THE HISTORY OF ANAESTHETICS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5324, 10 February 1947, Page 2

THE HISTORY OF ANAESTHETICS

FAR CRY FROM STRONG-ARM RESTRAI)NiERS. London is^ holding an exhibition to celebrate the centenary of anaesthesia. A description of it by Joy Parker was recently heard by listeners toi .the B.B.C. programme "Radio Trek." The ancients had some quaint ideas on the subject and firmly believed in a iherbal narcotic lcnown as mandrake, a peculiar root which had the appearance of a human 'being and uttered a piercing* shriek when /it was luprooted. Whoever uprooted it was apt to fall dead, so they had to resort to all sorts of ingenious devices to-get holcl of it. In more recent times, wounded1 sailors at Trafalgar were given a tot of nnm. The use of the ether spray for | local anaesthesia was conceived by chance when a playful young lady at a dance sprayed eau-de-Colcgne on the heated forfehead of her partner. ^ The partner happened to be Sir Benjamin Ricbardson, who had spent all that day in his, laboratory engaged in scientific research.

The year was 1897. it is quite cieai that his mind was still on his work ] rather than on the charms of the young lady v/ith the scent spray; for he wrote of the episode: "The cold produced by the eau-de-Colbgne^ was intensive and, pinching the bit o skin affected, I found that it was benumbed. ''Tliank you,' I said, and seized upon the fact." Next day he contnved the ether spray which anaesthetised by freezing. Cocaine was used next, then spmal anaesthesia and many other foims o local anaesthetic.

And now — in 1946 — the scientists j are on the brink of developing yet I another fo,rm of anaesthetic, a deriva- J tion of the primitive South American j Indian arrow poison known as Curare. J This treebark poison prevents impulses from the motor nerves to the muscles, thus securing complete muscular ielaxation. Too complete, at times, as J Dr. Prescott, of the Wtellcome Research Institute, found to his cost only a few months ssg o when he was using hmi- j self as a human guinea-pig in experiments with Curare. Hu heart ceased to beat, and only prolonged artificial respiration saved his life. j One exhi'bit which made a deep im- j pression on many was a huge copper bell dated 1791 It was known as the Opetation Bell, and every hospital had such a bell, which was clanged before operations to oummon the strong-armed men tp come and hold down the patient. Thanks to the merey of anaesthesia the old operation bell is now happily out of a job.