Anesthesia History Association's
David M. Little Prize

Each year the Anesthesia History Association awards the David M. Little Prize for the best work of anesthesia history published the previous year in English. The prize is named after Dr. David M. Little, longtime Chair of Anesthesia at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. Dr. Little, who died in 1981, also wrote for many years the "Classical File" series of history columns for Survey of Anesthesiology.

David M. Little, Jr., M.D.
(1920-1981)
[A biography of Dr. Little can be found here.]

2007

At the Anesthesia History Association annual dinner meeting in San Francisco, California, in October 2007, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winners and honorable mentions.

Kalliardou E, Tsiotou AG, Velegrakis D, Avgerinopoulou A, Poulakou E, Papadimitriou L. Historical aspects of inhalation anesthesia in children: ether and chloroform. Paediatr Anaesth. 2006 Jan;16(1):3-10
 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Broussard DM, Winthrop B, Vachon CA. Ansel Marion Caine, M.D.
Anesthesiology. 2006 Jun;104(6):1329-35  
 
Mazze RI. Methoxyflurane revisited: tale of an anesthetic from cradle to grave.
Anesthesiology. 2006 Oct;105(4):843-6 
 
Ortega RA, Kelly LR, Yee MK, Lewis KP. Written in granite: a history of the Ether Monument and its significance for
anesthesiology. Anesthesiology. 2006 Oct;105(4):838-42 
 

2006

At the Anesthesia History Association annual dinner meeting in Chicago, Illinois, in October 2006, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winners and honorable mentions.

Bacon DR, McGoldrick KE, Lema MJ, eds. The American Society of Anesthesiologists: A Century of Challenges and Progress. Wood Library-Museum, 2005. 226pp.

Lai D. Pentothal Postcards. West New York, NJ: Mark Blatty, 2005. 190pp.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Brodsky JB. The evolution of thoracic anesthesia. Thorac Surg Clin. 2005 Feb;15(1):1-10.

Costarino AT Jr., Downes JJ. Pediatric anesthesia historical perspective. Anesthesiology Clinics of North America.  23(4):573-95, vii, 2005 Dec

2005

At the Anesthesia History Association annual dinner meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in October 2005, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winner and honorable mentions.

*Lucien E. Morris, Mark E. Schroeder, Mary Ellen Warner, eds. A Celebration of 75 Years Honoring Ralph Milton Waters, M.D., Mentor to a Profession. Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, 2004 [Proceedings of the Ralph M. Waters Symposium on Professionalism in Anesthesiology, Madison, Wisconsin, June 2002]

HONORABLE MENTIONS

*Larson MD. History of anesthetic practice. In: Miller RD, ed. Miller’s Anesthesia. 6th ed. Churchill Livingstone, 2004, pp 3-52

*Calthorpe N. The history of spinal needles: getting to the point. Anaesthesia. 2004 Dec;59(12):1231-41

*Harrington BE. Postdural puncture headache and the development of the epidural blood patch. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2004 Mar-Apr;29(2):136-63

*Burkle CM, Zepeda FA, Bacon DR, Rose SH. A historical perspective on use of the laryngoscope as a tool in anesthesiology. Anesthesiology. 2004 Apr;100(4):1003-6

At the Anesthesia History Association annual dinner meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 25, 2004, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winner and honorable mentions.

2004

-Vinten-Johansen, Peter; Howard Brody, Nigel Paneth, Stephen Rachman, and Michael Rip. Cholera, Chloroform, and the Science of Medicine: A Life of John Snow. Oxford University Press, 2003 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

-Stratmann, Linda. Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion. Sutton Publishing, 2003

-Waisel DB. Norman's war: Norman B. Kornfield, M.D., World War II physician-anesthetist. Anesthesiology. 2003 Apr;98(4):995-1003

-Calatayud J, Gonzalez A. History of the development and evolution of local anesthesia since the coca leaf. Anesthesiology. 2003Jun;98(6):1503-8

-Ramirez JG.Modern chemical warfare: a history. Bull Anesth Hist. 2004 Apr;22(2):1, 4-7, 15.

At the Anesthesia History Association annual dinner meeting in San Francisco, California, on October 13, 2003, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winner and honorable mentions:

2003

Maltby JR, ed. Notable Names in Anaesthesia. London: Royal Society of Medicine Press, 2002. 254pp. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Bacon Dr. Gaston Labat, John Lundy, Emery Rovenstine, and the Mayo Clinic: the spread of regional anesthesia in America between the World Wars. J Clin Anesth 14:315-320, 2002 

Jacob MC, Sauter MJ. Why did Humphry Davy and associates not pursue the pain-alleviating effects of nitrous oxide? J Hist Med Allied Sci 57(2):161-176, April 2002 

Severinghaus JW. Priestley, the furious free thinker of the enlightenment, and Scheele, the taciturn apothecary of Uppsala. Acta Anaesth Scand 46:2-9, 2002

At the Anesthesia History Association annual dinner meeting in Orlando, Florida, on October 14, 2002, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winner and honorable mentions:

2002

*Waisel DB. The role of World War II and the European theater of operations in the development of anesthesiology as a physician specialty in the U.S.A. Anesthesiology 94:907-914, 2001

Honorable mentions

*Batt RE, Bacon DR. Clarence J. Durshordwe, the International Anesthesia Research Society, and the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists: the last true disciple of Francis Hoeffer McMechan. Anesth Analg 92:1349-1354, 2001

*Frolich MA, Caton D. Pioneers in epidural needle design. Anesth Analg 93:215-220, 2001

*Patterson R. Charles Thomas Jackson, MD, Vesuvius, and the idea of surgical anesthesia. J Med Biog 9:220-225, 2001

At the Anesthesia History Association annual meeting in New Orleans on October 15, 2001, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winners:

2001

Albin MS. The use of anesthetics during the Civil War, 1861-1865. Pharm Hist 42:99-114, 2000

Honorable mentions

1) Goerig M, Agarwal K, Schulte am Esch J. The versatile August Bier (1861-1949)., father of spinal anesthesia. J Clin Anesth 12:561-569, 2000

2) McKenzie AG. Prelude to pancuronium and vecuronium. Anaesthesia 55:551-556, 2000

3) McKenzie AG. The inventions of John Blease. Br J Anaesth 85:928-935, 2000

4) Sim P, Du B, Bacon DR. Pioneer Chinese anesthesiologists: American influeneces. Anesthesiology 93:256-264, 2000

At the Anesthesia History Association annual meeting in San Francisco on October 16, 2000, the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark G. Mandabach, MD, announced the following winners:

2000

*Donald Caton for his book What a Blessing She Had Chloroform: The Medical and Social Response to the Pain of  Childbirth from 1800 to the Present, published by Yale University Press.

Honorable Mentions

*Mackey DC. The history of drug delivery and spinal narcosis. In: Yaksh TL, ed. Spinal Drug Delivery. New York: Elsevier, 1999, pp 1-41

*Nunn JF. Development of academic anaesthesia in the United Kingdom up to the end of 1998. Br J Anaesth 83:916-932, 1999

*Tobias G, Sands RP, Bacon DR. Continuous spinal anesthesia: a continuous history? Reg Anesth Pain Med 24:453-457, 1999

At the Anesthesia History Association annual meeting in Dallas on October 11, 1999, , the Little Prize Nominating Committee, chaired by Peter McDermott, MD, announced the following winners :

1999

*Norman Bergman for his book The Genesis of Surgical Anesthesia, published by the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1998

*Honorable Mention

PME Drury for the article "Anaesthesia in the 1920s," British Journal of Anaesthesia 80:96-103, 1998

1998

*E.M. Papper for his article "Anesthesia and the Surgical Experience," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 1997, pp 597-618

*Honorable Mentions:

Bacon D. "The World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists: McMechan's final legacy?" Anesthesia and Analgesia 84:1130-1135, 1997

Haridas RP. "Ether Day and the first ether anesthetic in South Africa." South African Journal of Surgery 35:54-58, 1997

Patterson R. "Dr. Charles Thomas Jackson's aphasia." Journal of Medical Biography 5:228-231, 1997

Woolcock HR, Thearle MJ, Sounders K. "My beloved chloroform:" attitudes to childbearing in colonial Queensland. Social History of Medicine 10:437-457, 1997

Congratulations to all the winners and honorable mentions!