Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: anesthesiology

  • William Webster, the first modern Canadian academic anesthesiologist

    Kush Patel Ajax, Canada   Dr. William Webster. Photo by the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society (CAS), 2004. Archival Resources, Preserving the Heritage of Canadian Anesthesiology, p. 5. Permission obtained by the CAS Archives and Artifacts Committee. Until the early twentieth century, anesthetics were a black box, and even though ether and chloroform were commonly used, their…

  • Banishing that dread of being cut

    Samuel Spencer Reading, Berkshire, UK   An unconscious naked man lying on a table being attacked by little demons armed with surgical instruments, watercolous by R. Cooper. In 1863, Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was returning to camp after routing Federal armies at Chancellorsville, when he was mistaken for a Union cavalryman by his own…