1815-1878

American physician who was among the first American doctors to use ethyl ether as a general anesthetic agent for surgical operations. Although Long used ether anesthesia in several operations as early as 1842 and 1843, he did not publish or present papers on his discovery until 1848. He attempted to assert his priority in 1854, but William Morton's demonstration of ether anesthesia in 1846 at the Massachusetts General Hospital was already well known by that time.