Ether Monument (Boston, Massachusetts)

USA / Massachusetts / Somerville / Boston, Massachusetts
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Seen here obscured by trees is the Ether Monument in the northwest corner of the Boston Public Garden. It commemorates the first public demonstration of ether as an anesthetic in the Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846. The monument names neither WTG Morton who performed this demonstration or Charles Jackson who claimed its use was his idea. The two men each claimed discovery and quarreled till their deaths. The monument was financed by Thomas Lee, and is the world's only monument to a drug.
The production of the monument was the work of Boston architect William Robert Ware and sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward. Presented to Boston in 1868, it is the oldest monument in the public garden. It was refurbished in 2006.

The four faces have the following inscriptions:
* "To commemorate that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to pain. First proved to the world at the Mass. General Hospital in Boston, October A.D. MDCCCXLVI".
* "This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful and excellent in working. Isaiah."
* "In gratitude for the relief of human suffering by the inhaling of ether a citizen of Boston has erected this monument A.D. MDCCCLXVII."
* "Neither shall there be any more pain. Rev."
The Biblical quotations are from Isaiah 28:29 and Revelation 21:4. The roman numeral dates are 1846 and 1867.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ether_Monument
dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0008105.htm
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Coordinates:   42°21'17"N   71°4'17"W
This article was last modified 16 years ago