Donald Caton, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Published online: September 2005
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0003621
Modern surgical anaesthesia began in 1846 with the first successful public administration of ether. The maturation of this branch of medicine developed during the next century and a half as principles of physiology and pharmacology increasingly became part of clinical practice and as practitioners formed societies to promote research and develop standards for education and practice.
Keywords: anaesthesia; history; chloroform; ether; nitrous oxide
| Further Reading | |
| Caton D (1985) The secularization of pain. Anesthesiology 62: 493–501. | |
| book Caton D (1999) What a Blessing She Had Chloroform: the Medical and Social Response to the Pain of Childbirth from 1800 to the Present. New Haven: Yale University Press. | |
| book Caton D and Antognini JF (2003) "The development of concepts of mechanisms of anesthesia". In: Antognini JF, Carstens EE and Raines DE (eds), Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia, pp. 3–12. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press. | |
| book Duncum BM (1994) The Development of Inhalation Anaesthesia. London: Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd. | |
| Ellis RH (1976) The introduction of ether anaestheia to Great Britain. Anaesthesia 31: 766–777. | |
| Fink BR (1985) Leaves and needles: the introduction of surgical local anaesthesia. Anesthesiology 63: 77–83. | |
| book Keyes TE (1963) The History of Surgical Anesthesia. New York: Dover Press. | |
| book Smith WDA (1982) Under the Influence: A History of Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen Anaesthesia. Park Ridge, IL: Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology. | |
| book Wolfe RJ (2001) Tranished Idol: William T.G. Morton and the Introduction of Surgical Anesthesia. San Anselmo, CA: Normal Publishing. | |
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