History Black period of surgery notes

Anaesthetics

Substances used to induce insensitivity to pain during surgery or other medical procedures.

Crawford W Long

American physician who first used ether as an anaesthetic during surgery in 1842.

Antiseptics

Substances that prevent the growth of disease-causing microorganisms.

Ignaz Semmelweiss

Hungarian physician who reduced mortality rates by implementing handwashing with calcium chloride solution in his maternity ward in 1847.

Joseph Lister

Scottish surgeon who reduced patient mortality rates by using carbolic acid to sterilize instruments and bandages in 1865.

Aseptic surgery

Surgical procedures performed under sterile conditions to prevent infections.

Florence Nightingale

Influential figure who improved hospital cleanliness and nursing care standards in 1854.

Carl Koller

German physician who discovered cocaine as a local anaesthetic in 1884.

James Simpson

British physician who discovered chloroform as an anaesthetic in 1847.

Horace Wells

American dentist who experimented with laughing gas as an anaesthetic for painless tooth extraction in 1845.