Ancient Natural Painkillers

Ethylene

At the oracle of Delphi, the Pythian priestess of Apollo uttered prophecies after inhaling gases from fault lines beneath the Sun god’s temple. Those gases might have included ethylene, an anesthetic administered through inhalation. In 1930, ethylene was being hailed as the “new” general anesthetic. It would replace chloroform, which was on its way out due to serious post-op effects such as sudden death, and ether, which often resulted in nausea and vomiting following surgery. According to a surgeon who’d used ethylene in 800 surgeries, the substance rendered patients unconscious within “three to eight minutes . . . usually without any excitement or feelings of suffocation.” The patient recovered from its effects just as quickly once the anesthesia mask was removed.