One of the best ways for a surgical patient to
maintain calm during an operation was to focus
his attention on something else. The ancient
Chinese soldier Guan Yu was said to have
endured surgical pain by diverting his attention
to a competitive board game. Stuffing the
mouth with rolled cloth or a wooden stick was
common throughout pre-anesthetic history—
less to distract the patient, however, and more
to prevent his screams of pain from distracting
the surgeon. Compression anesthesia consisted
of applying pressure to an area where a group
of branching nerves met in order to numb
feeling in a limb. Methods of inducing unconsciousness
for surgery were almost as brutal as
the surgery itself: ancient Assyrian surgeons
used to asphyxiate their patients until they
became unconscious. Other surgeons preferred
to compress the patient’s carotid artery, cutting
off blood flow to the brain. Although this
prevented pain during surgery, it could also
cause permanent brain damage. Concussion
anesthesia involved a blow to the head with a
wooden mallet (for the patient’s safety, a
leather helmet was provided). The only type of pharmacologic anesthesia available was alcohol, and it
was frequently used to intoxicate the patient in the hopes that he would forget the operation after it was
over, but unfortunately pain exerts a sobering influence.