Earliest use of anaesthetics uncovered in Chinese doctor’s tomb

Surgeons in imperial China used anaesthetics — in careful doses

Fifteenth-century surgical tools from Ming-era China show chemical traces of aconitine, indicating topical anaesthetics were applied to patients' skin over 600 years ago. The finding pushes back documented surgical anaesthesia practice by centuries, confirming that systematic pain management in operative medicine predates Western formalization of the discipline.