The discovery of anesthesia and its rapid acceptance opened the gates for a flood of subsequent improvements. Now that science finally realized that surgical anesthesia was possible, research leaped forward. The decades following the initial discovery saw a steady march of progress-newer and safer drugs, more sophisticated methods of administering them, and the growth of an entire medical specialty.

Doctors quickly realized that their methods of administering anesthetics were too crude to allow for precise dosing of the anesthetic. Sometimes delivery consisted only of holding a handkerchief over the patient's mouth and nose. Another popular method was to cover the patient's face with a wire mask cov- ered with gauze and then drip anesthetic onto the gauze, but this, too, was imprecise. The result could be a lethal overdose. The first deaths from overdoses of ether were reported in March...