Operations Without Pain: The Practice and Science of Anaesthesia in Victorian Britain (Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History)

The introduction of anaesthesia to Victorian Britain marked a defining moment between modern medicine and earlier practices. This book uses new information from John Snow's casebooks and London hospital archives to revise many of the existing historical assumptions about the early history of surgical anaesthesia. By examining complex patterns of innovation, reversals, debate and geographical difference, Stephanie Snow shows how anaesthesia became established as a routine part of British medicine. Since 1846, anaesthesia has been the most powerful example of medicine's capacity to transform human experiences of suffering and pain. But although the benefits of surgical-pain relief were indisputable, the process was in some ways strangely paradoxical. Inhaling gas brought patients to the verge of death to save them the agony of surgery. In the operating theatre, surgeons were accustomed to terrified patients but not to the newly insensible body which still breathed and might struggle in a way that inhibited surgery. Throughout the late 1840s and 1850s, debates focused on the viability of anaesthesia - were its risks greater than its benefits? That issue is the heart of this book. It continued to be debated while patients and doctors grappled with the realities of painless surgery, the exhilaration of ether and the efficacy of chloroform - not only to remove pain, but also to kill. By examining complex patterns of innovation, reversals, debate and geographical difference, Stephanie Snow shows how anaesthesia became established as a routine part of British medicine. The introduction of anaesthesia to Victorian Britain marked a defining moment between modern medicine and earlier practices. But although the benefits of surgical pain relief were indisputable, the process was in some ways strangely pradoxical. Inhaling gas brought patients to the verges of death to save them the agony of surgery. In the operating theatre surgeons were accustomed to terrified patients but not to the newly insensible body which still breathed and might struggle in a way that inhibited surgery. Throughout the late 1840s and 1850s debates focused on the viability of anaesthesia - were its risks greater than its benefits? That issue is the heart of this book; it continued to be debated whilst patients and doctors grappled with the realities of painless surgery, the exhilaration of ether, the efficacy of chloroform - not just to remove pain, but to kill. By examining complex patterns of innovation, reversals, debate and geographical difference, Stephanie Snow shows how anaesthesia became established as a routine part of British medicine In 1825, an English Earl, crippled with pain and despairing of his usual physicians, invited a young and unconventional doctor into his home. Days later, the Earl was relieved, and the doctor rich. To celebrate his remarkable recovery, the nobleman re-named his favorite racehorse to honor the technique that cured him: "acupuncture." In an engaging account, Roberta Bivins vivifies the characters, texts, and events of acupuncture's (often surprising) 300 year history in Britain, and begins to explain acupuncture's enduring appeal Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-9 From Enlightenment Philosophies to Victorian Reform, 1790–1846....Pages 10-39 Altered States....Pages 40-73 Science Versus Empiricism....Pages 74-92 Risks of Life and Birth....Pages 93-122 Anaesthesia in London: John Snow’s Casebooks....Pages 123-151 In the Name of Safety....Pages 152-182 Conclusion: The History of Anaesthesia....Pages 183-199 Back Matter....Pages 200-271 Alternative medicine is a fifty billion dollar per year industry. It reaches a provocative conclusion: alternative therapies' whole-body approach might be just what medicine really needs right now to help crack the tough, chronic conditions seemingly untouched by the revolutions of surgery, antiseptics, antibiotics, vaccines and molecular biology.