A Yale professor of chemistry, Dr. Benjamin Silliman, Sr., noted that nitrous oxide made “One of our gravest citizens … caper about like a monkey….” From the Manhattan corner of Broadway and 30th Street, Dr. Ferdinand Hasbrouck (1844–1904) capered off with that monkey imagery for the obverse of his dental trade card (left). Hasbrouck’s advertising featured a squatting auburn monkey with food in each hand and with its back to a second monkey. One of Hasbrouck’s most infamous capers occurred aboard the yacht Oneida. Onboard he administered nitrous oxide for the first stage of U.S. President Grover Cleveland’s secret surgery for oral cancer. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
A Yale professor of chemistry, Dr. Benjamin Silliman, Sr., noted that nitrous oxide made “One of our gravest citizens … caper about like a monkey….” From the Manhattan corner of Broadway and 30th Street, Dr. Ferdinand Hasbrouck (1844–1904) capered off with that monkey imagery for the obverse of his dental trade card (left). Hasbrouck’s advertising featured a squatting auburn monkey with food in each hand and with its back to a second monkey. One of Hasbrouck’s most infamous capers occurred aboard the yacht Oneida. Onboard he administered nitrous oxide for the first stage of U.S. President Grover Cleveland’s secret surgery for oral cancer. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator, ASA’s Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.
