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Anästhesiol Intensivmed Notfallmed Schmerzther 2013; 48(10): 648-651
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1358630
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© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Ether Day – no laughing matter – Die Geburtsstunde der modernen Anästhesie

Ether Day – no laughing matter. The birth of modern anaesthesia
Michael Goerig
,
Hinnerk Wulf
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Publication History

Publication Date:
05 November 2013 (online)

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Zusammenfassung

Die erste öffentliche Demonstration der anästhetischen Eigenschaften des Äthers durch William Thomas Green Morton am Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston am 16. Oktober 1846 wird seit Jahrzehnten weltweit als „Ether Day“ gefeiert. Nicht überraschend verbreitete sich die Kunde der zunächst als „Yankee Erfindung“ bezeichneten segensreichen Methode rasch über alle Kontinente. Hierzu kam es durch den am 18. November 1847 von Henry Jacob Bigelow im Boston Medical andSurgical Journal (heute New England Journal of Medicin) veröffentlichten Artikel. Dieserwar allerdings erst dann geschrieben worden, nachdem Morton am 7. November im Hörsaal des Krankenhauses gezwungenermaßen bekannt gegeben hatte, dass es sich bei seinem zunächst von ihm als „Preparation“, später auch als „Nostrum“ und „Letheon“ bezeichneten Narkotikum in Wirklichkeit um Äther handelte. Jahrelange Patent- und Prioritätsstreitereien überschatteten später diese wichtige Entdeckung. Nach Einschätzung der Leserschaft des New England Journal of Medicineist dieser Bericht über die erste Äthernarkose die bedeutendste Publikation in der über 200-jährigen Geschichte des Journals.

Summary

Since centuries the first public demonstration of the anaesthetic properties of ether by William Thomas Green Morton at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on October 16th 1846 is celebrated as “Ether Day” world-wide. The news of the beneficial effects, primarily disposed as a “Yankee Invention”, spread over all continents quickly. This was the result of an article, published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal on November 18th, 1846. It is mentioning worth that this article was written when Morton had disclosed that the used “preparation”, later named as “Nostrum” or Letheon”, was sulphuric ether. The important discovery later became a patent case and was overshadowed by a long lasting priority claim. Nevertheless the readers of the New England Journal of Medicine voted in a survey that this article was the most important publication in the 200 years journals history ever.

Schlüsselwörter:

Ether Day - Weltanästhesietag - Äthernarkose - Anästhesie - Morton

Key words:

Ether Day - ether anaesthesia - Morton

Ergänzendes Material

 

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