One hundred-and-fifty-three years ago this month, an historic operation took place in the amphitheater of the Massachusetts General Hospital. The surgeon in question was John Warren and the patient was a young man named Gilbert Abbott. On that fateful Friday morning of Oct. 16, 1846, William Thomas Green Morton administered ether to the young man, who was undergoing neck surgery. FIGURE
Although ether eased patients' pain and forever changed the face of surgery, its introduction also involved a battle of claims and counterclaims. For William Morton, the controversy began after he watched a public demonstration by Horace Wells in 1845. Wells administered nitrous oxide to a patient who was having a tooth pulled. Unfortunately, the patient screamed, perhaps due to incomplete anesthesia. The demonstration was a failure, but it left a very definite impression on Morton (1819-68), Wells' former pupil.
Morton appreciated nitrous oxide's potential as a surgical tool, but sought a more powerful vapour. At the suggestion of Charles Jackson, he proceeded to use ether. Encouraged by a painless tooth extraction, Morton then approached Warren and asked for permission to use ether during a surgical operation.
Morton appeared a few minutes late for surgery on that long-ago Friday morning. He applied his apparatus to the mouth of the patient for about 3 minutes. Warren made a 3-inch incision and waited for the scream that always accompanied surgery. None came. Warren then proceeded with his work, and although the patient uttered incoherent words, he felt no pain. Warren's remark following the surgery became famous: "Gentlemen, this is no humbug." Thus, a new era in surgery was born.
The report of the tooth extraction, with Morton administering the ether, appeared in 1846. Although Crawford Long had first used ether as an anesthetic in 1842 during the removal of a neck lesion, he failed to publish his results until 1849. Apparently, the rush to publish wasn't what it is today.
The pioneers who made medical history because of ether experienced terrible personal tragedies. Long, whose contribution went unrecognized for years, died of a massive stroke. Wells committed suicide, while Jackson was institutionalized for the last 7 years of his life. Morton died of a cerebral hemorrhage.