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It is believed that the Incas used anesthesia. Evidence supports the theory that shamans chewed cocoa leaves and drilled holes into the heads of patients (letting evil spirits escape), spitting into the wounds they made. The mixture of cocaine, saliva, and resin numbed the site enough to allow hours of drilling.
In 1864, the first barbiturate (barbituric acid) was synthesized.
More than 2,500 barbiturates have been synthesized. At the height of their popularity, about 50 were marketed for human use.
Many medications that are used to treat infertility are injected subcutaneously. This is easy to do using the anterior abdomen as the site of injection but avoiding the area directly around the belly button.
More than 34,000 trademarked medication names and more than 10,000 generic medication names are in use in the United States.