Dr Simpson of Edinburg Who Discovered Chloroform As Anesthesi

My Scottish Diary : Dr Simpson who discovered anesthésic Power of Chloroform 

In Edinburgh, during my June trip I was staying at Yeotel situated on Queen Street. While walking in the street , I read plaque on a building next to the Yeotel , Simpson, who discovered power of Chloroform as anaesthesia agent.

Curious to learn more,  I knocked the door, opened by an old lady in her late sixties. On asking about Simpson, she offered tea and narrated an interesting tale. 

According to her, Edinburgh has a long history as a centre of medical research, the Medical College is as old as some 300 year. Dr James Simpson , who was a professor at the Medical College was  an important part of that story.

During the 1840s, Simpson and his two colleagues, Drs Keith and Duncan, ran experiments to find safer, more effective anaesthetics. But these weren’t your run-of-the-mill scientific endeavours. They took place after dinner… At this very house of Simpson at dinner table… And the test subjects were friends, family and colleagues!

On 4 November 1847, the three gentlemen used a substance they’d previously discounted at the dinner table: chloroform. Tales of this legendary dinner party have been rather embroidered over the years – it's very likely that Simpson had already tried chloroform and knew it would work – but its outcome is undoubted. Drs Simpson, Keith and Duncan initially reported some light-headedness and laughter, and then quite suddenly... they lost consciousness.

As a next step  the test was performed on Simpson’s niece, Miss Petrie, who began singing "I am an angel" under the influence of chloroform! Within the week, Dr Simpson had used it in childbirth and surgical procedures.

Dr Simpson used Chloroform in inhalers,  intended to be used with ether and chloroform. By the time these  inhalers were designed and manufactured, ether and chloroform were still rivalling each other for superiority; the simpler inhaler was actually registered six months before Simpson’s discovery.

Both inhalers feature a glass vessel, although one of them is now missing its mouthpiece. This first inhaler made use of chloroform-soaked cotton wool in the small glass chamber; the patient would place their mouth around the mouthpiece and inhale. This second inhaler used a rubber and velvet-lined mask to cover the face instead.

Considered groundbreaking at the time, there is however a reason that chloroform inhalers are no longer used in modern medicine.

Unfortunately, neither design would be simple to sterilise to modern standards. More importantly though, chloroform in fact carries a high risk of causing death by heart failure.

Think of Dr Simpson’s very first uncontrolled experiment. Sat at his dinner table, he could have easily inhaled too much and died, or inhaled slightly less and never discovered its properties. Other doctors and scientists of the period didn’t fare as well with anaesthetics, harming themselves and patients in the search for pain relief.

Dr James Simpson was a true pioneer in anesthesia medicine indeed !