"A successful Boston dentist, Morton is generally credited with the discovery of ether as a general anaesthetic. His partner, Horace Wells, had used nitrous oxide with some success while Charles Jackson, Morton's preceptor during his two years of medical school, had used ether drops in filling teeth. Drawing on these experiences and after experimenting briefly with animals, Morton anaesthetized a patient during a tooth extraction and less than a month later was able to make his celebrated demonstration at Massachussets General Hospital. A long and bitter controversy ensued as to the actual discoverer of the technique, and this exhaustive mass of evidence in support of Morton was presented to a special committee selected by the Senate which, however, was never able to resolve the problem" [Heirs of Hippocrates]
Truman Smith, a U. S. senator from Connecticut, was convinced Morton was making a false claim in order to defraud the U. S. Treasury, and the second work puts forward the evidence that the true discoverer of the technique was his former partner, Horace Wells.