a. and sb. [f. Gr. ἀναίσθητ-ος without feeling, insensible (f. ἀν priv. + αἰσθητ-ός sensible; f. αἰσθε- perceive) + -IC. Cf. mod.Fr. anesthétique, and ÆSTHETIC.]
A. adj.
1. Insensible, deprived of sensibility.
1848. Sir J. Simpson, in Jrnl. Med. Sc., IX. 220. The anæsthetic state must be made adequately deep.
1853. Mayne, Exp. Lex., Anæstheticus, Applied specially of late to the state of persons rendered insensible by inhalation of ether or chloroform: anesthetic.
1879. Timbs, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 106/2. The possibility of setting patients into an anæsthetic state.
2. fig. Unfeeling, unemotional. rare.
1860. A. Windsor, Ethica, vii. 338. In his judgment of character this cold anæsthetic temperament displays itself perhaps more prominently.
3. Producing, or connected with the production of, insensibility.
1847. Sir J. Simpson, in Jrnl. Med. Sc., VIII. 415. At the first winter meeting of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society (10th November) I directed the attention of the members to a new respirable anæsthetic agent … Chloroform, Chloroformyle, or Perchloride of Formyle. Ibid. (1848), in Jrnl. Med. Sc., IX. 220. The results of anæsthetic midwifery.
1859. Bain, Emot. & Will, i. § 21. 34. Exercise or action is itself anæsthetic.
1870. Sir J. Simpson, Anæsthesia, Wks. 1871, II. 23. The first case of an anæsthetic operation under sulphuric ether occurred at Boston [U.S.A.] on the 30th September 1846. The first case of an anæsthetic operation under chloroform occurred at Edinburgh on the 15th of November 1847.
B. sb. [The adj. used absol.] An anæsthetic agent; an agent that produces insensibility.
1848. Sir J. Y. Simpson, in Pharm. Jrnl., VII. 518. None of the five anæsthetics which I have mentioned in the present communication are, I believe, comparable with chloroform or sulphuric ether, either in their manageableness or in their effects.
1876. Bartholow, Mat. Med. (1879), 360. The term anæsthetic, proposed by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, means an agent capable of producing anæsthesia, or insensibility to pain.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., I. iv. 551. Vivisection … before the introduction of anæsthetics, was often inexpressibly horrible.
