Webster + Ether

From Writer's Almanac a few days ago . . .

It's the birthday of Noah Webster (books by this author), born in Hartford, Connecticut (1758). When he was 43 years old, he began writing the first American dictionary, which he put together because he wanted Americans to have a national identity that wasn't based on the language and ideas of England. And the problem wasn't just that Americans were looking to England for their language; it was that they could barely communicate with each other because regional dialects differed so drastically.

So in 1783, he published the first part of his three-part A Grammatical Institute, of the English Language; the first section was eventually retitled The American Spelling Book, but usually called by the nickname "Blue-Backed Speller." The Blue-Backed Speller taught American children the rules of spelling, and it simplified words — it was Webster who took the letter "u" out of English words like colour and honour; he took a "g" out of waggon, a "k" off the end of musick, and switched the order of the "r" and "e" in theatre and centre.

In 1801, he started compiling his dictionary. Part of what he accomplished, much like his textbook, was standardizing spelling. He introduced American words, some of them derived from Native American languages: skunk, squash, wigwam, hickory, opossum, lengthy; and presidential, Congress, and caucus, which were not relevant in England's monarchy.



On this day in 1846, the first successful demonstration of ether anesthesia took place at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dentist William Morton administered ether to a patient with a tumor on his neck, and the famous surgeon John Collins Warren amputated the tumor without the patient feeling any pain.

Although nitrous oxide, termed "laughing gas," was less effective than scientists hoped, there was a general consensus that using gases during surgery was the way of the future. Meanwhile, nitrous oxide and another gas called diethyl ether were proving successful in a much different realm: entertainment. Lecturers traveled around the countryside, administering laughing gas or diethyl ether to crowds; and college students began throwing what they called "ether frolics," basically just parties where everyone got high on ether. Both these substances were completely legal.