Publications
APS Bulletin • Volume 17, Number 1, 2007
History of Pain
Marcia Meldrum, PhD, Department Editor
Liebeskind Collection Invites Visitors to Come and Relive the Pain
 Ads like this one from the 1800s promoted remedies for both “internal and external” pain. |
If you’re a pain history enthusiast, a treasure trove awaits you at the Liebeskind History of Pain Collection at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). But first, to see if you’re indeed a true enthusiast—and just for the fun of it—try to correctly identify this important figure highlighted in the collection:
Born in Washington in 1910, this person received his MD from Harvard in 1936, where he served for 35 years as professor of neurosurgery. He completed his residency training at Billings Hospital in Chicago and at Harvard. With James C. White, he coauthored the classic Pain and the Neurosurgeon. In the 1960s, he laid the foundation for the development of neurostimulators, which today are used to treat severe pain. He also developed the use of cordotomy to treat intractable pain in patients, and pioneered the development of noninvasive treatments of trigeminal neuralgia.
He was a member of the Eastern Pain Association in the 1960s, and in 1977 he helped found the American Pain Society (APS). Before serving as APS’s third president, he chaired the first officer Nominating Committee and the Bylaws Committee, which helped obtain nonprofit tax status for the then fledgling APS.
 This ad, a pocket-size trade card for physicians and patients, is typical of pharmaceutical advertising in the 1800s. |
It’s William H. Sweet, of course, and the staff at the Liebeskind Collection is currently knee-deep in boxes chock-full of his papers, sorting and processing them so they can be added to the growing archive. Generously donated by Mrs. Elizabeth Sweet, the papers are a rich source of historical information about neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, and pain management in the 1900s.
Sweet, who died in 2001, was a leader of many significant developments in the pain field prior to 1990. His papers and files, which filled the basement of his home in Brookline, MA, are an amazing collection of manuscripts, patient notes, research reports, and letters to and from leaders in the fields of pain, neurology, neurosurgery, and neuroscience. Among his papers are handwritten medical school notes from the early 1930s that provide new insights into medical education before the advent of antibiotics and molecular biology.
The first boxes of Sweet’s papers arrived at UCLA with fanfare in August 2005; there was a reception, exhibits, and a presentation by John Loeser on Sweet as a pioneer in neurosurgery and pain treatment. Since then Archivist Cherry Williams has been in charge of getting the papers ready for researchers.
An Expanding Collection
The goal of the pain history collection is to promote the history of pain research and pain therapy—in particular, the origins, growth, and development of the international, interdisciplinary pain field in the post–World War II era.
UCLA has successfully acquired rare books and documents on the history of pain through both university funding and the diligent efforts of Russell Johnson, chief collection archivist, and Katharine Donahue, history and special collections librarian at the UCLA Biomedical Library.
Oral Histories
At the core of the Liebeskind Collection are oral histories with pain scientists, clinicians, patients, and field leaders.
John Liebeskind believed it was a privilege to participate in and witness the birth and growth of the pain field. When he began recording oral history interviews in 1993, the history project quickly became one of the most exciting of his distinguished career. He asked Kathy Donahue if she would be interested in adding oral histories to the Biomedical Library’s collections, and she suggested not only adding papers by important pain leaders and researchers, but also working with the Library to buy rare books and other historical materials on pain history.
 An ad for Kickapoo Indian Oil claimed the product stopped pain “as if by magic.” |
The first tapes and transcripts were turned over to the library in 1995 and the collection began. Today there are more than 70 oral histories, of which 31were conducted by Liebeskind. At least two new transcripts are added each year.
In 2005 a CD that features 10 transcripts, audio clips, and searchable text was produced and distributed at the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) World Congress in Sydney. This led to the development of an upcoming Web site that will include most of the oral histories, as well as audio files and searchable text made available through the California Digital Library. The new Web site is slated to be online in June.
Rx Ads
Pharmaceutical advertising was as creative, provocative, and sometimes more scrupulous in the 1800s than today. Historical ads reveal what a major problem pain was for physicians and patients in that era, and what was available for treatment. Johnson found an amazing collection online of nineteenth century trade cards that are pocket-size ads that were either mailed or distributed to doctors and patients. Many of these promote remedies for pain, including:
- Scott’s Nural-G-Lene, a “speedy and reliable remedy for headache and neuralgia” that was 40% alcohol
- Brown’s Household Panacea, a “great pain reliever for internal and external pains”
- Kickapoo Indian Oil that “stops pain as if by magic”
- Brame’s Pain Knocker—88% alcohol, 1.5% opium, 1.5 % chloroform— was “a valuable remedy for internal and external use for man or beast.”
 From 1897 to 1901, the Antikamnia Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, published calendars featuring skeletons. |
Other companies’ offerings were more ambitious. From 1897 to 1901, the Antikamnia Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, produced a set of calendars that featured “skeleton sketches,” a chromolithographed series based on watercolors by physician-artist Louis Crucius. The limited edition calendars were mailed to physicians who provided business cards or letterhead stationery as evidence of their medical standing. Antikamnia, which literally means “against pain,” is a compound comprised of acetanalid (antifebrin), sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, and caffeine in varying proportions. It was a popular pain reliever in its day until it was superseded by Bayer aspirin.
Documents
The collection highlights notable historical documents on pain as well. The following are among some recent acquisitions:
- Italian Renaissance philosopher Simone Porzio’s short treatise, De dolore, from 1550.
- an original edition of James Y. Simpson’s Account of a New Anesthetic Agent: A Substitute for Sulphuric Ether in Surgery and Midwifery as communicated to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh on November 10, 1847.
- John Kent Spender’s Therapeutic Means for the Relief of Pain. This prize essay was awarded a gold medal by the Medical Society of London in 1874.
- The 1876 Report of the Royal Commission on the Practice of Subjecting Live Animals to Experiments for Scientific Purposes as presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. This led to England’s Cruelty to Animals Act, which codified how animal experiments could be conducted.
Manuscripts
Besides the Sweet papers, the collection includes many other manuscript materials, including papers of John Bonica, Kenneth E. Livingston, William H. Livingston, Willem Noordenbos, and John Liebeskind. Moreover, special document collections were donated by Daniel Carr, Ronald Dubner, Pierre LeRoy, David Mayer, Ronald Melzack, Harold Merskey, and Mark Swerdlow. The collection is the repository for the archival records of IASP and APS.
 Sweet’s papers and files include manuscripts, patient notes, research reports, and letters. |
Beyond the collection itself, the Liebeskind Collection staff has helped document the history of pain in other ways. Staff members helped publish William Livingston’s Pain and Suffering (IASP Press, 1998) by contributing the original manuscript and providing editorial assistance. They also sponsored a 2002 symposium that led to the collection of papers by scientists, historians, and other scholars for the book, Opioids and Pain Relief in Historical Perspective (IASP Press, 2002). Russell Johnson and I showcased the collection materials in exhibits at APS and IASP meetings. To view the materials, visit www.library.ucla.edu/ biomed/his/painexhibit/index.html, www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/ biomed/iasp/index.html, and history.nih.gov/exhibits/pain/index.html.
Support for the collection was provided by ongoing grants from APS and IASP; generous contributions from Endo Laboratories, Purdue Pharma, Medtronic, and other pharmaceutical firms; the Mayday Fund; and gifts from friends of Liebeskind. To view the exhibits and learn more about the collection, visit www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/ biomed/his/pain.html.
Marcia Meldrum, PhD, is a historian at the University of California in Los Angeles.