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More in a series of stories about famous people from Jefferson, Georgia, my fair city…

Crawford W. Long, M.D.

Imagine this is 1813 instead of 2013, and you have to undergo a surgical procedure.

Unfortunately for you, anesthesia hasn’t been invented yet. Depending on your reason for going under the knife, the experience is going to be seriously painful, or horrifically awful, or it might kill you.

Before anesthesia, most surgery was rare — a last and desperate resort that doctors avoided if they could.

Down through the centuries, physicians tried all sorts of techniques to dull the senses during surgery. They tried marijuana, belladonna, and jimsonweed. They tried hypnosis.

They tried to distract patients by rubbing them with stinging nettles. They knocked the patient unconscious with a blow to the jaw.

Of all the methods and substances used, only two were considered of any practical value: opium and alcohol. But opium really isn’t strong enough. And the volume of alcohol required to induce the necessary stupor is just as likely to cause nausea, vomiting, and/or death.

In 1897, looking back on the bad old days before anesthesia, an elderly Boston doctor said the practice of surgery during his youth was like the Spanish Inquisition. He recalled “yells and screams, most horrible in my memory now, after an interval of so many years.”

So, humans have a long legacy of pain and suffering in this regard. If you wanted to be remembered by history for a truly commendable reason, you couldn’t do much better than perfecting a method of anesthetizing patients for surgery.

The person who accomplished that was Crawford W. Long, a surgeon who operated (pun intended) in Jefferson, Georgia.

Crawford Williamson Long, M.D. (1815-1878) is the pride of Jefferson, the town’s favorite son and major claim to fame. He is the medical doctor credited with the first successful use, in 1842, of surgical anesthesia.

Specifically, Long used sulfuric ether to render a patient unconscious, then excised a tumor from the fellow’s neck.

That breakthrough was a huge deal. It meant future patients would be spared unnecessary agony, and it saved lives by making surgery a more viable option. Not bad for a country doctor.

Crawford Long was born in Danielsville, Georgia, a few towns away from Jefferson. His father was a wealthy merchant and planter. His cousin was “Doc” Holliday, a Georgia dentist who gained fame when he moved to Arizona for his health.

At age 14, Long began taking classes at the University of Georgia. His best friend and roommate during his college years was Alexander Stephens, who later became Vice President of the Confederacy.

Long graduated from UGA with a Master’s degree at age 20. In 1839, he obtained his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After a hospital internship in New York City, he returned to Georgia and took over a small medical practice in Jefferson.

In those days, in spite of what you might think, recreational drugs were common. College students were fond of “laughing gas parties” and “ether frolics.” The attendees, probably Long among them, would get high by inhaling nitrous oxide or sulfuric ether. It was legal, socially acceptable, and considered to be harmless fun.

Always the shrewd medical observer, Long noted that in the course of such merriment, participants sometimes fell down, bumped into the furniture, and injured themselves in various ways, but felt no pain while under the influence of the gas.

Soon after opening his medical practice, Long began exploring ways to use sulfuric ether as a surgical anesthetic. After a series of promising experiments, he took the final step on March 30, 1842.

On that day, the 26-year-old Long removed a tumor from the neck of 21-year-old James Venable. During the operation, Venable inhaled sulfuric ether from a cloth held on his face and remained unconscious.

When Venable awoke, having experienced no pain whatsoever, he did not believe Long has performed the surgery — until he was shown the tumor.

Dr. long entered in his account book, “James Venable / March 30 — Ether and excising tumor $2.00.”

Over the next couple of years, Long performed other surgeries using ether, and he also used it in his obstetrics practice. But during that time, he did not publish his findings in the appropriate medical journals.

Some accounts say he wanted to get more procedures on the record first. Others say he deferred because some local residents opposed his work. They grumbled that the use of anesthesia was unnatural and offensive to God.

Then in 1846, reports surfaced about a dentist in Boston who claimed to be the first person to use ether as an anesthetic. Soon, two other men stepped forward claiming that distinction.

After Long became aware of this, he began writing his own account of the discovery. He collected notarized letters from former patients, and in In 1849, presented his case to the medical establishment. Although his claim was duly noted, he wasn’t given formal recognition for the achievement until after his death.

Meanwhile, Long’s medical practice in Jefferson continued to grow. In 1851, he and his wife and children moved to Athens, where he opened a medical office and pharmacy in partnership with his brother Robert.

During the Civil War, Long worked in Athens as a field surgeon, treating the wounded from both sides. He returned to his civilian practice after the war and died in Athens in June 1878, soon after helping to deliver a baby.

Crawford Long was a brilliant surgeon and an honorable man who deserves recognition for his accomplishments and his service.

And I admire him for another reason: other than wanting to be acknowledged by his peers for his discovery, he never sought to profit from it in any way.

Portrait of Crawford Long by Lewis Gregg, 1926.

The two Georgians honored in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. are Crawford Long and his former college roommate, Alexander Stephens.

Commemorative mural in downtown Jefferson.

Souvenir for sale at the Crawford W. Long Museum in Jefferson.