AustLit

A radio play based on the life of William T.G. Morton, an American physician responsible for the first public demonstration of the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic on 16 October 1846. Morton subsequently attempted to patent ether, and spent much of his life trying to establish himself as its discoverer.

Contemporary newspapers indicate that Dunn took a romantic approach to the story:

By the city of Boston, Massachussets, in the cemetery of Mt. Auburn, there is a monument of white marble inscribed to William Thomas Morton, 'Inventor and Revealer of Anaesthetic Inhalation, by whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled; before whom in all time surgery was agony; since whom science has control of Pain.' 'Dishonour Be My Destiny' gives the story of the man who achieved one of the greatest victories the long history of medicine has known, but whose victory was changed to crushing defeat by the selfishness and ingratitude of man.

Source:

'Dishonour Be My Destiny', Northern Champion, 16 November 1940, p.2.