Crawford Long, American Pioneer of Anesthesia

Crawford Long, American Pioneer of Anesthesia

Crawford Williamson Long (1815-1878) was an American surgeon and pharmacist best known for his first use of inhaled diethyl ether as an anesthetic. Although his work was unknown outside a small circle of colleagues, he is now recognized as the first physician to have administered ether anesthesia for surgery. Long used ether for the first time on March 30, 1842 to remove a tumor (cysts) from the neck of a patient, James M. Venable. Long subsequently used ether as an anesthetic in amputations and childbirth. The results of these trials were published in 1849 in The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal. An original copy of this publication is held in the U.S. National Library of Medicine. In 1846, William Morton administered ether anesthesia before a medical audience at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is generally credited with the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia. In 1854, Long requested that Georgia Senator William Dawson present his claims of ether anesthesia discovery to the attention of Congress. He lived to the age of 62.

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