Although most human civilizations evolved some method for diminishing patient discomfort, anesthesia, in its modern and effective meaning, is a comparatively recent discovery with traceable origins dating back 160 years. (An epitaph on a monument to William T. G. Morton, one of the founders of anesthesia, reads: “Before whom in all time Surgery was Agony.”) (Jacob AK, Kopp SL, Bacon DR, Smith HM. The history of anesthesia. In: Barash PG, Cullen BF, Stoelting RK, Cahalan MK, Ortega R, Stock MC, eds. Clinical Anesthesia. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2013: 1–27.)

1. Anesthesia Before Ether
2. Anesthesia Principles, Equipment, and Standards
3. The History of Anesthetic Agents and Adjuvants
4. Anesthesia Subspecialties
5. Professionalism and Anesthesia Practice