As late as 34 years after the public introduction of anesthesia, there were doctors who refused to use it. Some said that the shock of pain is a necessary ingredient to recovery. Others were afraid, because some preachers said that anesthesia was the work of the devil.
Following William T.G. Morton’s 1846 public demonstration of ether anesthesia, resistance persisted among certain surgeons and religious leaders:
The “Vital Stimulus” of Pain: Many 19th-century surgeons believed pain was a necessary physiological stimulant. Prominent figures, including French surgeon François Magendie and U.S. Civil War military doctors, argued that surgical pain triggered a beneficial shock reaction required to jumpstart the body’s natural healing and clotting mechanisms.
Religious Resistance: Clergy members—particularly opposition directed at obstetrician James Young Simpson’s use of chloroform in childbirth starting in 1847—argued that pain was a divine decree. They cited Genesis 3:16 (“In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children”) to claim that relieving labor pain interfered with God’s will or was the work of the devil.
The Timeline Context: While resistance was widespread immediately following 1846, mainstream medical adoption happened rapidly. By 1880 (34 years later), anesthesia was the standard of care in Western medicine, though a small minority of conservative traditionalists and religious objectors still refused its application.
The public acceptance of anesthesia shifted dramatically after 1853, when Queen Victoria accepted chloroform during the birth of Prince Leopold, effectively silencing religious opposition.
