John Warren and William Morton. Historical artwork of John Warren operating on a patient who has been anaesthetised with ethyl ether by William Morton (holding a bottle at far left). The American John Collins Warren (1778-1856) was the first surgeon to successfully use ether during general surgery. He was persuaded by the then American medical student William T. G. Morton (1819-68) to try surgery using ether as an anaesthetic. The operation was performed on 16 October 1846 in front of an audience at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The patient, Gilbert Abbott, was successfully anaesthetised using an inhaler before Warren removed the tumour from his neck.