John Henry Hill Lewellin: the first etherist in Glasgow.

Abstract

John Henry Hill Lewellin, a surgeon-dentist, was the first to administer ether in Glasgow, on January 4, 1847. He was born in Calcutta, trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualified M.R.C.S. in London in 1842, and studied in Paris and Heidelberg, before moving to Glasgow in December 1845. He remained there for about 18 months, advertising his dental practice in a high profile manner and, when the time came, he publicized his experience with ether in the local press in an exemplary way. He disappeared from Glasgow in June 1847, and reappeared in Australia 5 years later, practising as a dentist initially, and later as a general medical practitioner in Melbourne until his retirement in 1883. He died in 1886.