listening 6b

Anaesthetic
In former times,people didn't know any anaesthetics. Even the simplest operations caused a lot of pain and suffering. People would prefer to put up with an illness instead of undergoing a surgery.An alternative that was used in place of anaesthetic was alcohol.However it wasn't a safe solution.Alcohol increases bleeding and could have caused death because of blood loss.First anaesthetic to be used was nitrous oxide commonly known as laughing  gas.Before H. David who plucked up the courage to use the gas on himself, it had been considered lethal.David used a gas and unexpectedly nothing happened to him.Moreover, his inflammation cleared up.Although nitrous oxide had been known to science earlier it wasn't used in medicine up until the discovery of it's qualities made by Horace Wells.He discovered it's anaestethics qualities by accident when he was on a show where the gas was presented.The audience was called on a stage in order to inhale nitrous oxide.Wells noticed that one man bashed his leg but he didn't seem to notice it.Wells asked him about the leg.The man was frankly surprised because it turned out that he had actually hurt it.Nitrous oxide proved to be an anaesthetic.Horace Wells decided to perform the first painless tooth extraction.Unfortunately, he didn't use enough nitrous oxide and his patient ended writhing in agony.