Ether Dome - Boston, MA - Roadside Attractions on Waymarking.com

The first public surgery using anesthetic took place at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 in a room now called the Ether Dome. The Ether Dome Amphitheater was the Massachusetts General Hospital's operating room from 1821 until 1867. On October 16, 1846, the Boston dentist William Thomas Green Morton was the first person to use inhaled ether to anesthetize Edward Gilbert Abbott. This enabled the Dean of the Harvard Medical School, John Collins Warren, to painlessly removed a tumor from Abbott's neck. Afterwards the patient felt only as if his neck had been scratched; in contrast to a less than successful attempt by Horace Wells, the previous year, to use nitrous oxide. Before 1846 this site was simply called the surgical amphitheater. After 1846 it became known as the Ether Dome.

Originally, lighting was solely by natural sunlight, hence the purpose of the copper sheathed dome on the building. The room itself had seven tiers of wooden amphitheater seating. In 1849, gas lanterns were introduced to the operating site and late in the 19th century electrical lights were installed. In 1956 new light fixtures and motorized louvers were added to the skylight and all the windows were replaced. The dome and cupola are now lit by a ring of lights at the base of the cupola. The Ether Dome was used as a storage area until 1873, a dormitory until 1889, a dining room for nurses until 1892, and is now used as a conference room and teaching amphitheater.

In 1966 the Ether Dome was placed on the National Register of Historic places. A plaque that describes the events of October 16, 1846 is inscribed:

On October 16, 1846 in this room, then the Operating Theatre of the
Hospital, was given the first public demonstration of
Anaesthesia to the extent of producing insensitivity to pain
during a serious surgical operation.

Sulphuric 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.

Knowledge of this discovery spread from this room throughout
the civilized world and a new era for surgery began.

The Ether Dome is on the fourth floor of the Bulfinch Building, Massachusetts General Hospital at 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA. Among the artifacts in the Ether Dome are: a painting of the operation, a statue of Apollo - casted in the Louvre in Paris, France and given to the Massachusetts General Hospital in March 1845 by Edward Everett, an Egyptian mummy, the mummy's coffin, a case displaying 19th century surgical instruments.

Hours and Admission
Monday – Friday
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Closed during faculty meetings
Admission: Free