Sacrificial Experimentation

In anesthesiology lab we watched a documentary ("Strange Sleep," broadcast in 1974 by NOVA) about the history of anesthesia. I usually think of the 1800's as being fairly civilized and old novels don't normally go into details about medical procedures. It is therefore interesting (and sort of tragic) to think that in the mid-1800's anesthesia was still in its infancy. Surgeries were likely still performed using "brutamine," as my professor called restraint by brute force. The germ theory of disease wasn't really investigated until the same time period - imagine an intra-abdominal surgery with unwashed hands! I can really appreciate the work that led to today's anesthetics and sterile surgical technique.

Very sadly, some of the scientists who investigated the use of anesthetics became addicted to them. The dentist Horace Wells became addicted to chloroform after experimenting with it for a week. He ended up slitting his femoral artery and dying because of his addiction. The surgeon William Halsted became addicted to cocaine because of his experimentation and/or lack of knowledge about addiction (I think the documentary indicated that he used cocaine to stay awake for lengthy periods). He "managed" his addiction by taking large quantities of morphine (while he still performed surgeries!).

Were those incredibly unfortunate addictions easily preventable back then, or were they inevitable because of limited knowledge about addiction? I realize that hindsight is about always better than foresight. But it seems that those with a tendency toward introspection and realization of what was happening to them could have guarded successfully against it. Christians in particular should have known better than to seek things that caused a false euphoria ("and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the spirit;" Ephesians 5:18). I suppose cocaine might be more addictive than wine, but perhaps knowledge of preventing alcohol addiction could have been applied to the cocaine situation.