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Medicine’s
Greatest Gift
Courtesy
MGH's website
One hundred fifty years ago, in
the operating theater on the top floor of the MGH’s Bulfinch Building,
one of the greatest moments in medicine occurred. On Oct. 16, 1846,
William T.G. Morton, a Boston dentist, demonstrated the use of ether
during surgery, ending the indescribable pain — and the overwhelming
dread — that had been associated with the surgeon’s knife.
Using a specially designed glass
inhaler containing an ether-soaked sponge, Morton administered the
anesthetic to Gilbert Abbott, a printer who had come to the MGH for
treatment of a vascular tumor on his jaw. After several minutes, Abbott
was rendered unconscious. John Collins Warren, MD, one of the most
widely recognized surgeons of that time, then surgically removed the
tumor. Upon wakening, Abbott informed the curious and skeptical
physicians and medical students in the theater that he had experienced
no pain.
As Abbott was being carried from
the operating theater, Warren turned and faced the incredulous
assemblage of onlookers. “Gentlemen, this is no humbug,” he said,
offering a peculiar, yet powerful, endorsement of the effectiveness of
anesthesia in surgery. With these now-famous words, a new era of
medicine began.
News of the discovery spread
quickly, and within months it was hailed as the “greatest gift ever made
to suffering humanity.” An item in the People’s Journal of London
reflected this excitement:
“Oh, what delight for every
feeling heart to find the new year ushered in with the announcement
of this noble discovery of the power to still the sense of pain, and
veil the eye and memory from all the horrors of an operation. ... WE
HAVE CONQUERED PAIN.”
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On Oct. 16, 1846, William T.G.
Morton, a Boston dentist, demonstrated the use of ether during surgery. The Ether Dome was designated a
National Historic Site in 1965. In 1971 the Bulfinch Building was added
to the roster of National Historic Landmarks.
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