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Show BENEFACTOROFHUMAN RACE Sir James Simpson Was the First Physician to Use Chloroform in Surgical Cases. The recent death of Sir Alexander Simpson, the famous Edinburgh doe-tor, doe-tor, brings to mind the wonderful discovery dis-covery of his uncle. Sir James feiuip-son, feiuip-son, his predecessor as professor of midwifery in the chair of Edinburgh-university. Edinburgh-university. Sir James, if not actually the discoverer of chloroform, was at nny rate, the first to introduce Its employment em-ployment as an anesthetic into surgical sur-gical practice. This was in 1S-JS. Previously all operations were performed per-formed without anesthetics, the patient pa-tient being drugged with whisky and held down by strong men while the operation op-eration was performed. No medical discovery ever did more to alleviate human suffering. Sir James is generally given credit for the actual discovery of chloroform, chloro-form, but it Is stated in some works that it was discovered some years previous pre-vious to his first experiments by an American doctor named Guthrie and by a French physician named Sou-beiran. Sou-beiran. In any case it was Doctor Simpson who proved its great value as an anesthetic, and 'the room in which he made his first experiment still exists in Edinburgh. The story goes that he tried the chloroform on himself and two medical medi-cal friends. They proved Its efficacy by simultaneously falling beneath the table. Sir James had considerable prejudices to overcome before chloroform chloro-form was adopted generally by the medical profession, it being denounced jit one time as dangerous to health, morals and religion. |