ether /oss/taxonomy/term/2442/all en Happy Ether Day! /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-history/happy-ether-day <p>This past week on October 16 we celebrated National Ether Day. If you missed it, here is why you should not have. Rarely does a single event alter the course of medicine, but that is exactly what happened 175 years ago at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846, in the surgical theatre that would eventually be christened “The Ether Dome.” Dr.</p> Fri, 22 Oct 2021 19:36:01 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8906 at /oss Living With Half a Brain: Phineas Gage /oss/article/history/living-half-brain-phineas-gage <p>The Warren Medical Museum in Boston is a fascinating place, named after Dr. John Collins Warren who performed the first surgery under ether anesthesia in 1846. On view is the actual flask that housed the ether used during the surgery. Also on display is the famous meter long rod that  passed completely through the skull of railroad company worker Phineas Gage in 1848 without killing him. It did, however, dramatically alter his personality.  </p> Wed, 25 Jul 2018 17:42:42 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7186 at /oss The Introduction of Surgical Anesthesia /oss/article/did-you-know-history/introduction-surgical-anesthesia <p>A dentist named Morton claimed that he could produce surgical anesthesia with this miracle compound and that he would demonstrate it at Mass General. With the observation gallery full and the men prepared to hold down the patient as usual during the surgery, the dentist appeared with the anesthesia machine he had invented to administer the ether. For the first time, a patient underwent major surgery while asleep but with his heart and respiration safely intact. Within a month the word had spread and ether became a powerful part of medicine and surgery.</p> Thu, 25 May 2017 00:14:52 +0000 OSS 2492 at /oss Before ether was a potent painkiller, it was a hit with revellers /oss/article/drugs-health-news/ether-was-potent-painkiller-it-was-hit-revellers <p>The marble and granite statue in the Boston Common depicts a physician in medieval clothing holding a cloth next to the face of a man who seems to have passed out. An inscription on the base of the statue reads “To commemorate that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to pain, first proved to the world at the Mass. General Hospital in Boston, October A.D. 1846.” No names are mentioned.</p> Wed, 22 Jun 2016 10:12:58 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2342 at /oss