Warren, John Collins (1778–1856)

US surgeon. Active in reforming medical education and practice in the USA, he was one of the founders of Massachusetts General Hospital where, on 16 October 1846, he performed the first operation using ether as an anesthesia, which was administered by William Morton. The first American to operate on a strangulated hernia, he wrote an important book on his speciality, Surgical Observations on Tumours (1837).

The son and nephew of famous Boston doctors, Warren was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied surgery with his father, John Warren (1753–1815) and then completed his studies in Europe. He set up a practice in Boston in 1802 and was on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School for most of his career 1809–47.

Warren, John Collins (1842–1927)

US surgeon. He was associated with the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital for most of his professional career. His most important book, Surgical Pathology and Therapeutics (1895), drew on his studies of infectious bacteria. Warren was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and was the grandson of US surgeon John Warren, who performed the first operation using ether. He studied for three years in Europe before returning to the USA in 1869 to take up a practice in Boston.