ABSTRACT
There have been many important advances in medicine, such as the introduction of penicillin, insulin and smallpox vaccination, but perhaps only the discovery of the anaesthetic effects of ether can be said to have ‘divided mankind into those who came before it and those who came after it’. Anaesthesia has been the key which has opened the door to all the advances in surgery, to the developments in interventional radiology, to many advances in general medicine and, with the introduction of antibiotics, to many of the advances in obstetrics. Indeed without the skills of the anaesthetist some specialties, such as intensive care, would not exist. The discovery of anaesthesia was and will remain the single most important event in medical progress.
