A dinner party that changed medicine
On 4 November 1847, James Young Simpson, Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh, discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform during a now-famous experiment at his home on Queen Street. Simpson and two colleagues — James Matthews Duncan and George Keith — sat around the dining table after dinner, inhaling various chemical compounds from a collection of small bottles. When they tried chloroform, all three promptly collapsed unconscious. Simpson reportedly awoke on the floor and exclaimed, "This is far stronger and better than ether."
Simpson had been searching for an alternative to ether, which had been used as an anaesthetic in surgery since 1846 but was unpleasant, slow-acting, and irritating to the lungs. Chloroform was cleaner, faster, and more predictable. Within days, Simpson was using it on his patients during childbirth, and the results were dramatic. Women who had endured agonising labour could now deliver in relative comfort.
The medical establishment resisted. Many doctors argued that pain was a natural and necessary part of surgery and childbirth. Religious critics cited Genesis — "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" — and argued that anaesthesia defied God's will. Simpson, who was combative and brilliant in equal measure, demolished these objections with a mixture of scientific evidence and scriptural counter-argument. He pointed out that God had put Adam into a "deep sleep" before removing his rib to create Eve — the first recorded use of anaesthesia.
The debate was settled in 1853 when Queen Victoria used chloroform during the birth of Prince Leopold, attended by Dr John Snow. If it was good enough for the queen, it was good enough for everyone. Simpson was made a baronet in 1866, the first physician to receive the honour. He died in 1870 and was buried in Warriston Cemetery in Edinburgh. His statue stands on Princes Street, and his discovery remains one of Edinburgh's greatest contributions to world medicine.