born June 21, 1805, Plymouth, Mass., U.S.
died Aug. 28, 1880, Somerville, Mass.
U.S. physician, chemist, geologist, and mineralogist.
He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1829. Known for his contentiousness and litigiousness, he took credit for the first demonstration of surgical anesthesia with ether by a dental surgeon he had advised on it, and he claimed to have told Samuel F.B. Morse the basic principles of the telegraph. He worked many years as a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.