The Semi-Centennial of Anaesthesia, October 16, 1846 - October 16, 1896

Boston: Massachusetts General Hospital, 1897. First edition.

FIRST EDITION COMMEMORATIVE VOLUME CELEBRATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST USE OF INHALATION ANESTHESIA WITH PAPERS BY LUMINARIES OF AMERICAN MEDICINE.

10 1/4 inches tall hardcover, original red cloth binding, beveled edges, gilt title to cover, expertly rebacked with gilt black leather label to spine, frontis engraving of Massachusetts General Hospital with tissue guard, commemoration invitation engraving, program of speakers, list of honorary committee members, plate depicting physicians surrounding patient, October 16, 1846, engraved portraits of J.C. Warren and William G. Morton. Bookplate of Dartmouth College Library donated in memory of Ernest H. Latham (with "discard" stamp) to front paste down, signature of H. P. Walcott to front flyleaf, florid signature of Ernest H. Latham across title page, scattered tiny check marks in margins, binding tight.

"The Most Important Article in NEJM [New England Journal of Medicine] History. Throughout the 200th anniversary year [2012] we have asked for your votes, and you have responded with a resounding favorite. Since the 1846 report from Boston surgeon Henry Jacob Bigelow, ''Insensibility during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation," so many of the significant advances we've seen rely on the use of anesthesia. It is difficult to imagine medicine today without it. If you haven't read the original report yet, it's worth taking a few minutes to travel back to the mid-nineteenth century, when Bigelow wrote, 'It has long been an important problem in medical science to devise some method of mitigating the pain of surgical operations. An efficient agent for this purpose has at length been discovered. A patient has been rendered completely insensible during an amputation of the thigh, regaining consciousness after a short interval. Other severe operations have been performed without the knowledge of the patients.' The beginning of ether anesthesia won the final round of voting against many other significant developments published in NEJM over the last two centuries."--New England Journal of Medicine, November 1st, 2012.

PROVENANCE:
ERNEST H. LATHAM (1907-1961) was a prominent physician of Lowell, MA, and alumnus of Dartmouth medical school.
H[ENRY] P[ICKERING] WALCOTT (1838-1932) was a public health luminary, having served for 28 years as chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Health and president of the American Public Health Association.