Anaesthesia

Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691
Certain physiological essays and other tracts; written at distant times, and on several occasions. By the Honourable Robert Boyle.
London, H. Herringman, 1669.
The 2d ed. Wherein some of the tracts are enlarged by experiments, and the work is increased by the addition of a discourse about the absolute rest in bodies.

Aubrey gives this delightful description of Boyle in "Brief Lives",

He is very tall (about six foot high) and straight, very temperate. And virtuous and frugal: a bachelor; keeps a coach; sojourns with his sister, the Lady Ranelagh. His greatest delight is chemistry. He has at his sister's a noble laboratory and several servants (apprentices to him) to look after it. He is charitable to ingenious men that are in want, and foreign chemists have had large proof of his bounty, for he will not spare for cost to get any rare secret. At his own cost and charges he got translated and printed the New Testament in Arabic, to send into the Mahometan countries. He was not only a high renown in England, but abroad; and when foreigners come hither, 'tis one of their curiosities to make him a visit.

Famous as the founder of modern chemistry, Boyle's contribution to medicine was to show that air is essential for life.

Deane Collection
Wing B3930 Deane