nPosted October 16, 2019
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Key Points
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nToday is the anniversary of a medical revolution: the use of anesthesia during surgery.
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nWell, that makes it sound like it was the first-ever use of anesthesia – but it wasn’t. However, it was the first successful and widely publicized operation using anesthesia.
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nIt’s the operation that spread the very occasional experiment of using ether or nitrous oxide as anesthesia nationwide and soon worldwide.
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nWhen: October 16, 1846
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nWhere: Boston, Massachusetts
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nWho: Dr. John Collins Warren
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nResults: Almost immediately Dr. Warren’s use of ether as anesthesia during surgery was copied successfully. News spread quickly. Just a few months after this operation, ether was being used by surgeons in Europe, and within a year it was being used in battlefields in the Mexican War.
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nWhat is ether?
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nIn organic chemistry, ether is a kind of compound. All ethers have a certain structure: an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups – groups of carbons and hydrogen atoms.
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nOne of chemistry’s ethers is the substance we use as an anesthesia: diethyl ether (often called simply “ether”). It looks a bit like this:
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nCH3–CH2–O–CH2–CH3
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nBack in the day, some young people had “ether riots,” which were actually parties during which guests breathed in ether gas and then lost all inhibitions.
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By the way, ether (sometimes spelled aether) is also a term that refers to a very thin, invisible substance people used to think filled “empty” space between planets and the Sun and so forth.
By the way, ether (sometimes spelled aether) is also a term that refers to a very thin, invisible substance people used to think filled “empty” space between planets and the Sun and so forth. n
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nIt was sometimes considered the fifth element, after earth, water, air, and fire.
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AND it’s associated with bitcoin; it’s been called the fuel that powers the cryptocurrency network!
AND it’s associated with bitcoin; it’s been called the fuel that powers the cryptocurrency network!n
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nDictionary Day
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nWorld Food Day
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nnNational Feral Cat Day
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nAnniversary of Parliament burning
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nAnniversary of the publication of the first Narnia book
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National Fossil Day
National Fossil Day
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n(Wednesday of the second full week of October)
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nHagfish Day
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n(Third Wednesday in October)
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nPlan ahead:
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nCheck out my Pinterest boards for:
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nNovember holidays
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nNovember birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in November
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