When were anesthetics first used?

When were anesthetics first used?

Before the mid 1800's, a person undergoing surgery was in for a terrifying time. In those days, there was nothing to dull the pain but whiskey.  In fact, it was quite common for the doctor to partake of the liquor himself so that he could endure the screams of the patient!. To reduce the pain, surgeons would work as fast as they could, but the pain of the operations were still so severe that many people preferred to put up with their illnesses rather than undergo surgery.In 1772, an English scientist Joseph Priestly discovered a gas called nitrous oxide or 'laughing gas'. In 1799, a British Chemist Humphrey Davy decided to test the effects of the gas on himself and found that it made him laugh. In 1815, another famous scientist, Michel Faraday discovered that ether had a similar effect.

 But it was a dentist, Wills Morton, who first used ether as a general anesthetic painlessly remove a tumor from a patient's neck. Its success led to the wide spread use of ether as a general anesthetic.