Ether Monument, Side Panel – Public Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

Today a monument to ether may seem strange, but for those living in the nineteenth century the drug was nothing short of a miracle. "The greatest invention for humanity since the printing press," one contemporary wrote. Imagine having a tooth pulled without Novocain, a tumor removed without general anesthesia, or a leg amputated with only a bullet to bite. Then you can understand why private citizen Thomas Lee paid handsomely ($6,300 for the statuary alone) to publicly commemorate the first etherized operation, which took place in Boston in 1846. On October 16 of that year, dentist Thomas G. Morton electrified an audience of surgeons and medical students in the operating theater of Massachusetts General Hospital when he put a printer, Gilbert Abbot, to sleep. The attending surgeon then removed a tumor from the sleeping patient's neck: no thrashing, no screams, no restraint by assistants. The theater broke into cheers.

When you visit the monument, be sure to look for the four reliefs by John Quincy Adams Ward, hidden under the monument's Gothic arches. The south relief shows an operation under anesthesia; the doctors wear a mix of nineteenth century and classical costume.