I had heard that the scientist who first tried ether as an anesthetic faced opposition from those who cited the Genesis passage about God condemning people to a life of pain. (Or am I thinking of the first doctor to try ether on women during childbirth? Something like that.)
I suppose throughout history, people have used the Bible to support their own particular ideas of what God 'really' intended to mean, in relation to science....I mean, the Jehovahs Witnesses, forbid blood transfusions based on the Bible, Christian Scientists use the Bible, to justify their adherents getting no traditional medical help, and so on and so forth...
And on the matter of anesthetics...people knew for a long time, that being somewhat unconscious dulled pain, and this was no doubt realized from practical observation, hardly advice from the Bible..I am sure that folks noted, that people who were drunk, and semi-conscious had a dulled pain response....good grief, just watch Gone With the Wind, in the scene where the are getting ready to chop the guys leg off...they want some booze to give the guy to dull the pain...I remember seeing dioramas at the Museum of Science and Industry, about the knowledge and beginnings of anesthic use through time...they show a guy who needs his foot chopped off..two guys are holding the guy down, and pouring a bottle of booze down him...the doc is there, saw in hand, and a bucket at his leg, for them to put the sawed off foot in...
Just every day common sense observation, showed even the commonest man, that being unconscious, very deeply unconscious, completely alleviated pain response...
It was just a matter of time, that scientists, came up with an effective drug, and and method of delivery of that drug..
"Natural childbirth" seems on a par with "natural root canal."
AFAIK, the big objection was dulling the pain of childbirth - part of the Fall
Very interesting web site:
UTOPIAN SURGERY Early arguments against anaesthesia in surgery, dentistry and childbirth
Despite its obvious advantages, pain-free surgery, dentistry and (especially) pain-free childbirth were opposed by a conservative minority.
The City of Zurich initially outlawed anaesthesia altogether. "Pain is a natural and intended curse of the primal sin. Any attempt to do away with it must be wrong", averred the Zurich City Fathers (Harpers (1865); 31: 456-7).
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In England, at least, the practice of anaesthesia during childbirth won greater respectability following its widely-publicised use on Queen Victoria. The delivery in 1853 of Victoria's eighth child and youngest son, Prince Leopold, was successful: chloroform was administered by Dr John Snow (1813-1858) of Edinburgh, the world's first anaesthesiologist/anaesthetist.
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In 1847 Snow had published On the Inhalation of Ether in Surgical Operations, a scientific milestone. "Dr Snow gave that blessed chloroform and the effect was soothing, quieting and delightful beyond measure", Her Majesty reported.
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If the Queen had died in consequence, then the progress of anaesthesia might have been set back a generation; fortunately, she survived unscathed. Anaesthesia à la reine even became fashionable in high society.