Jacob Green

Biography

Jacob is a historian of science and medicine, and the United States.

My dissertation is about how the discovery that drugs like ether and nitrous oxide could be used as anesthetics in the 1840s led to the reclassification of their stimulating, hallucinogenic effects. In the first half of the 19th century these drugs’ ability to cause visions, sexual stimulation, and bouts of fighting and dancing was regarded as an interesting curiosity. After the discovery of anesthesia, these properties were recoded as dangerous side effects. This reclassification radically affected how patients interacted with these drugs and how doctors tried to manage their experience. My chapters address topics like spontaneous mystical experiences and visions of angelic entities in dentists’ offices, how doctors sought to prevent their patients from attacking them while in an anesthetized delirium, and cases where female patients accused their doctors of sexual assault while they were anesthetized only to be told that they had just been hallucinating due to the side effects of anesthesia.

Link to Current CV

Current/Former HGSA Member

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