<P> While attending undergraduate school in Rochester, New York, in 1839, classmates Clarke and Morton apparently participated in ether frolics with some regularity . In January 1842, by now a medical student at Berkshire Medical College, Clarke administered ether to a Miss Hobbie, while Elijah Pope performed a dental extraction . In so doing, he became the first to administer an inhaled anesthetic to facilitate the performance of a surgical procedure . Clarke apparently thought little of his accomplishment, and chose neither to publish nor to pursue this technique any further . Indeed, this event is not even mentioned in Clarke's biography . </P> <P> Crawford W. Long was a physician and pharmacist practicing in Jefferson, Georgia in the mid-19th century . During his time as a student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the late 1830s, he had observed and probably participated in the ether frolics that had become popular at that time . At these gatherings, Long observed that some participants experienced bumps and bruises, but afterward had no recall of what had happened . He postulated that diethyl ether produced pharmacologic effects similar to those of nitrous oxide . On 30 March 1842, he administered diethyl ether by inhalation to a man named James Venable, in order to remove a tumor from the man's neck . Long later removed a second tumor from Venable, again under ether anesthesia . He went on to employ ether as a general anesthetic for limb amputations and parturition . Long, however, did not publish his experience until 1849, thereby denying himself much of the credit he deserved . </P> <P> On 10 December 1844, Gardner Quincy Colton held a public demonstration of nitrous oxide in Hartford, Connecticut . One of the participants, Samuel A. Cooley, sustained a significant injury to his leg while under the influence of nitrous oxide without noticing the injury . Horace Wells, a Connecticut dentist present in the audience that day, immediately seized upon the significance of this apparent analgesic effect of nitrous oxide . The following day, Wells underwent a painless dental extraction while under the influence of nitrous oxide administered by Colton . Wells then began to administer nitrous oxide to his patients, successfully performing several dental extractions over the next couple of weeks . </P> <P> William T.G. Morton, another New England dentist, was a former student and then - current business partner of Wells . He was also a former acquaintance and classmate of William Edward Clarke (the two had attended undergraduate school together in Rochester, New York). Morton arranged for Wells to demonstrate his technique for dental extraction under nitrous oxide general anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital, in conjunction with the prominent surgeon John Collins Warren . This demonstration, which took place on 20 January 1845, ended in failure when the patient cried out in pain in the middle of the operation . </P>

When was ether last used as an anesthetic