Sir James Simpson's introduction of chloroform / By his daughter.
- Eve Blantyre Simpson
- Date:
- [1894]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sir James Simpson's introduction of chloroform / By his daughter. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![Professor Miller's account, Tales change in the telHng. During the autumn Professor Miller would come in every morning about breakfast-time, for, he used jokingly to say, he could not rest till he was sure none of the experimenters was dead. He says : On rcturninghome after a weary day's labor, Dr. Simpson, with his two friends and assistants, Drs. Keith and Mathews Duncan, sat down to their somewhat hazardous work in Dr. Simpson's din- ing-room. Having inhaled several substances, but without much effect, it occurred to Dr. Simpson to try a ponderous material which he had formerly set aside on a lumber table, and which, on account of its great weight, he had hitherto regarded as of no use whatever. It happened to be a small bottle of chloroform. It was searched for, and recovered from beneath a heap of waste paper, and, with each tumbler newly charged, the inhalers re- sumed their vocation. Immediately an unwonted hilarity seized the party ; they became bright- eyed, very happy, and very loquacious, expatiat- ing on the delicious aroma of the new fluid. The conversation was of unusual intelligence, andquite charmed the listeners — some ladies of the family and a naval officer, a brother-in-law of Dr. Simp- son. But suddenly there was a talk of sounds be- ing heard like those of a cotton-mill, louder and louder; a moment more, then all was quiet, and then a crash. On awaking, Dr. Simpson's first perception was mental. This is far stronger and better than ether, said he to himself His sec- ond was to note that he was prostrate on the floor, and that among the friends about him there was both confusion and alarm. Hearing a noise, he turned about, and saw Dr. Duncan beneath a chair; his jaw had dropped, his eyes were star- ing, his head was bent half under him ; he was quite unconscious, and was snoring in a most de- termined and alarming manner. More noise still, and much motion. And then his eyes overtook Dr. Keith's feet and legs making valorous efforts to overturn the supper table, or more probably to annihilateeverythingthat was on it. I say more probably, for frequent repetitions of inhalation have confirmed, in the case of my esteemed friend, a character for maniacal and unrestrained de- structiveness always under chloroform in the transition stage. On December 3, 1847, my father, in a letter, writes: On the first occasion on which I detected the anesthetic effects of chloroform, the scene was an odd one. I had had the chloroform beside me for several days, but it seemed so unlikely a li- quid to produce results of any kind, that it was laid aside, and on searching for another object among some loose paper, after coming home very late one night, my hand chanced to fall upon it, and 1 poured some of the fluid into tumblers be- fore my assistants. Dr. Keith and Dr. Duncan, and luysclf. Before sitting down to supper we all inhaled the fluid, and were all under the ma- hoo-any in a trice, to my wife's consternation and alarm. In another letter he says: I had the chloroform for several days in the house before trying it, as, after seeing it such a heavy unvolatile-like liquid, I despaired of it, and went on dreaming about others. The first night we took it simultaneously, and were all under the table in a minute or two. My aunt. Miss Grindlay, and Dr. George Keith are the only two sur%'ivors of the lit- tle company on that November night. Miss Grindlay persists in the statement that my father tried the drug first alone. Her mem- ory is now, at upward of four-score years, somewhat dimmer and less trustworthy than of yore, but for the last twenty years she has told the same tale. She says my father came into the room with his short, brisk step, and took out of his waistcoat pocket a little phial, and, holding it up, said, See this; it will turn the world upside down. Helping himself to a tumbler off the sideboard, he poured in a few drops, inhaled it, and fell unconscious on the floor, to my mother's horror. Another sister of hers, Mrs. Petrie, and her husband, Captain Petrie, were present. This does not coincide with the previous statements, but it may be that my father, having got the impatiently looked-for chloroform (for after having ex- pected it from Liverpool, he had obtained it at Duncan & Flockhart's),and being disappointed in its appearance, and being busy tr\-ing other things, had put it aside, till, thinking over it, he unearthed it, sniffed at it, and made the trial my aunt speaks of. Finding it efficacious, he may have pushed it among his papers again, with a glint of fun in his eyes and a caution- ing don't tell, pleased at the idea of the effect it would have on his comrades, Duncan and Keith. It is possible that Miss Grindlay may have confused this scene with another, though to have done so is unlike her usual ac- curacy and precision of recollection. My cou- sin. Miss Petrie, mentions in some notes made at the time, On one occasion he [Professor Simpson] took something that rendered him quite insensible for upward of two hours. My aunt [Mrs. Simpson] got a terrible fright. He tried everytliing on himself first. Dr. George Keith, in a letter to me on the subject written in 1891, says: Dr. Miller, in the appendix to his work on sur- ger)', published soon after, gives a full account of the scene. It is pretty correct, only he says that we all took the chloroform at once. This, with a new substance to try, would have been fool- ish, and the fact is I began to inhale it a few min- utes before the others. On seeing the effects on me, and hearing my approval before I went quite over, they both took a dose, and I believe we were all more or less under the table together, much to the alarm of vour mother. 1](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21003774_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
