when was anesthesia first used
In 1847, Scottish obstetrician James Young Simpson (1811â1870) of Edinburgh was the first to use chloroform as a general anesthetic. The use of chloroform anesthesia expanded rapidly thereafter in Europe. Chloroform began to replace ether as an anesthetic in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.he word anesthesia, coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809â1894) in 1846 from the Greek Î±Î½- , an- , without; and Î±á¼´ÏÎ¸Î·ÏÎ¹Ï, aisthÄsis, sensation), refers to the inhibition of sensation.