In the 1830s, Scottish surgeon Robert Liston was renowned for his surgical speed, as anesthesia had not yet been widely used. This led to a profusion of anesthetic advancements, beginning with Chinese physician Hua Tuo who described mixing alcohol with a powder of various ingredients to anesthetize patients in 200 CE. Arab surgeon Ibn al-Quff also described patients taking anesthetics, likely inhaling drugs like cannabis, opium, and mandrake, from saturated sponges in the 13th century. By the end of the 1700s, many scientists were pondering chemistry’s medical applications.
In 1799, English chemist Humphry Davy began experimenting with nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, noting its pain-relieving abilities and its potential for surgical operations. Japanese surgeon Seishū Hanaoka successfully removed a breast tumor from a patient anesthetized with a mix of medicinal herbs in 1804, though the news stayed in Japan indefinitely. Eventually, ether started garnering medical attention and was first formulated centuries before then came to be used recreationally.
In 1842, an American physician administered ether to a patient and successfully removed a tumor from his neck. Dentists refined ether for tooth extractions and, in 1845, an American dentist attempted a public tooth extraction on someone anesthetized with nitrous oxide, though the patient reportedly screamed. Scottish obstetrician James Simpson heard about an alternative anesthetic called chloroform and, in 1847, he administered it to one of his patients during childbirth. It quickly gained popularity due to its fast-acting and seemingly side-effect-free properties.
By the late 19th century, those who could access anesthetics were undergoing increasingly complex operations, including some that were previously impossible. However, anesthetics weren’t yet fully understood and had lethal consequences, while some doctors held sexist and racist beliefs that dictated the amount of anesthesia they’d provide, if any at all. Chloroform was seen as a riskier and more toxic option and thus fell out of favor by the early 1900s. Ether and nitrous oxide, however, have been adapted with safer formulations and fewer side effects, and are still used today. Thanks to these advances, surgery does not need to be done in haste and the patient can experience minimal pain.