Ethyl Ether was first discovered in nature by a Spanish chemist in 1275 and the process of its synthesis was known in 1540. Synthesized today using a distillation procedure involving sulfuric acid and ethyl alcohol, the anesthetic properties of ether were not known until 1841 and were not demonstrated publicly until 1846. Today, ether is sometimes used in conjunction with newer intravenous anesthetics to produce what anesthesiologists call "balanced anesthesia".