The doctors with the large party of Japanese diplomats making the historic first visit to the United States were invited to observe an operation at a private house during their visit to Philadelphia.  A medical professor from Jefferson College removed gall bladder stones using ether as anesthetic, a procedure none of the visitors had seen before.  They later visited Jefferson College and the Pennsylvania Hospital.  (By John Osborne)   
Source Citation
Francis Vincent, Vincent's Semi-Annual United States Register.... 1st of January and 1st of July, 1860 (Philadelphia: Francis Vincent, 1860), 516. 
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Science/Technology

    How to Cite This Page: "Doctors of the visiting Japanese Embassy observe an operation using ether in Philadelphia," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hddev.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/32293.