Overview

Surgery is an ancient branch of medicine, but it was not until the nineteenth century that doctors learned to apply practical and effective measures for controlling pain and preventing surgical infection. New techniques for anesthesia and antisepsis were key elements of the transformation of the ancient art of surgery into one of the most respected and powerful areas of medical specialization. With dependable methods for the control of pain, infection, and bleeding, surgeons were able to go beyond the treatment of wounds, fractures, dislocations and carry out new and daring operations on the interior of the body.

Background

The transformation of surgery seems to have occurred with remarkable speed in the nineteenth century when surgeons were given the tools to overcome two of the great obstacles to major operative procedures: pain during surgery and the life-threatening infections that often followed surgery. These obstacles...