The first experiences with ether anaesthesia in Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk 1847

A search through the files of a local newspaper, the Cambridge Chronicle, has brought to light in numerous references to ether anaesthesia during the years 1847 and 1848. From this and other sources it has been possible to establish that the first operation under ether was performed at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge on 2 January 1847, only 12 days after Liston's well known demonstration in London. By 13 March over fifty operations under ether had been successfully carried out at this hospital. The first experiences with ether at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk are also described. It is suggested that much material important in determining the extent to which the practice of anaesthesia was rapidly adopted in the English provinces awaits the historian in the local newspaper, since the early experiences with anaesthesia were often not recorded in the Minute Books of hospital committees, and indeed, often took place outside the hospitals.