Doctors Day Honors Pioneering Southern Physician

Dr. Crawford W. Long was an observant young physician. In the mid 1800’s, when laughing gas parties were popular, Long noted that persons under the influence of inhaled ether did not suffer pain from falls or blows, and often had no memory of the occurrence. He wondered if the use of ether could be a way to lessen the pain of surgery.

March 10, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Dr. Crawford W. Long was an observant young physician. In the mid 1800’s, when laughing gas parties were popular, Long noted that persons under the influence of inhaled ether did not suffer pain from falls or blows, and often had no memory of the occurrence. He wondered if the use of ether could be a way to lessen the pain of surgery.

On March 30, 1842, the 26 year-old Long became the first physician to use anesthesia in an operation, when he administered sulfuric ether to a young patient in Jefferson, Georgia, in order to remove a tumor from his neck.

At first, Long garnered little or no credit for his groundbreaking work. In 1846, when the first public demonstration of the use of ether in Boston was hailed as a breakthrough in medicine, Long had already performed six additional operations using anesthesia, including the first recorded case of pediatric anesthesia in July of 1842. Eventually his contributions were recognized, and on March 30, 1933, the 91st anniversary of Long’s achievement, the first Doctors Day celebration was held in his honor in Georgia.

The tradition of Doctors Day was continued by the Women’s Auxiliary of the Southern Medical Association until 1958, when the United States Congress officially designated March 30th as National Doctors Day.

The Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, part of UAB’s Historical Collections, will celebrate Doctors Day with a traveling exhibit on the history of anesthesia. The exhibit, which includes a tribute to Crawford Long, is part of the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ permanent display at the Wood Library Museum in Park Ridge, Illinois.

The exhibit will open on March 28, following a lecture by William D. Hammonds, M.D., M.P.H., professor of anesthesia at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. Hammonds’ lecture, “Doctors' Day and Anesthesia, the Legacy of Dr. Crawford W. Long” will be at 3 p.m. in the Ireland Room, third floor of the Lister Hill Library, 1700 University Boulevard, adjacent to the museum.

“Anesthesia has been referred to as America’s greatest contribution to medicine and clearly anesthesia dramatically reduced the burden of suffering for all mankind,” says Michael Flannery, associate director for historical collections at UAB. “This presentation will cover the historical facts of Crawford W. Long’s life, including his education, his first use of ether as an anesthetic, the ether controversy and Dr. Long’s response to the rivalry between the principals in that controversy.”

The Reynolds Historical Library contains a series of volumes from 1844-54 called the Ether Numbers, a set of early reports on the use of anesthesia. Doctors Day celebration is sponsored by the Historical Collections unit of Lister Hill Library and the Section on the History of Anesthesia of the UAB Department of Anesthesiology.

There are more than 40 million surgical procedures performed each year in the United States. The risk of anesthetic-related fatalities is today just one in 300,000.