The word anesthesia was first introduced by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1846, four weeks following the first demonstration of ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital.   Holmes, a doctor, taught anatomy and physiology at Harvard Medical School.   He went on to become dean of Harvard Medical School.

Ether was demonstrated as a means of rendering a patient unconscious and free from surgical pain.  He derived this english word from the Greek word anaisthesis, which means insensibility or loss of sensation with or without the loss of consciousness.

This is described in a letter to William T. G. Morton, the dentist who performed this demonstration:

Boston, Nov 21, 1846

Dr. Morton:-

My Dear Sir, -Everybody wants to have a hand in the great discovery.  All I will do is give you a hint or two as to names, or the name, to be applied to the state produced, and to the agent.

The state should, I think, be called anæsthesia.   This signifies insensibility, more particularly (as used by Linnaus and Cullen) to objects of touch.   The adjective will be anæsthetic.  Thus we might say, the "state of anæsthesia", or the "anæsthetic state."   The means employed would be properly called the "anti-anæsthetic agent."  Perhaps it might be allowable to say "anæsthetic agent"; but this admits of question.

The words anti-neuric, aneuric, neuro-leptic, neuro-lepsia, neuro-stasis, seem too anatomical; whereas the change is a physiological one.   I throw these out for consideration.

I would have a name pretty soon, and consult some accomplished scholar such as President Everett, or Dr. Bigelow, Sr., before fixing upon the terms which will be repeated by the tongues of every civilized race of mankind.   You could mention these words which I suggest, for their consideration; but there may be others more appropriate and agreeable.

Yours respectfully,

O.W. HOLMES

In modern times, general anesthesia can be clinically defined by four criteria: amnesia (loss of recall for the event), analgesia (insensibility to pain), hypnosis (unconsciousness), and muscle relaxation.   In other words, anesthesia is produced throughout the entire body.   Conduction or regional anesthesia typically involves the injection of an local anesthetic agent close to a nerve(s) to provide analgesia to a specific area of the body without the loss of consciousness.   When small amounts of medication is given by the anesthetist to sedate or relax the patient for a minor procedure or during regional anesthesia, it is termed monitored anesthesia care or MAC.

	A photograph taken of William T. G. Morton, who is standing in the upper right section of the photograph.   He appears to be instructing a colleague in the administration the anesthesia.  (Possibility that Morton is the one administering the anesthesia).   Dr. John C. Warren is on the right, with his hands on the patient's leg.   Photograph was probably taken at the Massachusetts General Hospital shortly after Morton's demonstration of ether. More on this photograph from Wikipedia section on Southworth & Hawes: "On the evening of September 30, 1846, Mr. Eben Frost, suffering from a violent toothache, called upon Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, of No. 19 Tremont Row, Boston, whose office happened to share the same address as the Southworth & Hawes (photography) studio.  Dr. Morton administered ether and extracted the tooth. Less than three weeks later, the so-called "Death of Pain" took place on October 16, when Dr. Morton etherized a patient before Dr. John Collins Warren, senior surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital, removed a tumor from his neck.  To commemorate this historic and momentous event, Southworth & Hawes were asked to daguerreotype the operation; however Hawes was squeamish about the blood, and they photographed a re-enactment instead.  On April 3, 1847, Southworth & Hawes were called upon to record an actual operation, again with the patient under ether.  Later Dr. Warren presented his Laundy scalpel and probe, the surgical instruments he used in the first operation, to Hawes in gratitude for recording the operations.  Three or four weeks later, they documented Dr. Warren yet again. In honor of his ether discovery, and of his distinguished career as professor of anatomy at Harvard Medical School, they arranged and composed a mock anatomy dissection, with the principal subject being Dr. Warren himself."
Another picture of an operation at Massachusetts General Hospital.   I have no information on the daguerreotype, however, if you look closely, it appears to be the same doctors and patient.   This may have been a second daguerreotype taken at the same place and time.   Once again, it appears that Dr. John C. Warren is on the right, with his hand on the patient's lower left leg.
Picture of an operation at Massachusetts General Hospital in the mid-1800s.   Description of photograph read "Early operation upon a woman under ether at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston."  Again, it appears that Dr. John C. Warren is on the right, with his hand on the patient's lower left leg.  Same Operating Room in above pictures; notice same chair in right side.

Horatio Robinson Storer, M.D., (1830-1922) a leader in obsterics and gynecology, wrote in 1863 that he would have expected the term "Eutokia" to become a similarly commonplace name for anesthesia during childbirth.  However, Storer recommened the use of choloform, particularly to eliminate the "Agony" of childbirth, but later even for general surgery.   Choloroform had been discovered in 1847 by his Edinburgh mentor, James Young Simpson.  Storer's praise for choloform angered the Boston physicians who praised the use of ether.

An operation in Yezo Hospital, Persia, circa 1910.  Note anesthetist at head of patient administering ether.  Courtesy of the Zwerdling Nursing Archives.

Copyright © 1998-2006 Thomas J. Evans, CRNA, MS