Crawford Long

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. 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. and observed that it had the same physiological effects that Humphry Davy had described for nitrous oxide in 1800. Long used ether 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 during the next few years, introducing the technique to his obstetrics practice as well. An original copy of this publication is held in the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Crawford Long was a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society while a student at the University of Georgia. Long was also a cousin of the western legend Doc Holliday, and may have operated on Doc's cleft lip. On October 16, 1846, unaware of Long's prior work with ether during surgery, William T. G. Morton administered ether anesthesia before a medical audience at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. His work was published in the December 1846 issue of Medical Examiner which alerted Long to this other claim. Furthermore, the January 1847 issue of the editorial featured more evidence and etherization experiments. In 1854, Long requested William Crosby Dawson, a U.S. Senator, to present his claims of ether anesthesia discovery to the attention of Congress. Despite his extensive petitioning and documented proof, he 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, then again to Athens in 1851 to be closer to friends and family. Here, Long and his brother Robert opened a private practice and pharmacy on Broad Street, just across from campus. and that "his highest ambition was to do good and leave the world better by his labors." ==Legacy==

Long was the first obstetric anesthetist. In 1845, he had his wife inhale while she was giving birth. Until recently, his practice of using inhalation anesthesia dominated obstetrics. In 1849, Long announced his discovery in a small local magazine. However, he did not receive significant recognition until Marion Sims, a New York surgeon, published the first major article about Long's contribution. Today, the majority of scholars concur that Long performed the first successful surgery using anesthesia. In fact, Long administered ether to 7 patients, none of whom felt any pain during their operations, several years prior to Morton's 1846 public exposition. One of Long's letters is very revealing as to the origins of Morton's ideas. He wrote, Permit me to say then, that a Dentist and a surgeon from Boston, Mass. were in Jefferson Jackson County in 1842, 3 or 4 and remained for several weeks. The dentist practiced his profession & the surgeon operated for strabismus-I have always thought it probable, that the Dentist was Morton or Wells, & that a knowledge of my use of ether in surgical operations was obtained at that time. I have not been able to ascertain the name of the dentist, if you know the history of Dr. Wells, you can possibly asertain (sic) whether he travelled South at the time mentioned." In 1879, a year after Long's death, the National Eclectic Medical Association declared that he was the official discoverer of anesthesia. At Long's funeral, Chancellor Andrew Lipscomb said: Standing here in the presence of his remains, I am this day but the voice of the church, of his professional brethren, and of this whole community when I say in Dr. Long's death we have lost an excellent man. He assumed nothing, and was thoroughly truthful in looks, tone, manner and action; lived simply, treated everyone courteously, and walked humbly before God. Modest even to the verge of timidity, he could be stern and bold, and utterly forgetful of self, if responsibility had to be met, or danger confronted. Gentle, forbearing, faithful to every wise instinct, he kept the covenant of a heart's true love until his days were numbered. He had strength of will and power of endurance. The minor heroisms which make up so large a share of a physician's experience, and of which the world knows so little, wrote many a paragraph in the annals of his life. We shall give the manly virtues of Christian integrity of Crawford Long a dwelling place where so many of the elect of our life already gathered." On August 14, 1920, the Georgia state legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to create a new county from the western portions of Liberty County, to be named after Long. The amendment creating Long County was ratified 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 and retained that name for 78 years. In 2009 the hospital was renamed "Emory University Hospital Midtown". References to Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital are retained on exterior monuments. Long was honored in the "Famous American Series" of postage stamps in 1940, and in 1978 with a postcard. The Crawford W. Long Museum in downtown Jefferson, Georgia, has been in operation since 1957. A monument in honor of 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 the two designated monuments to represent 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 on Crawford W. Long Street in Danielsville, Georgia. Its coordinates are . ==See also==