Surgery before Anesthesia.

Prior to the discovery of anesthesia, surgery was performed primarily in dire emergencies and generally consisted of repairing wounds, setting compound fractures, and amputating limbs. Mortality was high, in the range of 30 to 50 percent, due to shock from the pain, bleeding, and infection. Surgeons had the lowest prestige of all medical practitioners. The dread of surgery carried over to the surgeon himself.

Discovery of Anesthetics.

Chemical anesthetics were known long before their utility for surgery was considered. Ether had been discovered in the sixteenth century. English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy discovered nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in the 1790s. He conducted experiments with it, and his published results were well known, but the use of nitrous oxide became popular for recreational rather than medical purposes. Scottish physicians began experimenting with chloroform in the 1830s. First Success. A dentist named William T...