Operations Without Pain: The Practice and Science of Anaesthesia in Victorian Britain

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 1-9

3. From Enlightenment Philosophies to Victorian Reform, 1790–1846

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 10-39

4. Altered States

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 40-73

5. Science Versus Empiricism

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 74-92

6. Risks of Life and Birth

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 93-122

7. Anaesthesia in London: John Snow’s Casebooks

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 123-151

8. In the Name of Safety

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 152-182

9. Conclusion: The History of Anaesthesia

   • Stephanie J. Snow

   Pages 183-199

10. Back Matter

    Pages 200-271

    PDF

The introduction of anaesthesia to Victorian Britain marked a defining moment between modern medicine and earlier practices. This book uses new information from John Snow's casebooks and London hospital archives to revise many of the existing historical assumptions about the early history of surgical anaesthesia. By examining complex patterns of innovation, reversals, debate and geographical difference, Stephanie Snow shows how anaesthesia became established as a routine part of British medicine.

• Archive
• enlightenment
• history
• reform

'Snow's prose is lucid and expressive, her theses insightful, her conclusions illuminating and well supported... This book deserves to become both a standard reference work for students of Victorian medicine and a template for future workers in this field.' - Medical History

'Operations without pain is a meticulously written book that also deals largely with historical aspects of pain...she [Stephanie J. Snow] sheds fascinating light on the medical scenes in America and Victorian Britain.' - Brain

STEPHANIE SNOW is a Wellcome Research Fellow at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, UK.

Policies and ethics