The Story of Dr. Crawford Long and the Ether Controversy
Born in 1815, Dr. Crawford Long studied medicine and surgery under renowned scholars and had the opportunity to participate in several surgeries. Surgery was a different experience in the early nineteenth century because patients were not sedated and were in excruciating pain throughout the procedure.
Statuette of Hua Tuo
Approximately 1600 years before William T. G. Morton, Chinese physician Hua Tuo invented an anaesthetic that he called mafeisan and applied this substance to patients undergoing abdominal surgery.