Crawford Long
| Crawford Long | |
|---|---|
Crawford Long
|
|
| Born |
November 1, 1815 Danielsville, Georgia |
| Died | June 16, 1878 (aged 62) Athens, Georgia |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Alma mater |
University of Georgia University of Pennsylvania |
| Known for | Anesthesia induced by ether |
Crawford Williamson Long (November 1, 1815 – June 16, 1878) was an American surgeon and pharmacist best known for his first use of inhaled sulfuric ether as an anesthetic.
Long was born in Danielsville,Madison County, Georgia on November 1, 1815 to James and Elizabeth Long. His father was a state senator, a merchant and a planter, and named his son after his close friend and colleague, Georgia statesman William H. Crawford.
By the age of fourteen he had graduated from the local academy and applied to the University of Georgia in Athens. It was here he met and shared a room with Alexander Stephens, future Vice President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. In 1835, he received his A.M. degree. He began his study at Transylvania College the fall of 1836 in Lexington, Kentucky. Here, Long was able to study under Benjamin Dudley, a revered surgeon. He observed and participated in many surgeries and noted the effects of operating without anesthesia. Long transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia after spending only a year at Transylvania College, and was exposed to some of the most cutting edge medical technology of the time. He received his M.D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1839.
After an 18 month internship in New York, Long returned to Georgia. He took over a rural medical practice in Jefferson, Jackson county in 1841. After observing the same physiological effects with diethyl ether ("ether") that Humphry Davy had described for nitrous oxide in 1800, Long used ether for the first time on March 30, 1842 to remove a tumor from the neck of a patient, James M. Venable. He administered sulfuric ether on a towel and simply had the patient inhale. He performed many other surgeries using this technique for the next few years, introducing the technique to his obstetrics practice as well. Long subsequently removed a second tumor from Venable and used ether as an anesthetic in amputations and childbirth. Despite his continued use of the ether anesthetic, Long did not immediately publish his findings. The results of these trials were eventually 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.
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