An Ether Monument?

While wandering the Boston Common last month, I saw a picturesque monument dedicated to ether. I was surprised to see a monument for ether, a colorless liquid that causes unconsciousness and has hypnotic effects. I thought of ether as a popular recreational drug from the 19^th century, hardly something worth a memorializing with a statue.

The momument

It ends up that ether has been around for a while, it was discovered in 1275, and has been used for a few different purposes. The monument also has quite a history.

In the 1840s, a practicing dentist from Boston who never managed to finish medical school experimented with different drugs to use as anesthetics. This man was William Morton and he tried everything - from alcohol to opium- to lessen his patients’ pain. Alcohol was largely ineffective and opium had too many side effects. After seeing his former business partner Horace Wells’ limited success with nitrous oxide as a staple anesthetic, Morton decided to experiment with ether.

First Morton tried topical application of ether, which reduced the pain but didn’t end it completely. Next he experimented with inhalation of a mixture of ether and opium, which also wasn’t ideal. Last of all he tried inhalation of pure ether, and this was the winner. After inhaling ether, the patient went unconscious and felt no pain whatsoever during the operation. Ether is transmitted to the blood stream through the lungs so the effect is almost instantaneous. Ether’s influence tends to only last about half an hour, unlike opium. (One patient of Morton’s didn’t recover from the opium used during her operation for a week!)

Boston Common

After his success with ether, Morton developed a special device for ether inhalation he called a “letheon inhaler.” In 1846 Morton removed Gilbert Abbott’s vascular tumor in his jaw at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s operating theatre. Morton administered ether, and Abbott felt no pain throughout the operation.

People were impressed with the remarkable success of ether and in 1866, Thomas Lee, a retired merchant, suggested that the city of Boston build a monument on the Boston Common dedicated to the first use of ether as an anesthetic in 1846. The city agreed and the monument still stands there to this day.

Me in front of the ether monument

While Morton was adamant that he was the first person to use ether as an anesthetic, this may have not actually been the case. Ether began being used in medical treatment in 1794, and was widely used for recreational purposes in the 1800s. Morton spent most of his life in disputes with medical men about ether use. I would guess that Morton probably wasn’t the first one to use ether as an anesthetic, though he did popularize its use. Thankfully he did! Imagine surgery without anesthesia – it would be extremely painful. While ether isn’t used as an anesthetic anymore, Morton’s work no doubt helped anesthetics become a staple during medical operations, and that is well worth a memorial.