The Boston Globe, October 16th, 1996
It's just about impossible for people living in 1996 to imagine a world without anesthesia. But we should try, however briefly and terrifyingly, joining Massachusetts General Hospital in its three- day celebration of today's 50th anniversary of the first public demonstration of ether, the medical miracle of 1846. Surgery 150 years ago was not medicine -- it was torture. Patients were strapped to a table, held down by a half-dozen people, given as much opium or alcohol as they could stand and then ripped open. The surgeon was valued for his speed -- a limb amputation took less than two minutes....
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