Dr. Crawford W. Long

Hello!

Today's exciting blog post is on Dr. Crawford Williamson Long, PhD. The man who was smart enough to actually experiment with ether but foolish enough to not make it public for a very long time.
Crawford Long, born in Danielsvillie, GA, was a physician with a degree from Pennsylvania University and while studying medicine, like most young doctors of the 19th century, he was wishing there was a way to stop the pain during surgery without have to hit his patient up side the head. One day he noticed the effects of ether, otherwise known as laughing gas, and realized that when one was under the effects of it the didn't feel pain or remember what had occurred. Studies have shown that ether has four very positive assets:

1. You can't feel what is happening to you.
2. It puts you to sleep.
3. It relaxes you body and mucles.
4. You can't remember ever falling asleep.

Crawford Long started noticing these signs and thought about experimenting with it and no one could have been more afraid that he had been persuaded into it then James M. Venable, a young man who had a tumor in his neck. The 26-year-old doctor on March 30th, 1842 operated on the young man, using ether for the first time surgically.
A few hours later the young man woke up and swore that he didn't feel a thing let alone believed that he had even been put under. The surgery was successful, but Crawford Long didn't make his research known until 1849 when his work was begin compromised.
Dr. Long continued to use ether as an anesthetic and to work as a doctor literally until the day he died. After delivering a baby he had a stoke and later died in Athens, Georgia. On the corner of College Avenue, there is a Starbucks and that is where Long's office was located in Athens!
Thanks to Crawford Long we now have better and more hospitals and doctors have learned about germs and the need for clean areas to work. Long took away our pain and gave healthier places to go to for health care and it all started right here in GA in Jefferson.

Thanks for reading!

MJ

Did you figure out where the boyhood home of Meriwether Lewis was?

If you said Lexington you were so totally right!

Lewis was born in Rhode Island and moved to Georgia with his mother and stepfather when he was six years old!

For more on Meriwether Lewis visit - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meriwether_Lewis

And for Lexington, GA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington,_Georgia

Next questions!

What place is known as the Land of the Trembling Earth?

Find out next week on Georgia History's Mysteries!

For More Info On Dr Crawford Long - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_Long

For a COOL video on Long and about ether - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMdjd8_tQ3Q

And don't forget to check out the Crawford Long Museum to see where he performed the amazing surgery!

28 College Street

Jefferson GA 30549

http://www.crawfordlong.org/