Smithsonian Magazine on MSN

These 600-year-old Chinese surgical instruments are coated in an early local anesthetic—carefully extracted from a poisonous plant

In the early 15th century C.E., a doctor in China was entombed with surgical instruments. Recent analysis of residues left on ...
The Cool Down on MSN

600-year-old Chinese surgeon's tools reveal traces of anesthetic in historic first

Scientists had effectively "read the traces of anesthetic medicine left on those instruments using a beam of laser light." ...