E – Ether

Ether bottle, circa 1930. Mallinckrodt Chemichal Works Schimmelbusch-type anesthetic mask, 20th century.

Ether is a colorless and highly flammable liquid, which when vaporized into a gas can be used to numb pain. The first known use of ether as a general anesthetic for surgery was in 1842 in Georgia, and the first public demonstration of the use of ether in surgery happened very close to here – at the Masschusetts General Hospital surgical amphitheater, famously known as the “Ether dome,” on October 16, 1846 by Boston dentist William T.G. Morton. By the end of the 19th century, ether was popularly used as an anesthetic, alongside chloroform. Freeman Allen is listed in 1903 as Boston Children’s Hospital’s first known anesthetist. 

Administration of ether as anesthesia using Schimmelbusch mask, circa 1950

Early administration of anesthesia was given through inhalation – generally placing drops of ether on cloth and placing it over the patient’s mouth to inhale. The Schimmelbusch mask was developed in 1889 and used well into the 1950s. The wire bed would be covered in gauze which would have ether dripped onto it, and kept ether from coming into contact with the patient’s skin, which could cause irritation. 

A major problem early pediatric anesthetists faced was that such equipment was designed for adults and not children. Too much space in the masks increased rebreathing especially in infants, where more carbon dioxide is inhaled than oxygen. Betty Lank, CRNA, who became Chief Nurse Anesthetist at Boston Children’s in the 1930s, worked with hospital engineer Geoffrey Dykes to construct masks and blood pressure cuffs of her design sized specifically for children and infants. The improvements were simple but effective enough for the delivery of anesthesia to smaller patients that it was taken to the public market by the Foregger Company by 1940. 

Betty Lank, CRNA, circa 1950

Lank introduced Boston Children’s and the wider field of pediatric surgery to the successful use of cyclopropane as an anesthetic for children in 1939. During her time at Boston Children’s she administered anesthesia for over 16,000 procedures, including historically significant surgeries like the first successful correction of patent ductus arteriosis. See letter ‘H’ for “Heart” in this exhibit for more on this groundbreaking procedure.