The use of anaesthetics before 19th century

From ancient times anesthesia in surgery has been attempted by various agents or anaesthetics.

From 9th to 13th century, the soporific sponge was the usual mode of providing pain relief during surgery. Mandrake leaves, black night-shade, poppies and other herbs were boiled together and cooked onto a sponge.

Prior to surgery, this sponge was moistened and held over the face to induce unconsciousness. Nitrous oxide first accurately investigated by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1799. He experimented freely with it upon himself and others and ascertained its remarkable property, when inhaled of annulling pain.

Ether was administered from the early 1840s, but the impact on general medical practice began after William Thomas Green Morton publicly administered ether to Gilbert Abbot in 16th October 1846 at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

In 1858, Benjamin Ward Richardson published his studies using an apparatus that sprayed ether topically and froze the peripheral nerves by evaporation.

In 1847 James Simpson discovered the benefits of chloroform while experimenting with chemicals at home with some doctor friends. He later used it for women giving birth, and the idea spread to other operations.
The use of anaesthetics before 19th century

Ether and chloroform

Ether was known in the 13th and 14th century. That its formation was described in the 16th century by Valerius Cordus and that it was first designed ‘Ether’ by Frobenius in 1730.

Dr. Crawford Williamson Long, of Jefferson, Georgia undoubtedly deserves credit for priority in using ether deliberately and successfully for the purpose of inducing anesthesia in a surgical operation in March 1842.

He had safely extirpated a tumor from the neck of a Mr. Venables while profoundly under the anesthetic influence of ether. Dr. Crawford did not, however, publish a description of his feat until 1848.

In October 1846, Dr Morton successfully anaesthetized a patient in the Massachusetts General Hospital with ether.

In 1847, the Edinburgh obstetrician James Young Simpsons first used chloroform for general anesthesia during childbirth. Chloroform was first prepared in 1831 by the American chemist Samuel Guthrie (1782-1848), who was attempting to create an inexpensive pesticide by mixing whiskey with chlorinated lime.

Chloroform was inflammable and put people to sleep relatively quickly, both advantages that allowed it to replace ether the most commonly used anesthetic.  The used of chloroform during surgery expanded rapidly thereafter in Europe.  

In the United States chloroform began to replace ether as an anesthetic at the beginning of 20th century; however it was quickly abandoned in favor of ether upon discovery of its toxicity.

Ether is still the preferred anesthetic in some developing nations due to its high therapeutic index.
Ether and chloroform