Crawford W. Long

Dr. Crawford W. Long

Crawford W. Long was the first to discover the effect of ether and to use it in surgery. He was born on November 1, 1815, the son of a merchant and planter in Danielsville, Georgia. He graduated second in his class from the University of Georgia, then studied medicine at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky; received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839, and studied surgery in New York City.

Returning to Georgia, he set up practice in Jefferson, Jackson County. That is where he first began experimenting with sulfuric ether and used it for the first time on March 30, 1842 when he removed a tumor from the neck of a boy.  He died on June 16, 1878, of heart failure at the bedside of a mother who had just given birth.

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