Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations

by Arnold van de Laar

The first operation performed under general anaesthesia had, at that time, been performed seven years earlier, on 16 October 1846, at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, United States. A dentist called William Morton had anaesthetised a patient called Edward Abbott, by getting him to inhale ether, diethyl ether to be exact. Abbott had a tumour in his neck that had to be removed. While he was asleep, a surgeon called John Warren cut the tumour out. Everything went well, the patient had felt nothing and simply woke up after the operation. Warren was very impressed, uttering the historic, if understated, words ‘Gentlemen, this is no humbug.’ It was a turning point in the history of surgery.