Early Anesthesia

Bigelow, Henry Jacob

SURGICAL OPERATIONS PERFORMED DURING INSENSIBILITY Produced by the Inhalation of Sulphuric Ether (Communicated by Francis Boott, M. D.) [ Anesthesia Anaesthesia ]

Lancet 1847. [1]-26 pages complete. An extract from a bound volume, with a thin white tape applied to the spine. The stamp of "The Lancet Newspaper One Penny" partially obscuring the first paragraph of the article. Ex-library Hennepin County Medical Society Library, properly withdrawn. Near Fine. Disbound. [18181]


"Morton gave his first public demonstration of the value of ether in a surgical operation carried out by John Collins Warren at the Massachusetts General Hospital on 16 October 1846." The first publication of the use of ether in a surgical operation (a keystone in the history of surgical anaesthesia) was published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in November 1846. There were several American reprints in the next month, each with minor changes. Jacob Bigelow (the father of JH Bigelow) wrote on 28 November to Francis Boott of London, enclosing the text of the first publication.

The article offered here, published in The Lancet, January 2, 1847, was the first British reprinting of the initial announcement and included both Bigelow's letter and the original paper. Appended was a letter from Robert Liston on his use of ether during an amputation of the knee. This records the first operation under ether anesthesia in Europe, conducted a mere 2 days after Liston learned of the procedure. (Centennial of Surgical Anesthesia, Fulton & Stanton, IV-5).

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