Anaesthetic and antiseptic - History through Medicine

How did surgical treatment improve in the 18^th Century?

In the 18^th Century surgeons faced three main problems;

-          Bleeding

-          Pain

-          Infection

Anaesthetic – James Simpson

Although substances like opium had been used to calm patients with severe injuries, but surgeries had to be quick and fast to stop the patient bleeding to death. Doctors had been experimenting with pain relief for many centuries, in an attempt to keep them still and quiet enough for them to perform operations. Early experiments with laughing gas proved quite successful for small operations. Then the chemical ether was discovered, however it made patients vomit and the gas irritated the lungs making the patient cough even when they were unconscious, worse still it was extremely flammable which meant it was a very dangerous chemical to keep around given that operating rooms were lit with candles and gas lamps.

James Simpson a young surgeon from Edinburgh, was convinced that there were better anaesthetics than laughing gas or ether. He got a group of friends together and they sniffed various different Chemicals. When they sniffed chloroform, the entire party passed out. Clearly it was an effective anaesthetic.

However, chloroform had some dangerous effects;

-          The dose had o be carefully controlled, as it was easy to overdose a patient and kill them

-          The chemical sometimes effected the heart, which cause some healthy and fit people to die shortly after inhaling it

IN spite of this it was widely used and praised. It solved one of the main problems associated with surgery. Queen Victoria even used it giving birth to her son in 1853. James Simpson was the first person to be knighted for services to medicine. It enabled surgeons to try longer and far more complex surgeries than before.

Antiseptic – Joseph Lister

Historically, due to a lack of information, surgeons did not make an effort to…