Anesthesia is a crucial component to ensuring the comfort and safety of a patient during a surgery, but anesthetic methods were not developed until around the time these photographs were taken. Prior to the implementation of an anesthetic, surgeons used a variety of methods to lessen their patients’ pain with some measure of success. Some managed to get their hands on various narcotics including opium, cocaine, and marijuana; they were all very useful for numbing pain, but extremely addictive. Alcohol was also employed, but those not wealthy enough to afford true alcohol had to use mulberry or lettuce. Doctors would sometimes numb a limb with cold or by compressing it to cut off the blood flow, while others simply knocked people unconscious
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Antiseptics were not fully understood until the discovery of bacteria and the knowledge of how it can result in serious infection. Physicians and healers have been aware of anti-infective properties of certain substances since ancient times. The ancient Greeks would use wine and vinegar in the dressing of wounds to prevent infection, something that continued to be used through the thirteenth century when surgeon Theodoric of Bologna would dip dressings in wine to prevent the development of pus in wounds. Bernard Courtois discovered iodine in 1811, which then became a popular antiseptic treatment and is used in modern surgeries to prevent infection. Ultimately, it was English surgeon Joseph Lister who used his knowledge of bacteria to implement a successful antispetic method in surgery. Through research and experimentation, Lister developed an antiseptic system using carbolic acid. He would spray the wound and surrounding area with the acid before applying multiple-layer dressings, a method that was difficult but ultimately effective. However, the human hands were the final obstacle to true surgical antisepsis. Instruments and dressings were sterilized prior to use, but the hands of surgeons and nurses could only be washed with antiseptics. William Halsted came up with the solution of using rubber gloves after he noticed that the antiseptic was irritating the hands of his head nurse. Ever since, sterile gloves have been used in surgery and continue to be used to this day. Photograph 1 shows presumably sterilized dressings waiting to be applied until after the surgery is completed. Rubber gloves are pictured on one of the surgeon 's hands, but not on the hands of one of the nurses or on the hands of the man applying the anesthetic. The hands of the rest of the people in the room are unseen, so it can only be inferred that they are
Antiseptics were not fully understood until the discovery of bacteria and the knowledge of how it can result in serious infection. Physicians and healers have been aware of anti-infective properties of certain substances since ancient times. The ancient Greeks would use wine and vinegar in the dressing of wounds to prevent infection, something that continued to be used through the thirteenth century when surgeon Theodoric of Bologna would dip dressings in wine to prevent the development of pus in wounds. Bernard Courtois discovered iodine in 1811, which then became a popular antiseptic treatment and is used in modern surgeries to prevent infection. Ultimately, it was English surgeon Joseph Lister who used his knowledge of bacteria to implement a successful antispetic method in surgery. Through research and experimentation, Lister developed an antiseptic system using carbolic acid. He would spray the wound and surrounding area with the acid before applying multiple-layer dressings, a method that was difficult but ultimately effective. However, the human hands were the final obstacle to true surgical antisepsis. Instruments and dressings were sterilized prior to use, but the hands of surgeons and nurses could only be washed with antiseptics. William Halsted came up with the solution of using rubber gloves after he noticed that the antiseptic was irritating the hands of his head nurse. Ever since, sterile gloves have been used in surgery and continue to be used to this day. Photograph 1 shows presumably sterilized dressings waiting to be applied until after the surgery is completed. Rubber gloves are pictured on one of the surgeon 's hands, but not on the hands of one of the nurses or on the hands of the man applying the anesthetic. The hands of the rest of the people in the room are unseen, so it can only be inferred that they are