Who first used ether successfully as a general surgical anesthetic in public?

William T. G. Morton first used ether successfully as a general surgical anesthetic in public.

On 16 October 1846, Morton demonstrated ether anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Surgeon John Collins Warren removed a tumor from the neck of a patient named Edward Abbott while Abbott remained unconscious and did not respond to the operation. The event became known as the Ether Dome demonstration.

Morton had developed an inhalation device called the Letheon and sought to keep the anesthetic mixture secret. The demonstration quickly attracted international attention because it showed that major surgery could be performed without the patient experiencing the usual pain.

Crawford Long had used ether in surgery in Georgia in 1842, but he did not publish his work until after Morton’s public demonstration. Horace Wells explored nitrous oxide, while James Simpson introduced chloroform into obstetric practice.