On October 16, 1846, a new era for surgery began in the Operating Theatre of the Massachusetts General Hospital. The first public demonstration was given of anaesthesia to the extent of producing insensibility to pain during a serious surgical operation.

Sulfuric ether was administered by William Thomas Green Morton, A Boston dentist. The patient was Gilbert Abbott. The operation was the removal of a tumor under the jaw. The surgeon was John Collins Warren. The Patient declared that he had felt no pain during the operation and was discharged well December 7.

Robert Hinckley's painting, "The First Operation with Ether," on display at the Countway Library of Medicine, Boston MA

In 1847 James Young Simpson, a Scottish obstetrician, used chloroform as an anesthetic for childbirth.  In 1853, John Snow convinced Queen Victoria’s physicians to allow him to use chloroform anesthesia in the delivery of her son, Prince Leopold. The delivery was successful, and with the Queen’s blessing, chloroform use in childbirth became firmly established.  See:

http://www.womenshealthpc.com/07_05/pdfs/304Photohistory.pdf

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http://placentalrespiration.net/

From the bibliography for

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