Walker IP. Answer to an examination of the question of anaesthesia, 1853.

Catalog Record: Walker IP. Answer to an examination of the question of anaesthesia, 1853.

AccessKey: abzr

Title: Answer to “an examination of the question of anaesthesia” / by Hon. Issac P. Walker.

Author: Walker, Isaac P., 1813-1872.

WLM Call Number: WO 211 E81 W151 1853 RB

Accession NO.: 9645

Publisher: Washington : Lemuel Towers, 1853.

Physical Descrip: 39 p. ; 24 cm.

Language: eng

Provenance: Title page inscribed with, “J.Russell Spalding / 13 Eaton St. / Boston.”

Subject: Ether Controversy – letter.

Related Names: Smith, Truman, 1791-1884.

Abstract: Isaac P. Walker was chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee
charged to investigate Morton’s claim to priority of the discovery of
etherization. This treatise was written in response to a paper written
by Truman Smith, a fellow member of his committee titled An Examination
of the Question of Anaesthesia, wherein Smith expressed his sympathy
and support in favor of Horace Wells as the discoverer of anesthesia.
Walker challenged Smith arguing that Wells’ application of nitrous
oxide anesthesia had never been successful, citing several case reports.
Walker contends that Horace Wells had abandoned nitrous oxide
anesthesia because it had never been effective on the cases he had
administered. For this reason, Walker considers Wells forfeited the
right to claim the credit of discovery.

Content Notes: Includes “Memorial of the surgeons and physicians of the Massachusetts
General Hospital at Boston, and Members of the Massachusetts Medical
Society in support of the claim of W.T.G. Morton, M.D., for the
discovery of etherization” [35-39].

General Notes: Digitized by Northern Micrographics in Batch 15, December 2014.

General Notes: This tract is not listed in any major bibliographies on the Controversy.