Happy Birthday To Boston's Ether Monument 166 Years Old

Ether Monument
Boston Pubic Gardens
Arlington St. / Beacon St.
John Quincy Adams Ward / Henry Van Brunt, Sculptors Granite
Neither shall there be Anymore Pain. -- Rev. To Commemorate the Discovery that the
Inhaling of Ether causes Insensibility to Pain.” First proved to the world at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
-- October AD MDCCCXLVI”
This also cometh Forth from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.
-- Isaiah

The Gift of Thomas Lee in Gratitude for the
relief of Human Suffering by the inhaling of Ether. A Citizen of Boston has erected this monument. -- AD MDCCCLXVII

Ether Centennial Dedicated Oct. 16, 1946 Taken from the Stone

The Ether Centennial took place  autumn on October 16th, 1946; and as the monument in the Public Garden to the ‘discoverer of ether’ has been described in our booklet entitled Some Interesting Boston Events, this chapter is devoted chiefly to the most appropriate remarks made at the centennial celebration by several leading medical authorities. Dr. Reginald Fitz recalled a number of incidents and records relating to that first operation under the Ether Dome of the Massachusetts General Hospital. This room contains the inscription, part of which reads, ‘On October 16, 1846, in this room, then the operating theatre of the Hospital, was given the first public demonstration of anesthesia to the extent of producing insensibility to pain during a serious surgical operation.’

 Dr. Fitz referred to the diary of the surgeon of that first operation, Dr. J.C. Warren, which contained this entry written on the same day: ‘Did an interesting operation at the Hospital this morning, while the Patient was under the influence of Dr. Morton’s preparation to prevent pain. The substance employed was Sulphuric Ether.’ On the day following the operation Dr. Warren wrote: ‘I hereby certify that I have twice seen the administration of Dr. Morton’s application for the prevention of pain; that it had a decided effect in preventing the sufferings of the patients during the operation and that no bad consequences resulted.’ Some months afterwards Dr. Warren swore that he had never heard of ether in a surgical operation until Morton suggested it. When this famous surgeon resigned from the Medical School he made this statement: ‘A discovery which every medical man, and especially every practical surgeon, must hail with unmingled satisfaction.’”

Another first-hand account was written by Edward Everett, President of Harvard University, whose diary is deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society. The late Allyn B. Forbes, Director of that Society, very kindly sent us this information:
It appears from his diary that on the morning of October 16, 1846, when the first ether operation was going on, Everett was trying to get up a breakfast party for the next day. The first reference that he makes to ether is on November 3. In the evening he went to Dr. Bigelow’s for an informal meeting of the American Academy. At that time, young Dr. Bigelow read an account of a stupefying gas prepared by Dr. Morton, a dentist, and inhaled by persons about to be operated upon. Dr. Morton had used it in many cases with entire success: -- nearly 200. It has also been used in the hospital in cases of ordinary surgery and generally with success. (Forbes and Eastman, 42)