In Boston, USA in 1846 a crowd of doctors witnessed a landmark operation. It was the first successful demonstration of surgery on a patient who had been anaesthetised. This talk briefly outlines the hesitant early history of pain relief and the fierce opposition it encountered.
We consider mavericks like Joseph Priestley and Humphry Davy and working-class idealists like John Snow and James Simpson who rose to become anaesthesia experts. Their discoveries and compassion helped make pain relief an option for the patient undergoing surgery and even, following Queen Victoria’s example, for a woman during labour.