“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.”
Genesis, chap. ii, verse 21

Anæsthetics, Antient and Modern
An Historical Sketch of Anæsthesia


“So God empal’d our Grandsire’s (Adam’s) lively look,

Through all his bones a deadly chilness strook,

Siel’d up his sparkling eyes with Iron bands,

Led down his feet (almost) to Lethe’s sands;

In briefe so numm’d his Soule’s and Bodie’s sense,

That (without pain) opening his side from thence

He took a rib, which rarely He refin’d,