Anesthesia in Victorian Canada: surgical accidents, risk, and safety

The process of inhalation anesthesia was one of several Victorian innovations that transformed surgery. Its uptake in Canada from the 1840s to the early 1900s affords insights into situating attitudes towards surgical accidents, risk, and safety, along with the concomitant issues of blame and medical progress. Based on contemporary English-language Canadian medical journals, including their publication of clinical case reports, detailed newspaper accounts of legal proceedings, and editorial commentaries, this article reveals a spectrum of responses by Canadians to the opportunity of being spared pain during surgical operations and childbirth. These published sources show that the uptake of inhalation anesthesia was not a straightforward or inevitable success story, although it became commonplace and standard practice. Rather, as I demonstrate, enthusiasm over its adoption in Canada was tempered by social and scientific questions, making the process complex, nuanced, and subject to challenge and debate.