Did you know, that Boston dentist William T. G. Morton utilized anesthesia for the first time in 1846?!

In 1844, Morton attended a lecture by Charles L. Jackson, a chemistry professor at Harvard University, to learn more about the physical or pharmacological qualities of sulfur ether. After a successful attempt in 1846, he dubbed his creation as „Lethe”, after the goddess of oblivion and forgetfulness of pain, in Greek mythology.

Morton then began acquiring sulfur ether from a local chemist and tested it on himself or animals. Experiments have established the safety and dependability of anesthesia, thus the inventor dentist began actively using Lethe in the patients. Soon, the number of patients at a Boston doctor's office grew to the point that he thought Lethe could be used for more than simply tooth extraction.

Nitrogen oxide for anesthetic, the so-called „laughing gas”, was invented a year before this fact, in 1845, which did not sit well with some patients, and its medical use was soon prohibited.