Ether Anesthetic On This Day in History

This Day In History: Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time on this day in 1845. The following year, 1846, marked the first successful surgical procedure using anesthesia. Prior to this
surgery was absolutely hellish. In 1750, anatomist John Hunter described surgery as ‘a humiliating spectacle of the futility of science’ and the surgeon as ‘a savage armed with a knife’. The death rate after surgery was exceedingly high: 1 in 4 deaths in some of the better hospitals. If you could afford it, opium was often used to dull pain, as was rum, or mulberry and lettuce. Some people opted for a more direct approach and were knocked unconscious with a hit to the head.

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