Most Important Scientific Discovery by Mankind Ever: Anesthesia (Essay Sample)

Most Important Scientific Discovery by Mankind Ever: Anesthesia
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Most Important Scientific Discovery by Mankind Ever: Anesthesia
The most exceptional scientific discovery is anesthesia. Anesthesia discovery stands out because of its facilitation and role in medical world. The fear of pain in the medical procedures particularly surgery was the basis of discovering the anesthesia. Initially, primeval surgeries were realized through suffering and immense pains. The patients had to sooth themselves through cries and screams. A surgical procedure was merely torture, and the surgical theater was a persecution chamber for the patients (Boland, 2009, p. 79). The lack of anesthesia meant that surgeons had to be youthful with sturdy hands. Moreover, they had to use both left and right hands to hasten the surgical procedure.
Prior to the discovery of anesthesia, surgeons used alcohol or flowers of cannabis plant to reduce pain. The use of alcohol and cannabis plant was less effective which compelled the physicians and surgeons to create another alternative. The first anesthesia was ether. Ether was first developed in 1275 by Raymundus Lullius. Lullius was a Spanish chemist. Nevertheless, it was until the early 1800s when the physicians discovered that ether had an extraordinary property of causing a pleasurable feeling among people. The use of ether as an anesthesia was reduced with the discovery of nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide was discovered by Joseph Priestly in 1772. Nitrous oxide had the effect of causing laughter among people occasioning the name “laughing gas” (Vacanti, Segal, Sikka, & Urman, 2011).
Goldsmith (1974, p. 174) acknowledges that in the early 1800s, the use of both ether and nitrous oxide had gained prominence in the medical field. The prominence occasioned a disagreement among four professionals who each claimed the rights on anesthesia discovery. The first expert was Crawford Williamson Long, a physician in Danielsville who claimed he used ether in his surgical procedures in as early as 1842. The second researcher was a dentist called Horace Wells. Wells alleged that he used nitrous oxide in his dental dealings to minimize pain. The third scholar was Charles T. Jackson who argued to have conferred the idea of ether and nitrous oxide as an anesthesia to Wells and Long.
However, many historians have discredited the assertions because of no documentation. The last professional to accredit himself to anesthesia discovery was Thomas Morton. The medical world accredits and recognizes Morton for discovering anesthesia. The credit is attributed to his use and exhibition of the efficiency of ether as an anesthesia at the Massachusetts Hospital (Goldsmith, 1974, p. 177).
Anesthesia as a stupendous scientific discovery has led to the following in realization in the medical field. It is apparent that complicated surgical procedures such as kidney transplant, teeth extraction, heart or cardiac surgery are done with keenness and effectiveness because of the four critical roles of anesthesia. First, anesthesia lessens pains in a surgery proced...