The Evolution of Anesthesia

The necessity of not feeling pain was always present through history. It is said that in the ancient texts anesthesia was first started to be talked about during the 4000 a.C. The first methods that served as sedatives included herbs. 

The first sedatives were used in places where native plants were pshycoactive. The most used or popular plants included: opium, henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), mandrake and coca leaves. The first actual, and official doctors to use this was  Hua Tuo (ca. 111-207 d. C.). Throughout the years new anesthesia methods were created. New mixtures were created throughout the years. A swiss doctor better known as Paracelso (1490-1541), mentioned a pill made of opium that worked similarly to laudanum. Laudanum is usually related to morphine. Later on an English doctor, Thomas Sydenham, (1624-1689) simplified the recipes mentioned earlier.

“The Canon of Medicine” written by Ibn Sina explained the basic knowledge about Arab doctors, and the soporific sponge method. The soporific sponge method consisted of getting a sponge, and soaking it in an herbal potion, which was placed under a patient's nose to induce unconsciousness during surgery (De Hert, 2025). Many anesthesiologists used this method during ages. This method started disappearing from the ancient text XVI century. This is often related with magic practices, and the roman inquisition.

There was a time where anesthesiologists were not even a thing. Surgeons had to know the patient's limits or how bad some procedure hurt. During the XVII and XVIII centuries anesthesia did not exist and some doctors preferred to give the patients something to bite instead to manage pain.

Later in history other methods like: nervous compression, and intravenous therapy. Anesthesia is currently used with different methods. For example:oral, respiration, and injection. Either way, as this article and my research has demonstrated this was not always the case and even when anesthesia was finally being used only with opium and morphine it was thanks to a new syringe done by the Scottish doctor Alexander Wood (1817-1884) in 1853 (De Heart, 2025).

References (MLA Format)

1. De Hert, Stefan. "A Short History of Anaesthesia Before 1846." ESAIC, European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, 2025, https://esaic.org/a-short-history-of-anaesthesia-before-1846/.