Ep 3: The First Professional Anesthetist (The Etherist, Season 3)

Anesthesiology News Presents

In the previous episodes, we relived the incredible achievements of the discoverers of anesthesia in Davy, Morton, Simpson and Long. But another individual may be just as important to the progress of the specialty as those who discovered it.

John Snow was a doctor and scientist in London when he first witnessed a demonstration of ether anesthesia. Even though he was not credited with the discovery of ether or chloroform, he became a leader in the advancement of modern medicine in England.

In fact, it was Snow’s forward-thinking mentality that laid the foundation for the spirit of the specialty of anesthesiology: the idea that there is always a better answer to the problem than the one we have now. To do that, Snow developed the first ever anesthesia practice standards to guide his colleagues in the use of anesthesia.

In this episode, we turn our attention to our future, and explore how understanding Snow’s original ether anesthesia practice standards was just the first chapter in a 175-year story of anesthesia innovation. We will also discuss the current outlook of our modern research into the development of more targeted anesthesia drugs and more.

This is episode 3 of season 3 of “Anesthesiology News presents The Etherist.” The fourth and final episode of the season will be available on Nov. 23, 2021.

Sponsored by Masimo and Medtronic.

Suggested Reading

• Fenster JM. _Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America’s Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It._ Perennial; 2002.

• Knight PR III, Bacon DR. An unexplained death: Hannah Greener and chloroform. Anesthesiology. 2002;96:1250–1253.

• Mets B. Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2021.
• Mets B. Waking Up Safer?: An Anesthesiologist’s Record. SilverWood Books; 2018.
• Richardson BW. Memoir of the Author: John Snow, Chloroform and Other Anaesthetics. London: John Chruchill; 1858.
• Snow SJ. Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaethetics Changed the World. Oxford University Press; 2008.
• Sykes K, Bunker J. Anaesthesia and the Practice of Medicine: Historical Perspectives. 1st ed. CRC Press; 2007.

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