For decades before the first clinical use of local anesthetics (1884), inhalational agents relieved the pain of dental procedures. In 1859, the Royal Scottish Society of the Arts (RSSA) awarded “Surgeon Dentist” James Darsie Morrison of Edinburgh (right) a silver medal for his application of an alternative anesthetic technique. The medal’s obverse (upper left) displays a bust of Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts, and symbol of the RSSA, whose mission was to promote scientific innovation. The award’s reverse (lower left) praises Morrison for creating an “Apparatus for the Application / Of Cold for producing / Local Anaesthesia” (right). In ancient times, Hippocrates had noted the analgesic effects of snow. Today, the mechanisms of cold anesthesia are thought to include vasoconstriction, slowed nerve conduction, and impaired pain substance release. In 1859, Morrison, prefiguring modern cryoanalgesia, patented his award-winning thermoconductive device. His invention employed tubes of frosty liquid and chilled compressed air to numb the teeth and gums of patients. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)

For decades before the first clinical use of local anesthetics (1884), inhalational agents relieved the pain of dental procedures. In 1859, the Royal Scottish Society of the Arts (RSSA) awarded “Surgeon Dentist” James Darsie Morrison of Edinburgh (right) a silver medal for his application of an alternative anesthetic technique. The medal’s obverse (upper left) displays a bust of Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts, and symbol of the RSSA, whose mission was to promote scientific innovation. The award’s reverse (lower left) praises Morrison for creating an “Apparatus for the Application / Of Cold for producing / Local Anaesthesia” (right). In ancient times, Hippocrates had noted the analgesic effects of snow. Today, the mechanisms of cold anesthesia are thought to include vasoconstriction, slowed nerve conduction, and impaired pain substance release. In 1859, Morrison, prefiguring modern cryoanalgesia, patented his award-winning thermoconductive device. His invention employed tubes of frosty liquid and chilled compressed air to numb the teeth and gums of patients. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)

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Jane S. Moon, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles, and George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.