Its design has been attributed to the Boston architect William Robert Ware[1] and to the sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward.

[3] The statue depicts a medical doctor in medieval Moorish-Spanish robe and turban—representing a Good Samaritan[4]—who holds the drooping body of an almost naked man on his left knee.

[5] The anachronistic use of a Moorish doctor was probably intentional and served to avoid choosing sides in a debate that was raging at the time over who should receive credit for the first use of ether as an anesthetic.

[3] A handful of individuals had claimed credit for the discovery of anesthesia, most notably William T. G. Morton and Crawford Long.

There are four inscriptions, which include biblical quotations from Isaiah 28:29 and Revelation 21:4:[2] *To commemorate that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to pain.