Key facts
- A 14th-century Chinese surgeon's tomb has yielded new evidence regarding anesthetic use.
- The evidence suggests ancient Chinese surgeons may have used plant-based anesthetics.
- This discovery could potentially predate the widely accepted 1846 demonstration of ether anesthesia in Boston.
The widely accepted history of modern anesthesia credits American dentist William T.G. Morton's 1846 demonstration of ether anesthesia. However, new findings from a 14th-century Chinese surgeon's tomb suggest that plant-based anesthetics may have been utilized in China centuries earlier, challenging the established timeline and potentially rewriting medical history.