Necessity is the mother of all inventions. Prior to the discovery of anaesthesia in the 19th century surgery was looked upon as a last and desperate resort. Conscious and without pain relief, it was beset with unimaginable terror, unspeakable agony and unmitigated risk. The experience and emotions of a patient undergoing surgery before the discovery of anaesthesia was perhaps best captured by the vivid description of Fanny Burley an English novelist who underwent surgery in the early 18th century.
“When the dreadful steel plunged into my chest, I needed no injunctions not to restrain my cries. I began a scream that lasted unintermittently during the whole time of the incision, so excruciating was the agony, I then felt knife scraping the bone”. Read more
