The First Patient to Undergo Ether Was a Hero

Here the most sublime scene ever witnessed in the operating room was presented when the patient placed himself voluntarily upon the table, which was to become the altar of future fame. … The heroic bravery of the man who voluntarily placed himself upon the table, a subject for the surgeon’s knife, should be recorded and his name enrolled upon parchment, which should be hung upon the walls of the surgical amphitheatre in which the operation was performed. His name was Gilbert Abbott.

Logan Clendening, Source Book of Medical History (1960-06-01)

• bravery
• experimentation
• hero
• history
• patient