Anesthesia History
1842 - On March 30, Dr. Crawford W. Long administered the first anesthetic using ether in Jefferson, Georgia, a small community 60 miles northeast of Atlanta. However, this event was not publicized.
Hardie Gramatky, artist1844 - On December 11, Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist, inhaled nitrous oxide while a fellow dentist painlessly extracted one of Dr. Well's teeth. However, Dr. Wells' attempt to produce anesthesia using nitrous oxide at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1845 failed and the use of nitrous oxide for medical purposes fell into disrepute.
Hardie Gramatky, artist1846 - On Friday, October 16, Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a dentist from Harford, Connecticut, and Dr. Well's partner, administered ether to Mr. Gilbert Abbott for the removal of a tumor by the well-known surgeon Dr. John C. Warren at Massachusetts General Hospital . An account of this event appeared in the Boston Daily Journal the next day.
1847 - Dr. James Y. Simpson, a highly respected obstetrician in England, administered ether to a mother during labor. However, it wasn't until Dr. John Snow, another English physician, administered chloroform to Queen Victoria during the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853 that obstetrical analgesia gained public acceptance. Dr. Snow was the first physician to devote his medical practice to the administration of anesthetics, making him the first anesthesiologist.
Anesthesia as a medical specialty evolved differently in England and the USA. Chloroform, initially the standard anesthetic in England, required great skills in its administration. As a result, only physicians were considered competent to administer chloroform. In contrast, ether remained the dominant anesthetic in the USA for many years. Because ether was safer to administer than chloroform, its administration was often relegated to an inexperienced physician or nurse. Because of the development of better anesthetics, neither ether or chloroform are commonly used anywhere in the world today. However, the administration of anesthesia by either an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist is a practice unique to the USA.
1887 - Sister Mary Bernard, a Catholic nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, was the first nurse known to have specialized in anesthesia.
1904 - First department of anesthesia in the United States established at the New York Medical College under Dr. Thomas D. Buchanan
1905 - The Long Island Society of Anesthetists, later renamed the American Society of Anesthesiologists, was founded.
1923 - Mary A. Ross, M.D. became the first postgraduate trainee in anesthesiology in the United States, received her certificate from the University of Iowa following a year of training after graduation from medical school.
1931 - The National Association of Nurse Anesthetists, later renamed the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, was founded.
1938 - The American Board of Anesthesiology was founded.