JACKSON, CHARLES TrromAs; b. Mass., 1805; studied medicine in Boston, and received his medical degree from Harvard college in 1829. In 1827-29, in company with Francis Alger of Boston, he made a mineralogical and geological survey of Nova Scotia, an account of which is contained in 31enzoirx of the Am. Academy of Arts and Scionces. He visited Europe in 1829, spending thrice• years in study in Paris. In 1831 he made a pedestrian tour through central Europe. He was at Vienna during the prevalence of cholera, and assisted in the dissection of 200 bodies of the victims. In 1833 he began the practice of medicine in Boston, but relinquihing it, devoted himself to chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. In 1836 be was state geologist of Maine; in 1839, of Illiodt; Island; and in 1840, of New Hampshire In 1837 lie had a controversy with prof. Morse, claiming the invention of the telegraph. In 1844 be explored the wilderness on the southern shore of lake Superior, and (1847-49) was U. S. surveyor of mineral lands in
Michigan. Dr. Jackson claimed to be the iiscoverer of anesthetics, but his claims were disputed by Dr. W. T. G. Morton, and Dr. Horace Wells, which gave rise to a protracted controversy. A memorial signed by 143 physicians of Boston and vicinity, claim ing for him the exclusive discovery, was 'presented in 1852 to congress. A com mittee of the French academy of sciences, about the same, time investigated the matter, and decreed a prize to both Jackson and Morton. Dr. Jackson has received many honors from foreign societies and governments. He has contributed valuable articles to the American Journal of Science and Arts, to the Comptes Rendus, and to the Bulletin de la Societe Geologicale de France. His geological reports and chemical reports for the U. S. patent office were also published, and a Manual of Etherization, 1861,