Anesthetics

Running head : THE USE OF ANESTHETICS IN THE 19TH CENTURY

The Use of Anesthetics in the 19th Century

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Oh , what delight for every feeling heart to find the new year ushered in with the announcement of this noble discovery of the power to still the sense of pain , and veil the eye and memory from all the horrors of an operation . WE HAVE CONQUERED PAIN (cited in Giddens Giddens 2003

The above statement was released by the Journal

of London after the successful use of ether as an anesthetic . It was in October 16 , 1846 when a dentist , William Morton used ether to make the patient , Gilbert Abbot , lose consciousness . A famous surgeon , John Collins Warren then removed a tumor from Abbot 's neck while he was unconscious . After the operation , the patient woke up and attested that he felt no pain at all Since this discovery , surgeries have been painless

The Use of Anesthetics in the 19th Century

According to Giddens , before the use of anesthesia was discovered patients had to endure surgery wide awake . Screams in the operating theater were not uncommon (p . 14 ) Giddens also said that among the methods done during the earlier centuries to make the patient unconscious was knocking or beating them down . Some patients were made to drink alcohol till they dropped (p . 13 ) Charles Darwin attested that there were instances when the patient would wake up in the middle of surgery and...