A man dies broke and delirious after running into a Central Park lake, yet a surgeon calls him one who did more to relieve human suffering than anyone who ever lived. This deep dive explores the paradox of William T. G. Morton, the restless dentist and hustler whose 1846 ether demonstration in the Massachusetts General Hospital ether dome ended the era of surgery as waking butchery.

Driven into Harvard by disapproving in-laws and obsessed with mechanics and markets, Morton engineered a glass inhaler to safely deliver ether, then tried to patent it under a disguised name. His dream of a monopoly collapsed, igniting a vicious priority war with rivals that, ironically, spread anesthesia worldwide, even as it destroyed his own life.

• How ether acts as a central nervous system depressant to block pain
• The visceral horror of pre-anesthesia surgery judged by sheer speed
• Why his branded Letheon patent proved unenforceable
• The bitter feud among Morton, Jackson, Wells, and Long over credit
• His unpaid heroism anesthetizing thousands of Civil War soldiers