Charles Bulfinch; George Perkins; Alexander Parris
Architectural style
Greek Revival
NRHP reference No.
66000366[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP
October 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHL
January 12, 1965[2]
The Ether Dome is a surgical operating amphitheater in the Bulfinch Building at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, United States. It served as the hospital's operating room from its opening in 1821 until 1867. It was the site of the first public demonstration of the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic on October 16, 1846, otherwise known as Ether Day. Crawford Long, a surgeon in Georgia, had previously administered sulfuric ether in 1842, but this went unpublished until 1849.[3][4] The Ether Dome event occurred when William Thomas Green Morton, a local dentist, used ether to anesthetize Edward Gilbert Abbott. John Collins Warren, the first dean of Harvard Medical School, then painlessly removed part of a tumor from Abbott's neck. After Warren had finished, and Abbott regained consciousness, Warren asked the patient how he felt. Reportedly, Abbott said, "Feels as if my neck's been scratched". Warren then turned to his medical audience and uttered "Gentlemen, this is no Humbug".[5][6] This was presumably a reference to the unsuccessful demonstration of nitrous oxide anesthesia by Horace Wells in the same theater the previous year, which was ended by cries of "Humbug!" after the patient groaned with pain.[7]
^ ab"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^"Ether Dome, Massachusetts General Hospital". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
^Madden, M. Leslie (May 14, 2004). "Crawford Long (1815-1878)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. University of Georgia Press. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
^"Crawford W. Long". Doctors' Day. Southern Medical Association. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
^Fenster, J. M. (2001). Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It. New York, NY: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019523-6.
^The Roots of Critical Care, Jennifer Nejman Bohonak, Massachusetts General Hospital Magazine, 2011
The EtherDome is a surgical operating amphitheater in the Bulfinch Building at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, United States. It served as the...
Diethyl ether, or simply ether, is an organic compound in the ether class with the formula C4H10O, (CH3CH2)2O or (C2H5)2O, sometimes abbreviated as Et2O...
of medicine and took place in an operating theater (now known as the EtherDome) at the Massachusetts General Hospital, home of the Harvard School of...
demonstrate the use of diethyl ether as a general anesthetic at Massachusetts General Hospital, in what is known today as the EtherDome. On 16 October 1846, John...
use of ether as a surgical anesthetic. The operation was done in an amphitheater at the Massachusetts General Hospital now known as the EtherDome on 16...
of Veterans' Affairs), was created using this language. It was in the EtherDome of MGH in October 1846, that a local dentist, William Thomas Green Morton...
referred to as "Ether Day", in the Bullfinch Auditorium at Massachusetts General Hospital, which would later be nicknamed the "EtherDome", New England...
operating theater of the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. The 1821 EtherDome of the Massachusetts General Hospital is still in use as a lecture hall...
Gilbert Abbott. This occurred in the surgical amphitheater now called the EtherDome. The previously skeptical Warren was impressed and stated, "Gentlemen...
operating theater at MGH where the experiment took place was renamed the EtherDome. It is now a National Historic Landmark. Several books have been written...
Anatomical Museum". Harvard Medical School. Retrieved 13 September 2018. "The EtherDome at Mass General". Massachusetts General Hospital. Retrieved 22 October...
demonstration was performed in the surgical amphitheater now called the EtherDome at Harvard. Massachusetts General Hospital views the demonstration as...
Hyde.[citation needed] A full-length theatrical production, entitled EtherDome, written by Elizabeth Egloff and directed by Michael Wilson centers around...
dioxide scrubber – Device which absorbs carbon dioxide from circulated gas EtherDome – Historic surgical operating amphitheater History of general anesthesia...
Nails Scattered on the Ground, (New York: New Directions, 1986). The EtherDome and Other Poems New and Selected, (1979–1990) (New York: New Directions...
Lancaster, Massachusetts (1815–1817); and the Bulfinch Building, home of the EtherDome at Massachusetts General Hospital (1818), its completion overseen by Alexander...
16: First public demonstration of the use of inhaled ether as a surgical anesthetic, EtherDome. J.B. Fitzpatrick becomes Catholic bishop of Boston. John...
Rajiv Joseph, 2011 A Weekend with Pablo Picasso by Herbert Siguenza, 2011 EtherDome by Elizabeth Egloff, 2011 Fool by Theresa Rebeck, 2014 Syncing Ink by...
publicly to demonstrate the use of diethyl ether as a general anesthetic in what becomes known as the EtherDome of Massachusetts General Hospital. December...
DiPietro and David Bryan The Orphan of Zhao, adapted by James Fenton EtherDome by Elizabeth Egloff Kingdom City by Sheri Wilner The Hunchback of Notre...
Monobenzone, also called 4-(Benzyloxy)phenol and monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone (MBEH) is an organic chemical in the phenol family with chemical formula...
Capitol Building, Parris helped complete the Bulfinch Building home of the EtherDome at Massachusetts General Hospital. With Bulfinch's departure, Parris soon...
reviewed and served on. [citation needed] Hoffmann, Stephen A. Under the EtherDome: A Physician's Apprenticeship at Massachusetts General Hospital. New York:...
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