Talk:History of general anesthesia

npov
NPOV does not consist in looking to find specific eras when advances in one culture outstripped another. Such comparisons are inherently arbitrary in scope, and driven by editorial agendas. You wouldn't randomly say that while the Chinese had opium, the Danes were stuck with akvavit, and the Australian Aborigines roughed it. Why, exactly, is it necessary to point out that during one specific time the Arabs were ahead of the Europeans? They were also ahead of the Subsaharan Africans and the Tierra del Fuegans, Why is their status relative to Europeans inherently noteworthy? Are Europeans so important that no value judgments are worth making except in comparison to them? It's a bizarrely reverse-racist agenda that elevates Europeans to iconic status. I suggest we stick to simply stating the verifiable facts of innovations, and leave selective comparisons of the stagnation of ethnicity A versus the glory of culture B out of it.μηδείς (talk) 06:17, 22 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your comments, Medeis. Here is the passage I wrote, to which you object: "Attempts at producing a state of general anesthesia can be traced throughout recorded history in the writings of the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Indians, and Chinese. The European Middle Ages coincided with the Islamic Golden Age, a time when medieval Islamic science flourished. While alchemists like Paracelsus made advances in Europe, Islamic physicians and other Eastern scholars maintained and advanced the practice of medicine in the Arab World during that period."

With respect to your minor complaint: your edit removed the Babylonians and Assyrians, as if their contributions were irrelevant. Although the written records from that time are admittedly a bit sketchy, there seems to be reasonable evidence to suggest that these civilizations transferred the knowledge of the medicinal properties of opium from the Sumerians to the Egyptians and the Persians. I believe the Babylonians and Assyrians should be given credit, even if their only contribution was to preserve knowledge rather than make specific scientific advances.

With respect to your main complaint, that I might be looking to find specific eras when advances in one culture outstripped another: first let me reiterate that I have no editorial agenda, other than to be accurate and thorough. I have no interest whatsoever in portraying the development of anesthesia as some sort of race between imagined competitor cultures. Rather, I am interested in trying to illustrate who was making advances that would prove to be instrumental to the development of general anesthesia, and where these advances were being made. What I am trying to say here is that many civilizations have participated in the development of general anesthesia, right up until the present. I am stunned that anyone could read any sort of reverse-racist agenda into this. Apparently my writing skills are even worse than I thought. During the Middle Ages, the only important written records I am aware of that relate to anesthesia/analgesia/surgery are from Europe, India, China, and the Arab World. There may indeed be records from other civilizations, but I have not yet seen them. If I find them, you can be sure that I will include them and (to the best of my ability) put them into the proper historical perspective. DiverDave (talk) 05:16, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Opium, how was it used?
The article mentions opium a bunch of times, but mostly just mentioning who discovered opium when. It does not really explain how opium was used. I am interested in how well it can be used as a general anesthetic, and how well they were able to use it. The only account of opium consumption (recreational) I have heard was about being unable to move, but still conscious. I wonder if opium could actually render people unconscious, or if it was just used to make people limp when operating?

Was it safe to use opium, or did overdose often happen?

213.165.179.229 (talk) 12:20, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Some text removed from the mention of dwale under "medieval anaesthetics
The original text talked about dwale being so dangerous it most often killed its recepients. This is contrary to what is stated in the text used as a source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127089/ and is likely either vandalism or deliberate misrepresentation. Removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.196.205.99 (talk) 11:30, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

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Author link
I created an article to Andranik Ovassapian. He is cited in this article. I'm not sure how to add an author link. TJMSmith (talk) 17:33, 1 May 2020 (UTC)