In case you were wondering, I have been rather absent from this blog of late. This is due to have had major surgery to have a couple of benign cysts removed. As I’ve never had any hospital treatment beyond the diagnostic stage, I have to admit to being rather apprehensive about the whole thing beforehand, and neglected my blog. The week since the surgery I have been resting up. All went very well, and I am pleased to say that the general anaesthesia process was not as alarming as I had thought it might be (though the recovery process, I have to say, is a bit like getting over a very bad hangover).
This led me to thinking about the history of anaesthesia and surgery. While we may often have a rather romantic view of the past and perhaps sometimes wish we could go back in time to our favourite period, it is times like this when I am very glad I live in the 21st century! A brief look at surgery before 1900 should be enough to stop anyone getting into their time machine without a thorough health check and being sure one is in 100% healthy condition!
Anyone who has had any kind of surgery, whether it was life saving, or to ease an uncomfortable or dangerous condition, should give a thought and much gratitude to the pioneers of anaesthesia who made it possible to undergo surgery without pain (well – at least during the actual surgery anyway). We should also spare a thought for our ancestors, who did not have access to the wonders of modern medicine.
William Thomas Green Morton was a dentist who gave the first demonstration of the use of ether to remove a lump at Boston, Massachusets in 1846. After this, surgery began to change dramatically. Before this, surgery was a terrifyingly traumatic and painful process, which could only be undertaken as a last resort to try and save a life. Ether also began to be used in dentristry in order to remove teeth without pain.
Ether was replaced by chloroform, which had been discovered by James Young Simpson. The use 
of chloroform gained royal approval when John Snow, who had pioneered the use of both ether and chloroform, administered it to Queen Victoria at the birth of her last two children in the 1850s.
Obviously the use of anaesthesia has much improved since these early days, when it was still highly dangerous, and it would be easy to take it for granted that surgery can be pain-free. But we should not forget these early pioneers who have enabled millions of people to live longer, healthier lives through surgery that would otherwise not have been available.
Anyone who can trace their ancestors back to these physicians should be very, very proud!
I’m very pleased to hear that your op went so well and that you are on the mend. I’m proud to see that you have mentioned a Scotsman too – I was born at the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion in Edinburgh, and my Mum worked as a midwife there before getting married 🙂
Thanks Jo – great information! It does seem whenever there’s a group of historical heroes, there’s always a Scotsman (or woman) there somewhere!