Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2029

JOSEPH L LORD (fl. 1840) A defence of Dr. Charles T. Jackson's claims to the discovery of etherization. Office of Littell's Living Age 1848 [2] 37 pp. 25.2 cm.

The claimants to priority in the ether controversy carried on their acrimonious struggle by letter, pamphlet, and in the public press over a period of many years. The intense debate ultimately reached a select committee of the United States Senate but they were unable to resolve the issue. The present pamphlet was prepared by the Lord brothers, who were Jackson's attorneys. Jackson (see No. 1675) had engaged the Lords to investigate and substantiate the legality of his claims to priority in the use of sulphuric ether for surgical operations. The Lords were prompted to issue this document after publication of the Annual report of the Massachusetts General Hospital in which contained critical and unauthorized statements about Dr. Jackson's claims. The University of Iowa Libraries' copy was once owned by Arno Benedict Luckhardt (1885-1957) and has his name imprinted on the cover. Luckhardt received the pamphlet from a colleague in New York City who inscribed it and inserted a personal letter commenting on the pamphlet's rarity. Luckhardt, a long-time member of the faculty at the University of Chicago, was co-discoverer of the anesthetic properties of ethylene gas.

See Related Record(s): 1675

Cited references: Cushing L353; Osler 1445; Waller 14114; Wellcome III, p. 546

Gift of Mrs. Diana A. Stokes