3 - History of Anaesthesia Society

Professor J J de 'Lange, Drs M A Cuesta, A Cuesta de Pedro.(Amsterdam)
In 1865 Faulconer and Keys wrote abut Pages in 'Foundations of
Anesthesiolq': 'NT)~ much can be found out aborit the life of thi
imprtant Swish surgeon'. They did not even know t'ie date of his birth. 9
But Pages still achieved a plxe in these excellent books &cause he was
the first to carry out epidur.31 anaesth?sia by the lmhr mute. For a long
time this fact was l.ittle known; prohbly the main reason was h t he
plblished his work in 1921 in mish nations1 surgical journals. $PS In
1331 the Italian sturgeon AchiLe rQrio Dogliotti cla'med to be the first to
carry out epidural anaesthesia by the imr mute.' Became we had access
to the archives of his son, we are now able to complete the personal and
scientific bioyraphy of Fidel Pages.
mly life rmd military career
Fidel was 'mm on 25th Janlmt-y 1886, the son of Juan Pages and Conception
Xirave, at Ifuesca in Sixin. He studied medicine at the University of
Zaragoza, where he gained his licence (cum laude) in Medicine and Surgery
on 17th June 1908. On 30th September of that year he started training as a
~Wqical Of ficer at the MiLitary Medical Academy in Madrid and after a year
kcame Surgeon to the Military Hospital of CaraMchel in Madrid. At that
time. Spain ms engaged in a bloody war against the Rerbers in North Pfrica
and in July 1909 Pages was sent to a military hospital in Mellila, where he
treated many wound4 brought irl from the httlefields. He stayed there for
two years, of which severe1 months were spent in the front line, and was
honoured for his work by the award of a Military Cross, First Class.
In August 1911 he returned to the mainland, was prmted to Capt;am and
viurked at a n&r of military centres - Tarragona, Toledo and then the
Deprtment of War at Madr~d. In 1913 '~e mrrled Concepclon Rergem y
Nros, whose father was Gemn, and mtll 1914 thp couple l~ved at Cludad
Real Ware Pages carrled orit med~cal examnatlons on nulltary recmlts.
From there he was s?nt to the mil~tary hhosp~tal on Menorca, then to
Allcante and flnally m Iby 1915 to tne Central Mxlltary Centre m Madrid
there he would stay untll January 1920.
Mluence of the First World Wm
In 1915 he was almintd Surgeon to the Provincial Hospital of Madrid
(I+ospital de la Eenificiencia), and b c m Associate Professor of Practical
Suryery in the Mdical Faculty of San Carlos and also General Practitioner
to the Royal I-Iousshold. In February 1917, the third year of the First World
War during wkich Spin was neutral, Pages was comnissioned by a Royal Order
to go to Vienna and acccmpany, as medic3l expert, the Spanish Ambassador in
inspections of prisoner-of-war camps in Austria-Hqary. In addition to his
reptation as a good military surgeon, he was selected for this task
becausa of his knowledge of French and G e m . On April 11th he arrived in
Vienna and from there inspected camps; during the months of July and August