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

by S. Snow

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349517183
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2006
Series:	Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History
Edition description:	1st ed. 2006
Pages:	271
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

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

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction From Enlightenment Philosophies to Victorian Reform, 1790-1846 Altered States Science versus Empiricism Risks of Life and Birth Anaesthesia in London: John Snow's Casebooks In the Name of Safety Conclusion: The History of Anaesthesia Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

'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

From the Publisher