Jonathan Mason Warren (February 5, 1811 – August 19, 1867) was an American surgeon. He specialized in plastic and reconstructive surgery. He is known to be the first person to perform rhinoplasty in the United States.
He entered the Boston Latin School in 1820 and graduated in 1825. After studying under a private tutor for two years, he entered the Harvard College in 1827. But due to his health, he left Harvard after three months. In the spring of 1828, he began his medical studies under the direction of his father. In the fall of 1830 he entered the Harvard Medical School, and received an MD degree in 1832 at the age of 21.[3][4][5]
After three years of study, he returned to Boston in June 1835 where he worked in general practice. He specialized in reconstructive surgery; he was one of the first surgeons to perform rhinoplasty operations in the United States, and developed ways to close cleft palate through surgery.[1][7]
He received an honorary MA degree from Harvard College in 1844.[1][10]
Daguerreotype of an early ether operation, taken by Southworth & Hawes on July 3, 1847. J. Mason (second from bottom left) and his father (second from bottom right) are among the principals portrayed. [11]
In February 1846, he was elected one of the visiting surgeons of the Massachusetts General Hospital.[4][12] After the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia by W. T. G. Morton, he substituted for Morton's apparatus for cone-shaped sponge which was adapted quickly for the purpose of administering ether, especially to children.[8][13]
On May 6, 1853, while returning from a meeting of the American Medical Association in New York, he was a passenger on the train which met with the Norwalk rail accident. He survived as well as his family, thanks to him being in the middle section of the car at the request of his wife.[14] However, other several members of the association, including William Cecil Dwight and Abel Lawrence Peirson, who were in the same car as the one Warren was in,[15] were killed.[16][17][18]
He was a senior surgeon of the hospital for several years until his death. He died on August 9, 1867 in the same house where he was born.[1][2][19]
^Warren, Jonathan Mason (1978). Jones, Russell M. (ed.). The Parisian education of an American surgeon: letters of Jonathan Mason Warren, 1832-1835. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society ; v. 128. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN978-0-87169-128-6.
^Warren, Annie Crowninshield (1910). Rogers, Bruce (ed.). Reminiscences of my life : for my children. Wellesley College Library. Boston: Privately printed at the Riverside Press. pp. 59–60.
^"The catastrophe at Norwalk". Weekly national intelligencer. Washington. 14 May 1853. p. 1 – via Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.