The Joy of Anesthesia

Opium occupies a special role in the history of Anesthetics. Homer's epics contain the first references to opium as a drug "which quiets all pains and quarrels." The Greek medical Philosopher Galen (130-200AD) later commented on opium; (It) resists poison and venomous bites, cures chronic headache, vertigo, deafness, epilepsy, apoplexy, dimness of sight, loss of voice, asthma, coughs of all kinds, spitting of blood, tightness of breath, colic, the iliac poison, jaundice, hardness of the spleen, stone, urinary complaints, fevers, dropsies, leprosies, and the troubles to which women are subject, melancholy and all pestilences (Republished: Scott, Scott, J.M. The White Poppy. New York: Funk & Wagnells, 1969; 5, 46-82, 109-125). The clinical usage of opium was not widely implemented, however, due to a keen general awareness of the dangers associated with over use.

 

 Ether was one of the first "modern" anesthetics discovered, synthesized in 1275 by the Spanish chemist Raymundus Lullius. Its medical potential wasn't realized until much later when anesthesia broke onto the medical scene in the late 1700s with the help of chemists such as Joseph Priestly, who first synthesized nitrous oxide in 1772, and sir Humphrey Davy who recognized the potential of "laughing gas" in 1799. He first experimented with animals then himself, above Priestly is depicted administering NO to Davy in a sort of exhibition party. Not all forays into anesthetic research, however, ended so enthusiastically. Depicted below is the purported result of accidentally spilling a bottle of chloroform. Supposedly the Edinburgh professor James Simpson's wife walked in on him and colleagues all passed out as such.

The use of anesthetics has been present throughout the current era, its widespread acceptance and even daily use, however, has only skyrocketed in the last couple hundred years. Addiction to drugs has always been around, but the daily consumption of weak pain killers has become exceedingly common only recently. Though championing heart health, the effects of 2 Advil, Aleve, or Tylenol a day have no long standing history. Relatively few drugs were known and discovered up until the 18th century, they were all largely well characterized and generally wariness was associated with their use. Now, people are so often looking for a magic bullet as a cure that they overlook an ignorance of long-term effects and try anything. Perhaps some wisdom in the caution of the ancients may prove essential in humanities ever accelerating push into medical science.

The Discovery and Invention of Anesthesia by Adam Blatner M.D.

http://www.blatner.com/adam/consctransf/historyofmedicine/4-anesthesia/hxanesthes.html
                                 Drugs and Narcotics in History by Roy Porter
http://books.google.com/books?id=I1YxRwBn5poC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=ancient+greek+roman+opium&source=bl&ots=kFr64bhnwL&sig=a6NCL66f7xVeHSwFNxbZpKxOiZc&hl=en&ei=08RZTZjvNYOB8ga6odWqBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=ancient%20greek%20roman%20opium&f=false