Residues on 15th-century medical instruments show that Chinese physicians used a toxic plant compound to ease pain during surgery. The discovery provides the earliest chemical evidence of anaesthetic use anywhere in the world.
Surgical scissors and tweezers recovered from the tomb of doctor Xia Quan, who lived from 1348 to 1411 in Jiangsu province, carry traces of aconitine. Researchers at Northwest University in Xi’an identified the compound using laser analysis. The instruments were first unearthed in 1974, but the chemical study is recent.