Insensibility during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation
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On October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. John Collins Warren performed the first public operation on a patient under ether anesthesia administered by dentist William T. G. Morton. Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow witnessed the event and described the operation to the Boston Society for Medical Improvement on November 9. His account, printed in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal on November 18, is the first medical publication on this groundbreaking achievement.
In Dr. Bigelow's account, the patient, Gilbert Abbott, stated that "the pain was considerable, though mitigated." Dr. John Collins Warren, in an article published in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal on December 9, said, "Being asked immediately afterwards whether he had suffered much, he said that he had felt as if his neck had been scratched; but subsequently, when inquired of by me, his statement was, that he did not experience pain at the time, although aware that the operation was proceeding." It was only a second operation, performed on the following day, that had a completely successful etherization.