[The beginning of anesthesia]

Abstract

On October 16, 1846, the first public demonstration of etherization, at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, illustrated the rise of Inhalational Anaesthesia. Pioneers were: Hickman, Wells, Morton, Davy and Long. Anaesthesia was considered an American invention. Thereafter, the development of new molecules (cocaine, hexobarbital) which can be administered by others ways (spinal puncture, intravenous injections) allowed new methods of anaesthesia to be achieved. Thus, three successive periods have illustrated the Story of Anaesthesia: Inhalational Anaesthesia (1844), Local Anaesthesia (1860), Intravenous Anaesthesia (1932).