1. Pain – Source Skills Learning Objectives:
To know how to develop source inference skills
To be able to use sources to identify a range of attitudes towards the developments of anaesthetics
To understand the development of anaesthetics

2. Source Analysis - Inference
“In the source is a man screaming in pain and is being held down by other people. There are people in the background who are watching what is happening.” 1- This only describes what is happening in the source, it does not make any reference to what it tells us about operations before relief.

3. What is inference?
Inference is the word used to describe what you can learn, or work out from a source – even though it is not actually written down or shown.
For example; the picture you have just seen does NOT show or tell you that the patient is in pain, but you can INFER (work out) from what you can see that he would be in pain.
Inference is also about working out what message the author or artist was trying to get across.
Think about 1) What has been shown 2) Whether anything is missing 3) what is the centre of attention within the source?

4. Source Analysis - Inference
There is a man who is being operated on who is screaming in agony. You can tell from this source that this was before anaesthetics. What needs to be changed in this answer? There is a man who is being operated on who is screaming in agony. This tells us that operations before pain relief were painful as there was no anaesthetic and people were conscious during operations.

5. Source Analysis Let’s do the first source together…
Summary of what the source says/shows
Is the source FOR or AGAINST the use of anaesthetic?
Evidence of FOR or AGAINST (Quotes/specific parts of the picture etc.)
Is the source trustworthy (reliable)? Consider who wrote/drew the source and why

6. Source A: A Cartoon by the artist Gillray (1795) showing Scientist Humphrey Davy giving a lecture on gases as pain relief

7. Source Analysis
Over to you… You have been assigned a source to analyse. Be prepared to share your findings with the class.

8. Source B: A Newspaper cartoon showing the effects of Laughing Gas (1820s). The Caption reads: ‘Living made easy - prescription for Scolding Wives’. This cartoon was aimed at men searching for a method to mellow their wives!

9. Source C: An artists impression of Morton performing the first operation using Ether as an anaesthetic. The people who watched the operation were said to be profoundly moved” by what they saw.

10. Source D: A drawing of Simpson and his friends, waking up after using Chloroform. (1850)

11. Source E: From a letter written to James Simpson by one of Queen Victoria’s doctors in 1853, just after the birth of her eighth child.
The Queen had chloroform given to her during the recent childbirth. It worked perfectly. Her majesty was greatly pleased with the effect and she certainly has had a better recovery than in previous childbirths. I know this Information will please you and I have little doubt that it will lead to a more general use of chloroform in childbirth.

12. Source F: An account of the death of Hannah Greener, ages 15 in 1848
Source F: An account of the death of Hannah Greener, ages 15 in She was the first person to die under chloroform. The article featured in a medical journal:
“A teaspoon of chloroform was inhaled from a handkerchief. In about half a minute, finding her unconscious, I requested Mr Lloyd to begin the operation. She gave a kick, which made me thing the chloroform had not had sufficient effect. I was giving her more chloroform when her lips suddenly became blanched and she spluttered at the mouth. I threw down the handkerchief, dashed cold water in her face and gave her some brandy to drink, without any effect. The whole process of inhaling, operation and death could not have taken more than two minutes.”

13. Source G: A statue of James Simpson that was erected in Edinburgh after his death; the money for the statue came from collections from the public.

14. Source H: A notice issued by Dr John Hall in 1855 during the Crimean War; Dr Hall was the Chief of the Medical staff fir the British army in the Crimea.
“Dr Hall takes this opportunity of warning medical officers against the use of chloroform in the severe shock of gunshot wounds as he thinks few will survive if it is used. It is much better to hear a man scream lustily than it is to see him sink silently into his grave. But Dr Hall knows that public opinion, based on mistaken kindness, is against him.”

15. Source I: From a speech given by James Simpson to a medical meeting in 1847:
“In the course of years our successors will, I believe, look back on the so called desirability of pain in operations as claimed by many surgeons at the present day. They will be amazed at the Idea of men confessing that they prefer operating on their patients in a waking state instead of an anaesthetic state and that the agonies that they inflict should be endured quietly. All pain is destructive and fatal”

16. Map The Journey…
On your handout is the three stages to developing anaesthetics.
Task One: Create your own version of the diagram on page 18. Use one side of A4.
Task Two: Under the headings below, use evidence from the diagram on page 19 to show why people opposed chloroform.
You should feel pain
Safety concerns
Surgeons’ jobs

17. Inference Question
What can you learn from the source about surgery in the late eighteenth century? (6 marks)

18. Pain – Source Skills Learning Objectives:
To know how to develop source inference skills
To be able to use sources to identify a range of attitudes towards the developments of anaesthetics
To understand the development of anaesthetics

19. Homework Study Source B
What can you learn about attitudes towards the use of nitrous oxide in the early 1800s? (6 marks)