Thursday, 4:30 PM
Ether Monument gets a fresh start in the Public Garden
(Globe File Photo)
The Ether Monument in the Public Garden.
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
The first sculpture in Boston's 169-year-old Public Garden was not a memorial to a war hero, a tribute to an influential mayor or the bust of an early Bay State governor.
Instead, the first public art in America’s first botanical garden was an ornate, 40-foot high granite fountain dedicated to a drug. The Ether Monument commemorates a public demonstration of the power of anesthesia in 1846, an event at nearby Massachusetts General Hospital that revolutionized medicine.
However, the memorial near the intersection of Arlington and Beacon streets that was dedicated in 1868 and once drew scores of tourists long ago fell into disrepair. Its four lion-head fountains stopped spurting water in the 1970s, and its granite had grayed, making it an obscure and often overlooked feature of the Public Garden.
This evening, however, doctors and public officials will hold a rededication after an almost 20-year restoration effort. The granite has been cleaned and the antiquated plumbing has been replaced so water is once again flowing from the four fountain heads.
"Boston is the home of many firsts and this is one of them," said Boston Parks Department Commissioner Antonia Pollak. "It should be celebrated."
Dr. Rafael Ortega, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Boston Medical Center, has just had a book published under the title: "Written in Stone: An illustrated history of the Ether Monument."
"Most people don't know there is an Ether Monument," said Ortega. "For variety of reasons, even many physicians aren't aware that the monument exists."
The 40-foot tower is topped by a sculpture representing the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke. An older man holds a younger man who has been overcome by an illness -- an allegory of mercy and good will, Ortega said.
The figures rest on marble columns atop a square pedestal adorned with four marble reliefs. One of the panels represents the triumph of science with a woman sitting atop of throne of test tubes and other medical equipment. Two of the other carvings show the use of ether during the Civil War. The fourth frieze depicts the angel of mercy descending to a man stricken with disease.
"The monument itself sort of memorializes a major step forward in modern healthcare," said Dr. Jonathan Griswold, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Tufts New England Medical Center. "People were exceedingly afraid of surgery, and rightfully so. Most limbs were removed with people awake. Most people who had surgery had to go through excruciating pain."
Then on Oct. 16, 1846, Dr. John Collins Warren and a dentist named Thomas A. Morton administered ether to a 20-year-old patient at Massachusetts General Hospital before painlessly removing a tumor from his neck. The doctors performed the procedure before an audience of other doctors and word quickly spread in medical journals.
Where patients once had to be physically held down for surgery, the sick could now sit still and allow doctors to work. Ether became critical on the battlefields of the Civil War and in hospitals across the globe.
The monument's rehabilitation was paid for by $220,000 from the city and money from private donors including the Solomon Fund and the Friends of the Public Garden. It involved the installation of a new lighting system that officials hope will increase public consciousness of the sculpture and discourage vandalism. Organizers are trying to establish an endowment to fund future maintenance of the memorial.
"It's a beautiful sculpture in and of itself," said Pollak, the park's commissioner. "I think learning about the interpretation of it and making the public aware of its importance is crucial."
