Page "Analgesic" Paragraph 21

High-alcohol liquor, two forms of which were in the US Pharmacopoeia up until 1916 and in common use by physicians well into the 1930s, has been used in the past as an agent for dulling pain, due to the CNS depressant effects of ethyl alcohol, a notable example being the American Civil War.

However, the ability of alcohol to relieve severe pain is likely inferior to many analgesics used today ( e. g. morphine, codeine ).

As such, the idea of alcohol for analgesia is generally considered a primitive practice in virtually all industrialized countries today.