Chloroform anestheticIn 1847, in Great Britain, Sir James Young Simpson, the father of modern anesthetics, employed chloroform ("perchloride of formyle") for the first time as an anesthetic in an operation. He was not the first to use chloroform but it was his persistent advocacy which led to its acceptance. Later, as Queen Victoria was to give birth to Prince Leopold (1853), she accepted chloroform for help. There was a great controversy about the morality of whether women should use such anesthetics in childbirth. Victoria's leadership broke people free from superstition and fear. Simpson was a natural inventor,always eager to experiment in new directions: the fight against puerperal fever, the invention of new types of forceps and combating cholera. |
