Season 4, Episode 3: "Neither Shall There Be Any More Pain"

Warren and Lucia Prosperi; courtesy of MGH
Image 1 courtesy of Sam Hurwitz

In this episode, we visit the Bulfinch Building at the Massachusetts General Hospital to examine one of the most, if not the most, significant discoveries in modern medicine. Sarah Alger, the Director of the Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation, shows us the hospital's Ether Dome where the first public surgery using an anesthetic was performed. Back at the MHS, we sit down with Chief Historian Peter Drummey and Curator of Art and Artifacts Emerita Anne Bentley to learn more about the contentious history of this innovation.

The title of this episode comes from an inscription on the Ether Monument in the Boston Public Garden. To learn more about the monument, please visit this page.

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Episode transcript

Episode Special Guest:

Sarah Alger is the George and Nancy Putnam Director of Mass General Hospital’s Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation. She was a founding editor of Proto, a thought leadership publication that was sponsored by MGH for 17 years.

This episode uses materials from:

The Bond (Instrumental) by Chad Crouch (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)       
Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)       
Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)

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