Issued in 2007 with images of Boston’s Old North Church and the midnight rider Paul Revere, this 39-cent U.S. postal stamp commemorated the 200th anniversary of the birth of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 to 1882). Because Georgia’s Crawford Long, M.D., failed to publish his use of obstetric ether more than 2 yr earlier, Longfellow’s wife Fanny became the first American recorded to have received ether for obstetric anesthesia. (Note: Fanny’s etherization by Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep occurred more than 3 months after Professor James Y. Simpson’s use in Scotland of obstetric ether.) Severely burned in 1861 after her dress had caught fire, Mrs. Longfellow was given ether for analgesia before she succumbed to her injuries. While using a rug and his own body to extinguish the flames, Henry had been burned severely enough to miss Fanny’s funeral and to warrant growing a beard to hide his scars. As a widower, Longfellow assuaged both his burning pain and his unrelenting grief with ether. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Issued in 2007 with images of Boston’s Old North Church and the midnight rider Paul Revere, this 39-cent U.S. postal stamp commemorated the 200th anniversary of the birth of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 to 1882). Because Georgia’s Crawford Long, M.D., failed to publish his use of obstetric ether more than 2 yr earlier, Longfellow’s wife Fanny became the first American recorded to have received ether for obstetric anesthesia. (Note: Fanny’s etherization by Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep occurred more than 3 months after Professor James Y. Simpson’s use in Scotland of obstetric ether.) Severely burned in 1861 after her dress had caught fire, Mrs. Longfellow was given ether for analgesia before she succumbed to her injuries. While using a rug and his own body to extinguish the flames, Henry had been burned severely enough to miss Fanny’s funeral and to warrant growing a beard to hide his scars. As a widower, Longfellow assuaged both his burning pain and his unrelenting grief with ether. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator and Laureate of the History of Anesthesia, Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.
