Simpson

• James Simpson was a Scottish doctor who set out to find a way of easing the pain of childbirth.
• He was not a particularly methodical worker. Instead, he would simply gather a bunch of his closest friends, and they would inhale a mixture of different chemicals to see if they would work.
• In 1847, James Simpson experimented with chloroform by testing it on himself and two of his colleagues in his own dining room. When he awoke, he realised he might have a more effective anaesthetic than ever.
• Although chloroform proved more pleasant for a patient than ever, it proved to be quite dangerous if it was not correctly administered. For example, in 1848, Hannah Greener fatally overdosed on chloroform whilst having a toenail removed.
• The use of chloroform met with much resistance due to Hannah Greener's death.
• An inhaler was created to control the dosage of chloroform.
• The inhaler was used with Queen Victoria in 1853, during the birth of her eighth child, after that criticism dropped.
• As the use of chloroform became more widespread, surgeons became more ambitious with their surgeries. They began occasionally operating when it wasn’t necessary, sometimes delving deeply into a person which increased the number of deaths by infection.