I’ve often wondered about those stories of Victorian women having ribs removed, because up until the late 19th century, general anesthesia for surgery was generally unavailable. Right through the 1860s and '70s surgery was a hellish experience, brutal, painful, and highly likely to end in death by sepsis.

General anesthesia and sterile practices were starting to make surgery better than a “last possible resort" by the end of the Victorian era, but were not common during most of it.

It would be interesting to see an exploration of how and why the myth got started.