History of analgesia and regional anaesthesia through philately

Abstract

Medical philately is the study of postage stamps commemorating events and pioneers in the field of medicine. In 1929, Dr Fielding H. Garrison, doyen of medical history, remarked that stamps were a great resource for the medical fraternity, something he hoped that physicians would soon recognise. His prediction has hardly come to fruition in the years since then, with medical philatelic articles rarely seen in the medical press. The history of pain medicine is unique, diverse and extremely interesting, with many chemists, physicists, philosophers, contributing in their own way over centuries to pave the path to present day pain medicine.