New study on the history of anesthesiology--(11) three Japanese doctors who observed William TG Morton's ether anesthesia at the Gross Clinic in 1860

摘要

In January of 1860 the Tokugawa Shogunate dispatched a group of Japanese mission headed by Masaoki Niimi, the first ambassador, to Washington D.C. to exchange ratification of Japan-United States treaty of commerce and amity. On May 22nd the ratification was approved. They left Washington D.C. to move to Baltimore and Philadelphia to visit various sites and institutions. The Niagara sailed from New York with the Japanese mission on board on June 30th. In Philadelphia three Japanese medical doctors visited Jefferson Medical College to observe an operation of lithotomy by Dr Samuel D Gross, professor of surgery. Ether was given by Dr William TG Morton, the man that had succeeded in the public demonstration of ether anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on October 16, 1846. The doctors might have brought new information on ether anesthesia to Japan, but they only left few traces of providing the information to medical professionals in Japan.