There has been considerable controversy over who first discovered anesthesia, Crawford Long, William Morton, and John Snow, but it is certain that William T. G. Morton first publicly displayed its usefulness in surgery. The introduction of ether as an anesthetic was a great aid to the advancement of surgery and relief to patients all over the world.
“Ether Day,” Friday 16 October 1846 marks the first successful demonstration of the inhalation of ether vapour as a means of overcoming pain of surgery by the dentist William Thomas Green Morton (1819–1868) at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston USA.