Feeling no pain

摘要

"Publish or perish" is more than a crass modern summary of academic career-building. Without the written or printed word, work can be forgotten for centuries - or even forever. This message is beautifully underlined in History of Anaesthesia, an exhibition on pain relief at the University of Sydney, Australia, that draws on the institution's splendid Rare Books and Special Collections, as well as the equipment museum maintained by the Australian Society of Anaesthetists. Through some 200 books, official reports, quaint and serious apparatus, and illustrations spanning more than five centuries, the show explores the age-old quest to dull agony.