This presentation briefly examines the dissertation Johannes Quistorp wrote for his medical degree at the University of Rostock in 1718: Die Anaesthesia

1. Quistorp and “Anaesthesia” in 1718
A. J. Wright, M.L.S.
Anesthesiology Library
University of Alabama at Birmingham

2. I’ll imitate the pities of the old surgeons
To this lost limb, who, ere they show their art,
Cast one asleep, then cut the diseased part.
Thomas Middleton, Women, Beware Women (ca.1627)

3. 1829 Use of “Anaesthesia”
Reid, Alexander
Case of anaesthesia, or loss of sensation
Edinburgh Med Surg J April, 1829

4. Anesthesia: Greek and Latin Authors
(deprivation of senses/insensitivity to pain)
* Linnaeus * Hippon
* Epicurus * Demosthenes
* Hippocrates * Plato

5. Anesthesia: Greek and Latin Authors
(stupidity, irresponsibility)
* Isocrates
* Demsothenes
* Plato
* and others

6. Dioscorides Pedanius
* 1st cent. AD military physician
* Served under Roman emperors Cladius and
Nero
* Mixture of wine and mandrake root extract
* Insomnia, chronic pain, “during cutting and
cautery”

7. Quistorp’s Chapters
1. Seven definitions and corollaries
2. Eleven relevant axioms/corollaries about
human physiology
3. Four observations/individuals in state of
anesthesia
4. Twenty-one hypotheses/corollaries/proofs
about anesthesia

8. Quistorp’s Four Degrees/Types of
Anesthesia
1. “True anesthesia”: deep coma
2. Religious ecstasy/enthusiasm
3. Light coma/cachectic lethargy
4. Fainting/syncope

9. “Vapors (fumes) entering the body
may produce anesthesia.”
Quistorp, Chapter 4: Hypothesis 14