Ether surgical anaesthesia
Anestesia quirúrgica con éter
- Date
- 1846 · confidence high
- Place
- Boston (Massachusetts General Hospital), United States
- Credited to
- William T. G. Morton (public demonstration); Crawford Long (earlier use, 1842); Horace Wells (nitrous oxide, 1844)
- People
- 👤 Crawford Williamson Long1815–1878👤 Horace Wells1815–1848👤 William Morton1819–1868
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Public demonstration on 16 October 1846 ('Ether Day') of a painless operation under ether inhalation. It abolished surgical pain and transformed surgery from a race against the clock into a deliberate procedure.
Crawford Long used ether in Jefferson, Georgia, in 1842 but did not publish until 1849; Charles Jackson claimed to have instructed Morton; the 'ether controversy' lasted decades.
What it led to
- Abdominal, thoracic and prolonged surgery
- The profession of anaesthetist
- Hospitals as surgical centres
- Debate over patenting a humanitarian good
- prolonged and complex surgery
- anaesthesiology as a specialty
- chloroform in obstetrics (Simpson, 1847)
- cardiac surgery and neurosurgery
Built on
- diethyl ether (known since the 16th century)
- Davy's observations on nitrous oxide (1800)
- Wells's failed demonstration (1845)
- nitrous oxide (Davy)
- synthesis of ether
Made possible
- Chloroform anaesthesia1847
- Antiseptic surgery (Lister)1867
- Anaesthetic machine1902-1907
- Lister's antiseptic surgery
- Elective abdominal surgery
- modern general anaesthesia
- abdominal surgery