Forget the term Beantown. Boston would have been more appropriately labeled Statuetown. It is impossible to turn a corner without seeing a dedication to someone or something. The pigeons in other cities never had it so good.

One statue in particular is a knockout. Located in The Public Gardens, it is a tribute to ether. Ether was first used in Boston in 1846 by William Morton. Morton himself was put under at the Mount Auburn Cemetary in Cambridge.

When sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward decided to create the homage there was a dispute over who the originator really was. Hence, you have the generic figure at the top.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, once called the statue a "monument to ether - or either." What a gas.

An inscription on one side proclaims "there shall be no more pain." Not until you wake up anyway. It also states "to commemorate the discovery that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to pain first proved to the world at Mass Central Hospital."

Mass General, as it is now referred to, has the original unit that was used by Morton on display in what is called "The Ether Dome." It doubles as a classroom. Also out for public viewing, for no related purpose, is a mummy.

Ether Statue
The Public Garden facing Arlington St.
Boston, MA