History of Anaesthesia Society

Founded in 1986, the History of Anaesthesia Society aims to promote the study of the history of anaesthesia and related disciplines and to provide a forum and social ambience for discussion among members.

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History of Anaesthesia Society Annual Scientific Meeting 2025

The conference will be held on Wednesday 25th June (08:30-16:35) and Thursday 26th June (08:35-12:40) at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. The HAS AGM will be held 16:45-17:45 on the Wednesday afternoon. Dr Peter Featherstone (peterjfeatherstone@yahoo.co.uk) is organising the meeting.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy is accessed via Victory Gate, HM Naval base, Portsea, Portsmouth, PO1 3LJ, and the venue is approximately 300metres from Victory Gate.

The conference will follow the usual format of presentations all day on the Wednesday and on the Thursday morning. The programme has now been finalised, and contains 20 papers (including 8 from resident doctors), and a guest lecture by James Daly, Principal Curator for the National Museum of the Royal Navy.Conference registration is free to resident doctors and medical students.
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The standard registration fee includes a buffet lunch on the Wednesday and coffee / tea breaks. Unlike previous years, there will be no block booking for lunch at the end of the meeting on the Thursday, but there are several restaurants within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard/ located nearby.

The President’s Reception and the Conference Dinner will be held 1900-2300 on Wednesday evening at the Royal Maritime Hotel, 75-80 Queen Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, PO1 3HS (located approximately 300metres from Victory Gate). The dress code for dinner will be lounge suits, or optional black tie/ evening dress, for those who wish to dress up!

Accommodation: There are several hotels within walking distance of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Attendees will need to book their own accommodation. The Royal Maritime Hotel (in which the Conference Dinner will be held) have offered a 10% discount on their rooms if booked directly with the hotel (please telephone reception on 02392 982182 and mention History of Anaesthesia Society).

Portsmouth has excellent road and rail connections, and there are several car parks close to the Historic Dockyard. There is no planned partners programme, but partners are welcome to register for the buffet lunch on Wednesday 25th (£14 per person) and aend the guest lecture on the history of the Royal Navy on Thursday morning (no charge).

In addition, the Historic Dockyard is able to offer attendees and partners a significant discount on tickets to visit the dockyard attractions, which include the Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and HMS M.33):

.£10 per person for a single attraction day ticket (valid for one day only, permits entry to one attraction only. These tickets usually retail at £36 for adults and £35 for seniors)
.£20 per person for an all-attraction day ticket (valid for one day only, permits entry to all dockyard attractions). These tickets must be ordered in advance (using the conference registration form) specifying the date, ticket type and quantity required. Tickets are non-transferrable and nonrefundable.

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Registration for the meeting will close at 5pm on Monday 16th June 2025. There will be NO option to register after this, or at the meeting itself. The registration form can be found here. The programme can be found here.

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Call for Nominations for the David Zuck Memorial Prize 2025:

The David Zuck Memorial Prize is awarded annually for the best monograph, article, book chapter or book published in English in the preceding year. The nominated item/items must conform to the following:
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1. Be on the history of anaesthesia, resuscitation, intensive care or pain management.
2. Be published in the English language in 2024.
3. Electronic publication is acceptable.
4. E publication ahead of print is acceptable, however, should this result in the electronic version being published in a different year from the print version, the manuscript will only be considered once, and only one version will be considered.

The nominator (if not self-nominated) must provide confirmation that the author has accepted his/her publication being nominated. A maximum of two nominations from any one nominator will be considered.The prize is adjudicated by a committee chaired by the editor of the Proceedings. Peer reviewed and Pubmed indexed items will be given priority.

Nominations should be sent by email to the Chair of the David Zuck Prize Committee, Prof.Douglas Bacon: doug3312022a@gmail.com. The monograph, article, book chapter or book should be added as an email attachment (word-processed document or PDF).The closing date is 30 April 2025. The winner will be announced at the History of Anaesthesia’s Annual General Meeting in Portsmouth on 25 June 2025, and a certificate will be awarded. The committee’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into after the winning entry has been announced.

David Zuck Prize Winner 2024

Congratulations to M. Wulf M. Strätling for winning the 2024 David Zuck Prize for his paper entitled 'The Clinical introduction of the Roth-Drager Anesthesia Apparatus to the United States (c. 1903-1907) and Early Interactions with James Tayloe Gwathmey (1862-1944) and Richard von Foregger (1872-1960).'

Thomas Boulton Anaesthesia History Prize Winner 2024

Congratulations to Luke Solomi on winning the 2024 Tom Boulton Prize for his paper 'The story of anaesthesia in ancient Greek mythology: More than a senseless odyssey'. Luke presented his paper at the 2024 HAS Annual conference in Market Harborough.

Congratulations to Drs Declan Warde, Joseph Tracey and John Cahill: winners of the 2023 Anesthesia History Association David M. Little Jr, book prize

International Symposium on the History of Anaesthesia: September 2025

The next ISHA will be held in Paris in September 2025.
For more details see the ISHA website (under construction at time of posting)