The century and a half since the first demonstration of anesthesia in a Boston hospital has seen dramaticimprovements in drugs and their delivery, but the basic function of anesthesia-to provide freedom from pain during surgery-has remained. Although this is not likely to change, the role and scope of anesthesiology is taking on added dimensions as medical science looks at both old and new ways of dealing with pain. Indeed, anesthesiologist Nicholas Greene of Yale University advocates substituting the prefix mete- to rename the specialty metesthesiology, or "beyond anesthesia."

One of the more recent directions taken by anesthesia—hypnosisis actually a part of its distant past. Hypnosis, or more specifically mesmerism, was widely practiced in an effort-mostly unsuccessful-to relieve surgical pain prior to the groundbreaking demonstration of ether in 1846, but it quickly fell out of favor thereafter. It never entirely disappeared, however, although its use in...