The collection won't put you to sleep and even better: there is no exorbitant bill.

What makes this museum intriguing is that when patients are "out", they don't see what keeps them in dreamland. They know the word "scalpel" but "propofol" is just as important because without it, there is no operation.

Anaesthetists are as highly trained as surgeons and this record of their work is due to the museum's founder, the late Dr Geoffrey Kaye, who founded it in 1935 with his collection from Australia and overseas.

Amassing a staggering 5000 items, the museum is one of the largest in the world and has been upgraded to a purpose-built room for the benefit of medical students, trainees, fellows of the college and curious members of the public.

Devotees of Agatha Christie novels or the American TV series Dr. Kildare will get a shivery thrill at the old bottles of ether labelled "poison", chloroform, wire masks, weathered doctors' Gladstone bags, diaries, gas cylinders, syringes and machines.

The museum's honorary curator, Dr Christine Ball, has been an anaesthetist for 30 years and works at the Alfred Hospital. Her job involves more than putting patients to sleep – monitoring and maintaining their vital signs, pre-and-post operative care, and resuscitation in an emergency.

Before anaesthetic was invented 168 years ago, patients expected to die under the knife. Ether was first used in Boston in 1846 and this is commemorated on October 16 with World Anaesthesia Day (you're not allowed to sleep in). The drug came to Australia in 1847 in Sydney and Tasmania.

Dr Ball is intrigued by the stories behind the collection, which is sourced from deceased estates, old hospitals, drug companies and equipment manufacturers. "Decades ago, a GP was transferring a pregnant woman in labour to hospital in his car, with his nurse driving," she said. "He was in the back seat giving her ether for labour pains, which weren't abating. So, he tested the Bruck inhaler by inhaling it and put himself to sleep."

It is excruciating to imagine surgery without an anaesthetic and Dr Ball explained how barbaric it was. "Amputations were performed in 30 seconds." Other procedures were mastectomies and removal of tonsils. "A large number of people died from infection."

The term "bite the bullet" is believed to date back to when patients clenched a bullet to cope with the pain.

The advent of war-time facial injuries from trench warfare in World War I led to the development of modern anaesthetic equipment. "The facial injuries created new problems for surgeons due to the damage to the structure of the airway."

The museum has a model mask, on loan from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, that was used to repair a soldier's face.

There is friendly rivalry between anaesthetists and surgeons, the joke being that the former can't stand blood, but Dr Ball relishes working in a team with the scalpel master, scrub nurses and technicians. Proud of her profession, she said: "We often do the best work when the patient is asleep."