The first anaesthetic in Central Africa.
The Reverend Doctor Robert Laws (1851-1934) followed in the footsteps of David Livingstone to Central Africa. At the beginning of a long and distinguished career as a medical missionary in Christian service to the country that has since become the Republic of Malawi, he was a prime mover in the setting up of a mission station at Cape Maclear, on the shores of Lake Malawi (formerly known as Lake Nyasa and closely associated with the discoveries of Doctor Livingstone). There, on 2 March 1876, Laws used chloroform to produce surgical anaesthesia when he operated on a young African male who had a cystic tumour above his left eye.
D000350:Africa, Central; D000769:Anesthesia, Inhalation / Q000266:history*; D002725:Chloroform; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D066189:Missionaries; D008921:Religious Missions / Q000266:history; D012606:Scotland
D002725:Chloroform