Episode 2 of 2

Public Demonstration of Ether Anesthesia

Name: Public Demonstration of Ether Anesthesia
Start: 1846-10-16
Location: Ether Dome

When: 16 October 1846
Where: Ether Dome
Part of: William T. G. Morton demonstrates ether anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital

Morton publicly demonstrated ether anesthesia at MGH, enabling painless tumor removal by surgeon Warren.

On 16 October 1846, Morton administered diethyl ether to Edward Gilbert Abbott. MGH Chief of Surgery John Collins Warren subsequently removed a tumor from Abbott's neck painlessly. This event, arranged by Henry Jacob Bigelow, took place in the Ether Dome and established Morton's reputation.

Sources

Massachusetts General Hospital Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-31
History of general anesthesia Wikipedia
William T. G. Morton Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-10

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.