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Zandberg A. 
“'Villages ... reek of ether vapours': ether drinking in Silesia before 1939”. 
Med Hist. 2010 Jul;54(3):387-96.
Abstract
[EXCERPT] By the late nineteenth century ether drinking (i.e. non-medical ether consumption) had gained some popularity in places as far apart as Northern Ireland, Russia, France, Norway, the United States and the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.1 Ether’s intoxicating properties had been known centuries before William Morton secured fame for its anaesthetic effects2 - but its widespread use in nineteenth-century Europe seems to have been a by-product of medical practice and subsequent industrial production. Although precise figures for consumption are lacking, the sources available provide evidence of a remarkable scale. However, as far as I am aware, ether consumption raised some interest among historians mostly as a local phenomenon in Northern Ireland.3 The aim of this article is to outline the history of ether drinking in interwar Upper Silesia [...]
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