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C.T. Jackson's 15 October 1846 letter to J.-B.A.L. Elie de Beaumont: Jackson's thoughts on Ether Day's Eve?
George S Bause1, Patrick P Sim
1ASA's Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Park Ridge, Illinois, USA.
Abstract:
As did the previous letter on 30 November 1845 from Charles T. Jackson to J.-B.A.L. Elie de Beaumont, this 15 October 1846 missive underscores the cordial professional relationship between the two geologists. Remarkably, in this "Ether Day's Eve" letter, Jackson never reveals whether he had any clue that W.T.G. Morton would be publicly demonstrating ether anesthesia for surgery the next morning. More importantly, since Elie de Beaumont would play a future pivotal role in assigning initial credit for "discovering anesthesia" to his geological colleague Jackson, rather than to Morton, letters such as these from November of 1845 and October of 1846 can only raise more questions about the impartiality of Elie de Beaumont.
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