About: James Robinson (dentist)

James Robinson (22 November 1813 – 4 March 1862) was a British dentist and anaesthetist. On 19 December 1846, he became the first person to carry out general anaesthesia in Britain when he administered ether to a patient undergoing a tooth extraction. The next year, he published A Treatise on the Inhalation of the Vapour of Ether, perhaps the first textbook of anaesthesia. Robinson's work influenced the prominent anaesthetist John Snow. Robinson also undertook initiatives to reform the dental profession in Britain. At the age of 48, he died of blood loss following a gardening accident; his London home, as well as the site where he first administered anaesthesia, are commemorated with plaques.