BehindTheMedspeak: 'Origin of Anesthesia' — by Eduardo Galeano

Yesterday reader Ken Steen emailed me, writing "I was reading 'Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone' by Eduardo Galeano today and came across this":

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Origin of Anesthesia — Page 141

The carnival of Venice lasted four months, except when it lasted longer. From everywhere came acrobats, musicians, thespians, puppeteers, prostitutes, magicians, fortune-tellers, and vendors offering potions, good-luck tonics, and elixirs for a long life.

And from everywhere came the tooth pullers and the aching mouths that Saint Apollonius had been unable to cure.  In agony, the latter approached the gates of Saint Mark, where, pliers in hand, the extractors awaited, anesthetists at their side.

The anesthetists did not put patients to sleep: they entertained them. They gave them not poppy or mandrake, but jokes and pirouettes.  And their humor and grace were so miraculous that pain forgot to hurt.

The anesthetists were monkeys and dwarfs, dressed for carnival.

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Ken concluded, "I do not know how factual Galeano's account is but I thought that you might enjoy it."

He got that right.