Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818-1890): Facilitator of General Anesthesia

Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818-1890) qualified in Medicine at Harvard and was appointed Surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1847 and to the Chair of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in 1849. His international reputation was earned by two operations he developed, namely the treatment of hip dislocation and litholapaxy. Perhaps even more important to the practice of surgery was his role in facilitating the introduction of ether anesthesia. A dentist, William Morton (1819-1868), had used ether for the painless extraction of teeth. Through Bigelow's influence, Morton was given the opportunity to use ether for more advanced surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. There, the leg of a patient was successfully amputated on November 7, 1846. Henry Bigelow published the first full account of ether in major surgery on November 18, 1846, while not even being in the surgical team and before his own Professor, John Collins Warren. Despite the slowness of others, he ensured that ether was used continuously in Massachusetts General Hospital, championing its use and supporting the claim of William Morton as the discoverer of anesthesia.