Crawford Williamson Long was born on November 1, 1815, and died on June 16, 1878. He was an American surgeon and pharmacist who is famous for being the first person to use inhaled sulfuric ether as an anesthetic.

Life and work

Crawford Long was born on November 1, 1815, in Danielsville, Madison County, Georgia, to James and Elizabeth Long. His father was a state senator, merchant, and planter. He named his son after his close friend and colleague, William H. Crawford, a respected Georgia statesman.

By age fourteen, Long had graduated from the local academy and applied to the University of Georgia in Athens. There, he shared a room with Alexander Stephens, who later became Vice President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. In 1835, he earned his A.M. degree. He began studying at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1836. At Transylvania, he studied under Benjamin Dudley, a respected surgeon, and observed surgeries performed without anesthesia. After one year at Transylvania, Long transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he was exposed to advanced medical technology of the time. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839.

After an 18-month internship in New York, Long returned to Georgia. In 1841, he took over a rural medical practice in Jefferson, Jackson County.

Long experimented with using ether on three enslaved people and noted that it had the same effects on the body as Humphry Davy had described for nitrous oxide in 1800. On March 30, 1842, he used ether to remove a tumor from the neck of a patient named James M. Venable. He administered sulfuric ether on a towel and had the patient inhale it. Over the next few years, Long performed many surgeries using this technique and introduced it to his obstetrics practice. He later removed a second tumor from Venable and used ether as an anesthetic during amputations and childbirth.

Despite his continued use of ether, Long did not immediately publish his findings. His results 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.

While a student at the University of Georgia, Long was a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society. He was also a cousin of Doc Holliday, a famous western figure, and may have operated on Holliday’s cleft lip.

On October 16, 1846, William T. G. Morton administered ether anesthesia before a medical audience in Boston, Massachusetts, unaware of Long’s earlier work. Morton’s demonstration was published in December 1846, which alerted Long to Morton’s claim. Additional evidence and experiments were reported in the January 1847 issue of an editorial. Although Long had informed colleagues about his use of ether and performed six more surgeries, Morton is generally credited with the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia. After these articles appeared, Long began documenting his experiments, collecting patient accounts, and notarizing their letters. He reported his findings to the Medical College of Georgia in 1849. While in Augusta, he learned of two other physicians, Charles Jackson and Horace Wells, who also claimed to have used ether. At this time, Long finally published his findings. In his first publication, he addressed the controversy.

In 1854, Long asked U.S. Senator William Crosby Dawson to present his claims about discovering ether anesthesia to Congress. Despite his efforts and documented proof, Long never received full credit for his discovery during his lifetime.

Long married Caroline Swain in 1842, and together they had twelve children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. The family moved to Atlanta in 1850 and then to Athens in 1851 to be closer to friends and family. In Athens, Long and his brother Robert opened a private practice and pharmacy on Broad Street, near the university campus. During the Civil War, Long joined a militia unit in Athens but was never called to active duty. Instead, he served as a surgeon to soldiers on both sides. He died of a stroke on June 16, 1878, shortly after helping to deliver a baby. He is buried alongside his wife in Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, Georgia. Throughout his career, Long believed strongly in his calling to serve humanity. He described his profession as a “ministry from God” and said his highest ambition was “to do good and leave the world better by his labors.”

Legacy

Crawford W. Long was the first obstetric anesthetist. In 1845, he had his wife breathe in anesthesia while she gave birth. For many years, his use of inhalation anesthesia was the main method used in childbirth. In 1849, Long shared his discovery in a small local magazine. However, he did not receive much recognition until Marion Sims, a New York surgeon, wrote the first major article about Long’s work. Today, most scholars agree that Long performed the first successful surgery using anesthesia. In fact, Long gave ether to seven patients, and none of them felt pain during their operations, several years before Morton’s public demonstration in 1846. One of Long’s letters explains how Morton’s ideas may have been influenced by Long’s work.

Long delayed publishing his findings until 1849 for two reasons. First, he wanted to repeat his experiments to confirm his results before sharing his ideas. Second, he wanted to wait and see if another doctor would challenge Morton’s claim to discovering anesthesia, a doctor who might have discovered anesthesia before Long. After reading about Morton’s demonstration in the Medical Examiner, Long asked his patients to provide written statements that supported his discovery. Long likely discovered ether’s anesthetic effects before Morton demonstrated its use publicly. However, several men, including Morton, Horace Wells of Hartford, Connecticut, and Charles J. Jackson, claimed credit for the discovery. During the "ether controversy," these men competed for a $200,000 reward from the U.S. Congress. At first, many people did not give Long credit. William Welch reportedly said,

In 1879, one year after Long’s death, the National Eclectic Medical Association declared that Long was the official discoverer of anesthesia. At Long’s funeral, Chancellor Andrew Lipscomb said:

In 1879, the National Eclectic Medical Association declared that Long was the official discoverer of anesthesia. "Doctors Day" is celebrated on March 30 every year to honor Long’s contributions.

The University of Pennsylvania honored Crawford W. Long in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1912 with a bulletin and bronze medallion.

On August 14, 1920, the Georgia state legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to create a new county named after Long from parts of Liberty County. The amendment was approved on November 2, 1920. The county seat is Ludowici.

The Emory-University-operated Crawford W. Long Hospital in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, was named in his honor in 1931. It kept that name for 78 years. In 2009, the hospital was renamed "Emory University Hospital Midtown." References to Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital remain on exterior monuments.

Long was honored in the "Famous American Series" of postage stamps in 1940 and on a postcard in 1978.

The Crawford W. Long Museum in downtown Jefferson, Georgia, has been open since 1957. A monument honoring Long was unveiled in Jefferson on April 21, 1910.

A statue of Long stands in the crypt of the United States Capitol as one of two monuments representing Georgia in the National Statuary Hall Collection (the other is his college roommate, Alexander Stephens). Crawford Long Middle School in Atlanta, Georgia, was also named in his honor.

Long’s childhood home was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1977. It is located on Crawford W. Long Street in Danielsville, Georgia. Its coordinates are 34°07′34″N 83°13′28″W / 34.12611°N 83.22444°W / 34.12611; -83.22444.