Who named it in anaesthesia?

Abstract

The history of modern anaesthesia started on October 16, 1846 when WTG Morton demonstrated ether anaesthesia in Massachusetts General Hospital in USA. For about one month the new born branch of medicine was without a name. The word anaesthesia as we know of now as a science and art was suggested by Oliver Holmes Wendell in November 1846. New discoveries and inventions followed. Most of them needed new names or terminologies. Some of them were named by the people who discovered them, some by the people who did studies later. Few words existed before 1846 and majority naturally came after. A peep is made into the glorious past of anaesthesia which is one of mankind’s greatest discoveries. This article salutes the great personalities who coined those words, which millions of tongues speak daily around the globe.

Keywords: anaesthesia, balanced anaesthesia, dissociative anaesthesia, history, spinal anaesthesia