Picture this: It's the early 19th century, and the world of surgery is a grim and gruesome place. Doctors utilise scalpels, patients howl in agony, and the entire operating theatre looks like a scene out of a horror movie. Enter the unsung hero, who brought the gift of pain-free surgery with a side of hilarity – anaesthesia! The story begins with nitrous oxide, a gas which happens to cause fits of uncontrollable laughter when inhaled. In the early 1800s, a showman named Gardner Quincy Colton took this laughing gas to the stage, creating laughing spectacles and chuckles aplenty. But who would've thought that giggles would pave the way to medical marvels? Attending one of Colton's laughing gas demonstrations, Dr Wells had an epiphany: what if this gas could be used to dull the agony of tooth extractions and surgeries? He invited a fellow dentist, John Riggs, to be his guinea pig. With an audience of onlookers, Wells delivered nitrous oxide and boldly attempted to extract one of Riggs' teeth. The result? Well, it was a mixed bag. Onlookers reported that Riggs didn't exactly burst into fits of laughter. Instead, he whimpered in pain, and the experiment went down in history as a bit of a mulligan. But don't worry; Wells was just getting started. Fast forward to 1846 and a dentist named William T.G. Morton. A man who was clearly inspired by Wells (and maybe wished for greater fiscal ability) tried to refine Dr Wells method. But instead of laughing gas, he chose ether – a more potent, and less humorous substance. Morton partnered with Dr. John Warren, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. In October 1846, Morton administered ether to a patient named Gilbert Abbott. As Abbott drifted into unconsciousness, Warren performed surgery on Abbott's neck to remove a tumour. When Abbott awoke, he declared that he felt no pain during the procedure. Success! Morton's grand demonstration made quite the splash in the medical world, and ether became the anaesthetic of choice for surgeries. A new dynasty of painless surgery and medicine had arisen!