Without Humphrey Davy\’s discovery of nitrous oxide in 1799 do you think anaesthetics would ever have been developed?

Question: Without Humphrey Davy\'s discovery of nitrous oxide in 1799 do you think anaesthetics would ever have been developed? What other methods do you think may have arisen without anaesthetics?

Asked by alexvotier to Darren, Deuan, Duncan, Lori-An, Michelle on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Darren Nesbeth answered on 17 Jun 2010:
  
  Someone else would have come across it eventually.
- Lori-An Etherington answered on 18 Jun 2010:
  
  Other compounds were also being used as anaesthetics, such as ether in the early 1800’s and I think someone else would have made the discovery of nitrous oxide if Davy didn’t. It is hard to predict what the course of discovery would have been but I think anaesthetics would have been developed.
- Michelle Hudson-Shore answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  I think yes they would because there are alot of other anaesthetic agents that have been and are used today.

Question: Without Humphrey Davy\'s discovery of nitrous oxide in 1799 do you think anaesthetics would ever have been developed? What other methods do you think may have arisen without anaesthetics?