A history of the Massachusetts General Hospital

Boston: John Wilson & Son, 1851. FIRST EDITION. Frontispiece plus 3 full-page illustrations, including portraits of Drs. James Jackson and John C. Warren. Publisher’s cloth, rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. A fine copy signed by the author to Dr. Ezra Palmer Jr. “with the respects of N.I. Bowditch.”. First edition, with the title page statement “not published.” Ether anesthesia was first used at this hospital five years earlier, and Bowditch includes a summary of this historic discovery. In addition, the original “Hospital report of 1848" is reprinted on pp. 215-248. Bowditch traces the origins of the Hospital, its organization and early officers, and by date develops the entire history of the great institution, including the work of and honors bestowed on Dorothea Dix. Of particular interest are various anecdotes recalled toward the end of the book.

Because of its importance, an extensive portion of the history covers the use of anesthsia. One excerpt reads, “The past year has tested the unspeakable importance of the recent discovery of the properties of Sulphuric Ether; no less than 132 operations, many of them of much severity, having been already performed with entire success on patients who had been rendered insensible through its benign influence. By overcoming all muscular and nervous resistance, it has extended the domain of surgery: making operations possible which could not have been performed, and which would not have been attempted, without its aid; and, by the removal of the fear of pain, it has greatly increased the actual number of operations. It has already become an established remedy throughout all the chief cities of Europe, and its benefits have reached even the distant natives of Singapore and of Canton.”

Bowditch (1806-1861), son of Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, was a historian and author.

See Fulton-Stanton IV.25.