On October 16, 1846, history was made as the first surgical procedure alleviated by the use of anesthesia was completed. John Collins Warren famously uttered the words “Gentlemen, this is no humbug,” as the discovery of the pain-killing properties of ether went on to revolutionize the medical field forever. It’s interesting to see how disease and medicine are basically measured by the history of pain. But what do you do when you have finally conquered pain?
Three key players took part in the experiment that allowed patients to not feel the excruciating pain that was, by then, very commonly associated with any type of medical procedure. The first, Horace Wells, was an American dentist. His partner in practice, William T.G. Morton, also played an important role. Finally, Charles T. Jackson, a professor of chemistry at Harvard University, can also be accredited to this great discovery. What were their contributions to Ether Day and what did they go on to do afterward?
Wells first noticed the pain-killing properties of N2O at a laughing gas roadshow. He was convinced that these properties could help numb the pain that his patients felt during dental surgical procedures and so, after months of trying to convince someone to let him try it out, Massachusetts General Hospital granted him the chance to test laughing gas out during a tooth extraction procedure on January 1845. The results did not come out as expected. Some speculate that Wells probably used the wrong dosage but alas, the damage was done. Having been a strong believer that N2O would work, he was subject to ridicule from his peers at the workplace. He did not give up, however, and continued to experiment with various chemicals. Many believe that exposure to these influenced him negatively, as a drastic change in his personality ensued during his last years. At the end of his life, he was imprisoned for throwing acid at prostitutes in New York and went on to commit suicide in his cell on January 24, 1848.
When speaking of Ether, the name that people most commonly associate it to is Morton’s. He is the man that took Wells’ experiments further and finally succeeded in using it as a pain-killer. He learned from Wells’ technique, experimented on his own, and managed to convince Massachusetts General Hospital to try out his research. With the help of a surgeon, this experiment took place in Ether Dome. The patient, Gilbert Abbott, was to be treated for a vascular neck tumor. With the help of an inhaler, Morton administered the ether to Abbott, who fell unconscious within minutes and did not react when the first incision was made. Onlookers were fascinated by this and the fact that the patient’s blood appeared darker than usual. When Abbott woke up, he remarked that though he had felt a scratching sensation, he had felt no pain. News of the successful experiment traveled and the rest is history. Morton passed away in July 1868 due to a stroke.
Perhaps the most controversial man out of these three is Charles Thomas Jackson. Well-known for being involved in priority conflicts of new discoveries, he fought with Morton for years over credit for the discovery of ether as an anesthetic. Jackson claims that over a meeting, he had suggested using ether to alleviate pain in surgical procedures. Though Morton had previously experimented with ether, he had never tried it out on a patient and so, a legal dispute came to be. This lasted for twenty years. Jackson passed away at an asylum, where he was due to insanity, in 1868, not long after Morton’s death.
These three men with remarkable life stories spread the knowledge and use of ether to the world and went on to change the medical field as was known.
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