For centuries, alternative forms of pain relief, such as opium and alcohol had been used to help blunt the agonies of pain during surgery. Surgeons also sought to numb pain by freezing limbs, compressing nerves, and hypnotising their patients. ![[Pasted image 20230911000115.png]] It was not until the introduction of two new drugs, **ether (1846) and chloroform (1847)**, that medicine had the capacity to transform the human experience of bodily pain. General anaesthetics were first used at Old St Thomas' Hospital in January 1847 on a male patient 25 years after the first operation in the female operating theatre here. ![[Pasted image 20230910235845.png]] **Positive side of 19th century anaesthesia:** - Patients no longer had to suffer the agony of undergoing an operation which often sent them into shock. - Surgeons were able to take more time as their patients were still, which meant they could be more accurate. This meant that surgeons were able to perform more complex operations: Internal surgery became possible. - After the advent of antiseptics in 1865, the combination of both changed positively the practice of surgery forever. **Negative side of 19th century anaesthesia:** - Sometimes surgeons accidentally administered too much which resulted in the patient not waking up. Or sometimes too little was given and the patient would awake during the operation. - The chemicals sometimes affected the heart, which caused some healthy people to die after inhaling it - Because anaesthetic allowed surgeons to go deeper into the body, blood loss and infection became more of a problem.