In 1846, dentist William T.G. Morton conducted the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia during a surgical procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The highly publicized demonstration took place in a surgical theater, with the ether administered through an inhaler device, and it showed that surgery could be performed without the patient enduring massive pain. This breakthrough opened the door to much longer and more complex surgical procedures than had previously been possible.
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The event took place at Massachusetts General Hospital, a hospital still operating and still active in research today.
234 words · auto-generated from the episode video
13:21>> Uh a really important uh foundational invention. We're moving to 1846, the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia. >> Yes. This was dentist William Tg Morton. He conducted the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia during a surgical procedure at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Very famous hospital, still going, still at the forefront of research. Um, it was highly publicized. You see in the in the painting there, there's like it's it's in a stage in a surgical theater because that's why we call it a surgical theater. It used to be an actual theater where people would do surgeries and people would sit and
14:03look at what was happening. Um the the top right photo that's a photo of a bong looking thing. >> Yes, it does look like that. >> Look, I know it looks like a bong, but that's how they administered the anesthesia is like is like the guy would like breathe it in, pass out. This was huge, right? Because um now you can do surgery without massive pain. >> Yeah. Yeah. This is that enables much longer surgeries. You can you can start doing all sorts of stuff. This is huge. >> A a very very big deal. Uh we're moving to a political and legal foundation. Note in 1862 the moral land grant acts. >> Yes. Um this is the reason why the