Ministry of Health new hutted hospitals, Mount Vernon Hospital, Rickmansworth Road, Hillingdon, Greater London
The Continuous drip method of administering an anaesthetic in use at the Middlesex Hospital, London. The administration of intravenous anaesthetic was attempted in the 17th century, and first successfully administered to a human in the mid-1870s. This method of administering anaesthetic was firmly established after barbiturates were discovered and later developed in the 1920s. A report on a method of administering anaesthetic with a continuous drip infusion of glucose saline, for use in major operations, was first published in England in 1936. Now, inhaled anaesthetics, which allow a rapid return to consciousness, are favoured.
