/oss/taxonomy/term/494/all en /oss/article/medical-history/jungle-operating-room <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-from-the-jungle-to-the-operating-room">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>The history of surgery is often divided into an era described as “before Griffith” and one as “after Griffith” based on Dr. Harold Griffith’s introduction of curare in 1942 as a muscle relaxant in surgery. This solved a problem that had plagued surgeons since the discovery of anesthesia 100 years earlier.</p> Fri, 09 Feb 2024 20:28:58 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9830 at /oss /oss/article/history-general-science/curious-about-curare <hr /> <p><em>Olivia Fraser Barsby is a biology and anthropology student at ���ϲ����� University, specializing in conservation, ecology, evolution and behaviour. </em></p> <hr /> <p>Blowdart poison and modern anaesthesia: at first glance, you might not think they have much in common. And that’s fair—their connection runs further and deeper than I’d ever imagined. But hey, surgery would look a heck of a lot different today without this relationship—all thanks to “curare.”</p> Thu, 18 Mar 2021 15:10:00 +0000 Olivia Fraser Barsby, Student Contributor 8659 at /oss /oss/article/history/sherlock-holmes-and-curare <p>In the film “Sherlock Holmes and the Game of Shadows,” Holmes identifies the poison on a dart that had instantly paralyzed a victim by sniffing it. “Curare!” he says. Curare is a very real poison but identifying it by smell is pure fiction. In the form of an extract made from the root or stem of a certain species of climbing vine, known today as Chondodendron tomentosum, it was used by native South Americans to tip their arrows long before the Europeans arrived. There were stories about how the lethal brews were secretly mixed.</p> Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:13:46 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1670 at /oss