Anaesthetic

in surgery, an agent used to produce unconsciousness during an operation. The anaesthetics used chiefly are chloroform, ether, and nitrous oxide or laughing gas. The use of anaesthetics may be said to date from 1800, when Sir Humphry Davy recommended the employment of nitrous oxide to render patients insensible to the pain of operation. Cocaine injected into the flesh is used to produce local numbness to the pain in a part that is to undergo an operation so slight as not to warrant the use of an anaesthetic. In 1910 Dr. Jonnesco of Bucharest, Roumania, visited the United States and demonstrated the use of stovaine and strychnine as a substitute for cocaine. This eminent surgeon performed serious operations without first producing unconsciousness. See Surgery; Chloroform; Ether; Cocaine