Anaesthesia for surgery
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Did ancient Indian surgeons invent anaesthesia, or did it begin in Japan in 1804 and America in 1846?
Earlier elsewhereMedicine & health
Indian claim
Sushruta told surgeons to give wine before operations so the patient would not feel pain, and later writers say a drug called 'sammohini' put patients to sleep.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- The Sushruta Samhita says a patient who has been made intoxicated does not feel the pain of the operation, and recommends wine for this.
- Some writers add cannabis fumes, but scholars note the direct textual evidence for this is limited, and 'sammohini' is known only from later and uncertain sources.
Commonly credited to
Hanaoka Seishu in Japan removed a breast tumour under oral general anaesthesia on 13 October 1804. William Morton's public ether demonstration in Boston on 16 October 1846 launched modern anaesthesia.
Evidence for the other claim
- Using alcohol, opium or herbs to dull pain was common in many ancient societies, including China, Greece and Rome.
- Hanaoka's herbal mixture tsusensan produced full unconsciousness; ether and chloroform (1840s) made safe, controlled anaesthesia routine.
What historians and scientists say
Sushruta's use of wine to dull surgical pain is a real early example of pain control, shared with other ancient cultures. General anaesthesia in the modern sense was first achieved in Japan and then in the United States.