--- Douglas Brinkley
The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery
and the Haunted Men Who Made It
and the Haunted Men Who Made It
August, 2001 from HarperCollins Publishers
list price: $24.00
288 pages; sixteen photographs, most never before published in a book
-- DISCOUNTED ONLINE ORDERING INFORMATION BELOW --
"A thoroughly compelling account, well told and well situated in its larger context ... Fenster balances all the various elements of the tale admirably and writes with acerbic wit."
-- Kirkus Reviews (May 15, 2001)
ETHER DAY is the unpredictable story of America's first major scientific discovery -- the use of anesthesia -- told in an absorbing narrative that traces the dawn of modern surgery through the lives of three extraordinary men.
Ironically, the "discovery" was no discovery at all: Ether and nitrous oxide have been known for more than forty years to cause insensitivity to pain, yet, with names like "laughing gas," they were used almost solely for entertainment. Meanwhile, patients still underwent operations during which they saw, heard and felt every cut the surgeon made.
With hope for relief seemingly long gone, the breakthrough finally came about by means of a combination of coincidence and character, as a cunning Boston dentist crossed paths with an inventive colleague from Hartford and a brilliant Harvard-trained physician. William Morton, Horace Wells, and Dr. Charles Jackson: a con man, a dreamer, and an intellectual. Though Wells was crushed by derision when he tried to introduce anesthetics, Morton prevailed, with help from Jackson.
The result was ETHER DAY, October 16, 1846, celebrated around the world. By that point, though, no honor was enough. Ether Day was not only the dawn of modern surgery, but the beginning of commercialized medicine as well, as Morton patented the discovery.
What followed was a battle so bitter that it sent all three men spiraling wildly out of control, at the same time that anesthetics began saving countless lives.
ETHER DAY is one of history's most remarkable untold stories.
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