COLLECTION

Antique anesthesia medical and surgical instruments do not seem to be as collectible as other medical antiques; however, the importance of anesthesiology is central to the modern history of medicine and surgery.

Whether using diethyl ether at the Ether Dome of Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 marked the ‘beginning’ of anesthesia or the use of opium in Mesopotamia in 3,400 BCE can be debated.

Regardless, antique anesthesia medical and surgical instruments, especially of the late 180os and early 1900s are fairly common and therefore not super valuable / collectible currently, at least in my opinion among ‘mainstream’ medical antique collectors.

That said, I have added items to my collection given their importance in medical and surgical history which ultimately paved the way to surgery being effective (if you didn’t want patients dying from pain).

There are many collectible antique surgical instruments

That said, I cannot think of any that have an anesthsia compartment in the antique surgical set boxes of my collection or others i have seen, not sure why?

Perhaps because it was dentists who provided the first anesthesia (an still do today with nitrous oxde or laughing gas).Updated by Natan Schleider, M.D. April 7th, 2020