Relief from pain and suffering, when it can be accomplished with comparative ease and safety, must be regarded as a luxury. But like many luxuries [anaesthesia] has manifest disadvantages. Apart from any danger connected with the diminution or removal of pain, which is an essential part of a complicated natural process, it must not be forgotten that the inhalation of these stupefying vapours produces temporary havoc amongst the cells and fibres of the brain and their functions. The will being paralysed, words are spoken, and actions attempted which in a state of sensibility would never have been uttered or performed, no nor even contemplated. It may be positively affirmed that the involuntary and erratic emanations from the brain, whether in the form of words or actions, cannot be either edifying to the observer, or satisfactory to the patient.
Footnotes
Submitted by Ann Dally, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London