29 May 2026
Traces on tweezers and surgical scissors suggest liquid medication was applied to the skin of patients.
Surgical scissors from a Ming-era tomb bore traces of the toxic plant compound aconitine. Credit: Ling, X. et al./Antiquity (CC BY 4.0)
Anaesthetics are now part of every operating room, but physicians have been trying to reduce pain from surgery for centuries. Chemical traces on fifteenth-century surgical tools suggest that topical anaesthetics were used in China more than 600 years ago1.
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