title: The Introduction of General Anesthesia in Germany

abstract

SEVENTY years after the American people gained their freedom and independence, the young republic achieved a greater triumph for all mankind, liberation from the century-old, invincible tyranny of operative pain. October 16, 1846 will therefore always be a memorable day: for the first time an operation was performed in a great hospital under general anesthesia.\ The news went from Boston to England. On December 18, 1846, the •London Medical Gazette reported the operation at the Massachusetts Gen eral Hospital. Three days later, at.the University College Hospital in London, Liston amputated the thigh of a man who, upon inhaling the vapors of sulphuric ether, could stand the operation without feeling pain.