Crawford Williamson Long: The True Pioneer of Surgical Anesthesia

Anesthesia and analgesia are as old as mankind itself. However, we now know that the true pioneer of surgical anesthesia through inhalation of ether was Doctor Crawford Williamson Long (1815-1878), who endeavored to help his profession and mankind without pursuing any reward or honor. Crawford Williamson Long was a great and beloved American surgeon. He was a well-educated and elegant man with an outstanding personality. Crawford was born in Danielsville, Georgia, in the United States and was the son of James Long and Elizabeth Ware Long. He married Mary Caroline Swain Long and gave birth to 12 children. Long proved the effectiveness of ether after painlessly removing a tumor from the neck. In 1847, a rivalry broke out among Horace Wells, Charles Thomas Jackson, and William Thomas Green Morton for the primacy as regards the discovery of anesthesia. The US Congress offered itself to arbitrate the case of the so called "ether controversy." Finally, a few years after the end of the North American Civil War, while taking care of a patient, Crawford passed away, presumably after suffering a stroke.