Tag Archives: 1845

1 March 1845

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United States President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.

Texas became a state of the United States on December 29, 1845. Its path to statehood was a tumultuous one, marked by conflicts and controversies.

Texas was originally a territory of Mexico, but in 1836, the Texian army, led by General Sam Houston, defeated the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto and declared independence. Texas remained an independent republic for several years, but it soon became clear that the country could not survive economically without the support of a larger nation.

In 1845, Texas was annexed by the United States through a joint resolution of Congress. This was a controversial move, as it was opposed by many in both the North and the South. The Northern states were opposed to the annexation of Texas because they feared it would expand the power of slavery in the United States, while the Southern states were in favor of annexation because they believed it would give them more power in the federal government.

After the annexation was approved, Texas was admitted to the Union as the 28th state. This was a significant event in American history, as it marked the beginning of the expansion of the United States to the West and the eventual annexation of other territories, such as California, Oregon, and New Mexico.

27 December 1845

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Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long.

Crawford Long, a north Georgia physician, is credited with the discovery of anesthesia. Long County, in southeast Georgia, is named in his honor, as was Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta. As he established his medical practice, Long began to experiment with sulfuric ether as an anesthetic. He performed his first surgical procedure using the gas on March 30, 1842, when he removed a tumor from the neck of a young man. Though he performed more surgeries using anesthesia over the next several years and began using it in his obstetrical practice, Long did not publish his findings.

Dr. Crawford W. Long applied his social observations with ether to surgery well before Morton’s discovery. During his time in Philadelphia, it was tasteful among young socialites to inhale gases such as sulphuric ether to induce euphoria. During one such “ether frolics”, Long observed an attendee take a heavy fall but display no indication of pain. With this reference, he performed his first surgical procedure using the gas on March 30, 1842, when he removed a tumor from the neck of a young man who did not feel any pain.

Long did not publish his findings as he wanted to be sure of his discovery. He began writing his own account of his discovery only after an editorial ran in the December 1846 issue of Medical Examiner about the Boston dentist Morton who claimed to have used ether as an anesthetic. In 1849 he presented his findings to the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.