Ether ball

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The ether ball is the first known instrument in medicine, especially in surgery, that could put the patient under anesthesia . Up to this point in time experimental anesthesia with cloths soaked in ether had been used . Essentially, the ether sphere consists of two openings and a large sphere in which there is a sponge soaked in ether. One opening is used to allow the patient to breathe through it, the other opening is used to supply air.

It was invented in 1846 by the dentist William Thomas Green Morton . The ether sphere was tested in the same year during a tumor operation on the neck. The patient Gilbert Abbot was put under anesthesia with the aid of the ether ball and the surgeon who carried it out, John Collins Warren , was able to begin his operation without hearing even the slightest cry of pain from the patient, to the wonder of all those present.

After the operation, the patient woke up and Warren turned to his audience and uttered the well-known saying: "Gentlemen, this is no humbug !"

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