At the request of William T. G. Morton, “to be preserved in perpetual remembrance of the thing,” sixteen physicians--John Collins Warren and Henry Jacob Bigelow among them--with knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the ether discovery and its first surgical uses submitted depositions to the Suffolk County Justices of the Peace in 1852 and 1853. In the deposition displayed here, S. D. Townsend, who was present at the initial demonstration on October 16, describes the first capital operation--a leg amputation--performed on November 24 and discusses the substitution of a sponge for the inhaler.
