A medical substance or state that causes loss of feeling or sensation, especially so doctors can perform surgery without the patient feeling pain.
From Greek 'an-' (without) + 'aisthesis' (sensation, feeling). The word was coined in the 1840s when ether was first used in surgery, making painless operations possible.
Before anaesthesia was discovered, surgery was absolute torture—patients were conscious for everything. The first person to have ether surgery in 1846 woke up pain-free and said 'Gentlemen, this is no humbug,' changing medicine forever.
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