From then on , patients used opium ( the milky latex derived from a poppy flower that contains morphine ), alcohol , or just simply had to bite down hard to deal with the torturous pain that came with surgery . This would all change on October 16th of 1846 when William T . G . Morton became the first person in the world to successfully use anesthesia in surgery . Morton was a dentist that worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston . He used sulfuric ether on patient Edward Gilbert Abbott to make his vascular tumour removal pain-free . One of his colleagues , Dr . Howard Markel wrote that Morton had begun
“ buying ether from a chemist and exposed himself and pets to the fumes ” before feeling confident enough to use it on patients . This successful surgery led to wealth and prosperity for William Morton who even went on to looking at nitrous oxide ( laughing gas ) with dentist Horace Wells in 1845 . But we are getting ahead of ourselves , I haven ’ t even told you what sulphuric ether is …
By Jonathan Borba