Throughout human history, mankind has always been concerned with the relief of pain. The earlier back in history one travels, with regards to our use of anesthetics, the sooner one realizes that the techniques used become more crude. Purposefully knocking-out patients with head-blows or compressing their carotid arteries until they passed out, are just two examples of such techniques
The majority of earlier anesthetic techniques, however, involved the use of a mixture of herbs and, as many could guess, alcohol.