Anaesthetics Crossword Clue

Anaesthetics crossword clue. A two speed crossword question in Herald Sun on Monday, 26 June 2017. 9 letters. Also appear on Daily Telegraph/Courier-Mail.

Answer: deadeners

Anesthetics are substances administered to deaden pain or produce a state of anesthesia (a condition in which some or all of the senses, especially touch, stop functioning or are reduced). Early Chinese practitioners used acupuncture (the insertion of thin, solid needles into specific locations on the body) and the smoke of Indian hemp (a tough fiber obtained from the stems of a tall plant) to dull a person’s awareness of pain. Ancient Hindu (East Indian) civilizations used henbane (a plant) and wine as well as hemp.

In the first century the Greek physician Dioscorides ( A.D. 40-90) described the use of wine made from mandragora (a plant known as mandrake) to produce a deep sleep in patients undergoing surgery. Dioscorides used the Greek word “anesthesia” to describe this sleep. And the Greek poet Homer (author of the Illiad and the Odyssey) referred to the pain-killing effects of the potion nepenthe.