The history of anaesthesia in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Before Europeans arrived in Australia and New Zealand, neither of the indigenous peoples, aborigines or Maori, used any form of anaesthesia. The news of anaesthesia arrived in Britain's furthest colonies in May 1847. Australians William Pugh and John Belisario independently gave ether on 7 June 1847. In New Zealand, an instrument maker gave the first surgical anesthetic on 27 September 1847. Chloroform arrived in 1848. Portable and non-flammable, it was the ideal agent in a country of widely scattered rural communities. In the late 1870s, the risks inherent to chloroform became increasingly apparent and ether and nitrous oxide replaced chloroform.