Boston. Oct. 16th, 1846, Dr. William T.G. Morton provided convincing proof that painless surgery is possible. Dr. Morton, a dentist and student at Harvard Medical School, used ether gas to render a patient unconscious so that a facial tumor could be removed in a historic operation at Massachusetts General Hospital.
As people found safer and more effective anesthetics, ether declined in its usage as surgery anesthetic, and they are no longer used in surgery today.
