This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[319]
that Doctor Jackson suffered from a “heated and disordered imagination,” and that is the most charitable view that one can take of such a letter as this.
Whatever may have been the result of Doctor Jackson's investigations with sulphuric ether, it is certain that he added nothing to the scientific knowledge of his time in that respect;1 and if he persuaded Doctor Morton to make use of it, why was he not present to oversee his subordinate?
also, why did he make a charge on his books a few days later against Doctor Morton of five hundred dollars for advice and information concerning the application of ether?
It is not customary to charge subordinates for their service but to reward them.
The two horns of this dilemma are sharp and penetrating.
In a later memorial of the same general tenor, which Doctor Jackson forwarded to Baron Humboldt, he stated that he had applied to other dentists in Boston to make the experiment of etherization, but found them unwilling to take the risk; but the names of the dentists have never been made public, nor did any such appear afterwards to testify in Doctor Jackson's behalf.
Still more remarkable was the action of the French Academy of Arts and Sciences in these
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
Tufts University. provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.