Two hundred years ago, the best surgeons were the fastest. The man who could remove a festering leg in less than three minutes ruled the hospital, not only with skill but also brute strength and the ability to ignore the desperate, messy agonies of the patient.  The arrival of trustworthy anesthesia – mainly ether – revolutionized medicine in ways just as basic as the taming of infections. But the latter required a lot of science. Ether, and associated compounds like nitrous oxide and chloroform, had been there all the time, ignored by those who needed it most. This odd reality,…