The Invention Of Anesthesia In The 19th Century

Anesthesia is not an idea invented in the 19th century. In fact, the Greeks referred to this term; the roots an “without” and esthesia “sensibility”. The literal translation for anesthesia in the Bailey’s English Dictionary (1724) is “a defect of sensibility”. This term has been around for thousands of years but in the 19th century, advances in technology caused it to change our world today. Before the invention of anesthesia, patients would agonize in grueling pain during surgeries and medical procedures. The thought of not feeling the pain was indescribable. The availability of anesthesia for surgical purposes was first introduced to the world in 1846. “The concept of pain-relief and total insensibility was not original; for thousands of years it seemed …show more content…
Then the sponge would be placed under the nostrils. This was never a guaranteed method of insensibility so they would also try methods of “blood letting, water, ice, distraction by counter irritation with stinging nettles, carotid compression, and nerve clamping”. (Meyer). The 19th century was a time of slowly downing self-improvement and scientific optimism. There was a breakthrough discovery of the gas N2O. Although N2O is not as strong of an anesthetic as ether, “it’s a strong analgesic in virtue of its tendency to promote opioid peptide release in the periaqueductal gray area of the membrane.” (Priestley J Experiments). The use of N2O was then used on soldiers in the Civil War. They would perform the procedures with this anesthetic but unfortunately the pain was just too much and they found out it wasn't working. This sent researchers in the a frantic search for a new “pain killer”. From this they switch from using not only gases but mainly potent synthetic pain killers. After the revolutionary in the 19th century, “nanotechnology, quantum supercomputing, and mature biotechnology” (Civil War Rx). helped refine new ways to reshape the natural