Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: Public Garden

As I was walking all alone, I heard two crows making a moan; One said to the other, "Where shall we go and dine today?" - Old Scottish Ballad

When the truth gets buried deep Beneath the thousand years of sleep Time demands a turn-around And once again the truth is found Awakening the Hurdy Gurdy Man Who comes singing songs of love. - Donovan

The Ether Monument, also known as The Good Samaritan, is a statue and fountain near the northwest corner of Boston’s Public Garden, near the intersection of Arlington Street and Beacon Street. It commemorates the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia, which occurred on October 16, 1846. Massachusetts General Hospital, where this procedure took place, is located about a 15-minute walk from the site of the monument The statue depicts a medical doctor in medieval Moorish-Spanish robe and turban – representing a Good Samaritan – who holds the drooping body of an almost naked man on his left knee. The doctor holds in his left hand a cloth, suggesting the use of ether that would be developed in centuries to come. The anachronistic use of a Moorish doctor was probably intentional and served to avoid choosing sides in a debate that was raging at the time over who should receive credit for the first use of ether as an anesthetic. Erected in 1867, the monument is 40 feet (12 m) tall and is the oldest monument in the Public Garden. At the base of the statue are inscriptions explaining the significance of the discovery of the use of ether as an anesthetic. There are four inscriptions, which include biblical quotations: "To commemorate that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to pain. First proved to the world at the Mass. General Hospital in Boston, October A.D. MDCCCXLVI" "This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful and excellent in working." Isaiah 28:29 "In gratitude for the relief of human suffering by the inhaling of ether a citizen of Boston has erected this monument A.D. MDCCCLXVII." "Neither shall there be any more pain." Revelation 21:4

Daniel Chester French was commissioned to sculpt two memorials to the noted Boston philanthropist George Robert White (1847-1922). One of these monuments (completed and dedicated in 1924) stands in Boston’s Public Garden, at the northwest corner near the intersection of Beacon and Arlington Streets. The monument, titled "Casting Bread Upon the Waters," shows a smiling, moving angel holding a basket in her left hand and scattering seed with her right, as if to show how White gave his money to many causes which then took root and bore fruit. The base of the statue gives the verse from Ecclesiastes 11:1 from which the statue takes its name: Cast your bread on the waters; for you shall find it after many days.

Today a monument to ether may seem strange, but for those living in the nineteenth century the drug was nothing short of a miracle. "The greatest invention for humanity since the printing press," one contemporary wrote. Imagine having a tooth pulled without Novocain, a tumor removed without general anesthesia, or a leg amputated with only a bullet to bite. Then you can understand why private citizen Thomas Lee paid handsomely ($6,300 for the statuary alone) to publicly commemorate the first etherized operation, which took place in Boston in 1846. On October 16 of that year, dentist Thomas G. Morton electrified an audience of surgeons and medical students in the operating theater of Massachusetts General Hospital when he put a printer, Gilbert Abbot, to sleep. The attending surgeon then removed a tumor from the sleeping patient's neck: no thrashing, no screams, no restraint by assistants. The theater broke into cheers. When you visit the monument, be sure to look for the four reliefs by John Quincy Adams Ward, hidden under the monument's Gothic arches. The south relief shows an operation under anesthesia; the doctors wear a mix of nineteenth century and classical costume.

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