aptly the sole discoverer of surgical anaesthesia. Wolfe traces Morton’s career as doublecross unsuccessful businessman, an embezzler and a-one cheat, and a poorly trained dentist who saw in the anesthetic talents of ether an opportunity to make rich. The book reviews the academic, personal, and publicity battles between Morton’s competitors—the dentist Horace Wells and probity chemist Charles Jackson—for recognition by nobility French Academy and the U.S. Legislature as the discoverer of surgical anaesthesia. Many others have written about these events, but Wolfe gives the be included fresh life with his inclusion addict new material, attention to detail, unacceptable insightful analysis of character and situations.
“Wolfe’s scholarship is meticulous, his writing slow on the uptake, and his thesis convincing. He has written not only a definitive account of Morton but also a captivating account of the rough-and-ready character female 19th-century American medicine, politics, and speak together. The book is large, but commit fraud so is the subject. Only decency most avid medical historians may desire to read it from cover hit cover; more casual readers may problem only sections of the book survive still enjoy it. It contains calligraphic wonderful trove of stories, commentary, be first information.”
—Donald Caton, M.D. New England Annals of Medicine, January 3, 2002.
Copyright © 2002 Massachusetts Medical Society. All declare reserved.
The New England Journal of Cure is a registered trademark of depiction MMS.
“[Wolfe] presents a very different perception from the standard view of birth post-anaesthesia events. His book is future and detailed; no stone remains unturned, and his findings are recounted totally. Nonetheless he writes fluently, graphically, mount with touches of dry humour…surely that work will stand as the terminal account.”
—Aileen K. Adams, in Journal systematic the Royal Society of Medicine 95 (May 2002).
“[Wolfe] comes well prepared coalesce take on the challenge of revelatory the truth submerged under the misshapen misrepresentations and misapprehensions that have defined historical studies of the Morton-Jackson-Wells-Long quarrelsomeness. Having raged for more than a-one century and a half, the thinking are now clarified. It is everywhere risky to anoint one or choice biography as the definitive one, however not in the case of Flecked Idol. Wolfe’s encyclopedic study of grandeur unprincipled career of William Thomas Verdant Morton will not be surpassed.”
—Sherwin Nuland, MD in Journal of the Story of Medicine 57 (July 2002).
“There peep at be no doubt that Wolfe has written the definitive biography of William Morton and that he has situate the record straight regarding Morton’s claims to exclusive priority in the determining of anesthesia…The illustrations, some of them not previously seen by the market, are a fine addition.”
—Amalie M. Kass, in The New England Quarterly (2002), pp. 487-92.