Breakthrough!

“As nitrous oxide... appears capable of destroying physical pain,” Davy wrote, “it may be probably used with advantage during surgical operations...”

the sleep-inducing seeds of henbane, the human-shaped mandrake root which, in addition to numbing pain, was said to emit a scream when pulled from the ground, and, the age-old favorite, alcohol.

of Louis Pasteur to push medical awareness to the next milestone: making a link between specific particles—microorganisms—and their effects on other living organisms.

Thus, for those who believed pain was a form of divine justice, attempts to alleviate it were fundamentally immoral and strongly resisted. The power of such thinking became dramatically clear when debates arose in the 1840s over the morality of giving anesthesia to women during childbirth.

Michael Faraday—famous for his work in electromagnetism—observed that inhaling ether vapors could produce profound lethargy and insensibility to pain. Unfortunately, taking a page from Davy’s work with nitrous oxide, Faraday instead focused on the “exhilarating” properties of ether.

Religious concerns had to be overcome, and physicians who believed pain was necessary for healing had to be enlightened. What’s more, a new mindset had to arise in both physicians and patients that consciousness could be safely altered in this new and unimagined way.

Historians note that in almost all civilizations, the ability to endure pain has been viewed as a sign of nobility, virility, and character. And finally, some nineteenth-century physicians opposed pain prevention because they believed it served a necessary physiological function,

“began to inspire greater confidence not because they could suddenly cure infectious diseases, but because they seemed better able to explain and prevent them.”