Ether Day

The 77th Anniversary of the first public demonstration of the use of ether anaesthesia in surgery was celebrated at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. It was there, on Oct. 16, 1846, that Dr. William T. G. Morton (1819-1868), then a young dentist studying medicine, anaesthetized a patient with ethyl ether, while Dr. Warren, senior surgeon, removed a tumor. Others (Long, 1842, Robinson, Liston, Jackson) have disputed with Morton priority in the use of ether, but the consensus of medical opinion has awarded him the honor.