Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Massachusetts General Hospital

  • The “Ether Controversy”

    JMS PearceHull, England, UK Anesthesia is one of the most humane and effective advances of all medical practices. The name commonly attached to the first general anesthetic, given on 16 October 1846, is that of the dental surgeon William TG Morton, who at the Massachusetts General Hospital successfully demonstrated ether anesthesia (vide infra). The well-known…

  • Harvey Cushing: Surgeon, Author, Soldier, Historian 1869-1939

    John RaffenspergerFort Meyers, Florida, United States Harvey Cushing was a third-generation physician, born to a family of New England Puritans who had migrated to Cleveland, Ohio, in the mid 1830s. His father and grandfather were successful physicians; family members on both sides were well-educated and financially secure. At Yale, Cushing studied Latin, Greek, literature, and…

  • William Morton first demonstrates the use of ether anesthesia

    In 1846 the dentist William T Morton first publicly demonstrated the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic at the Massachusetts General Hospital. At the end of the procedure, the surgeon famously said: “Gentlemen, this is no humbug.” Very soon anesthesia became universally used in surgery. Spring 2020 | |

  • What November may bring: The first 37 days of surgical anesthesia

    A.J. WrightBirmingham, Alabama, United States In medical history October 16 is known as “Ether Day” to commemorate dentist William Morton’s 1846 demonstration of ether inhalation for a surgical patient of Dr. John Collins Warren. The event is often described as the first public ether anesthetic because it took place before an audience of physicians and…

  • Horace Wells

    Roshan RadhakrishnanKerala, India In 1845, a dentist stepped onto the spotlight at the revered Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He wanted to show his medical brethren something unique, something unheard of back then in the field of surgery. He wanted to show them how the world could finally be rid of pain. The young man…

  • Paul Dudley White

    Philip R. LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States In September 1955 President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a myocardial infarction. Dr. Paul Dudley White (1886–1973) was called in to attend to him. For a time, Dr. White was probably the most famous cardiologist in the US because of his attendance to the president. A noted photograph of him at…