Crawford Long

Crawford Williamson Long, November 1, 1815-June 16, 1878, was an American physician and pharmacist. He was born in Danielsville, Madison County, Georgia. He received his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1839. He performed the first surgical operation in general anesthesia induced by ether.

Although William Thomas Green Morton is well-known for performing his historic anesthesia on October 18, 1846, C.W. Long is now known to be the first doing an ether-based anesthesia.

After observing the same effects with ether that where already described by Humphrey Davy 1800 with nitrous oxide, C.W. Long used ether the first time on March 30, 1842 to remove two tumors from the neck of his patient, Mr. James M. Venable. The results of this trials where published several years (1854?) later only being second after Mortons publication. An original copy of his publication is held in the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

He died in Athens, Georgia.