306 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 15,187CS. 
he read shortly afterwards at a meeting of the Liverpool 
Literary and Philosophical Society, in which, after a 
short resume of the general history of anaesthetics up to 
that time, he continues :— 
“ “ Dr. J. Y. Simpson, Professor of Midwifery in the Univer¬ 
sity of Edinburgh, who has, since the introduction of ether 
inhalation into this country, carried on the investigation of 
the merits of the practice with the greatest ardour and assi¬ 
duity, had been for some time on the search for other vapours 
possessing the properties of ether without certain disadvan¬ 
tages connected with its use, the result of which has been the 
discovery of such properties in chloroform through the follow¬ 
ing circumstances:— 
“ The term chloric ether was at one time applied to the 
chloride of olefiant gas, or Dutch liquid of chemists. In 1831 
Mr. Guthrie, an American chemist, was led by a statement 
in Silliman’s ‘Elements of Chemistry,’ that the alcoholic 
solution of chloric ether was a grateful and diffusible stimu¬ 
lant, to attempt a cheap and easy process for its preparation. 
This he did by distilling a mixture of spirit and chloride of 
lime, collecting the product so long as it came over sweet and 
aromatic. This both Guthrie and Silliman supposed to be a 
solution of the chloride of olefiant gas, and called it chloric 
ether. In reality, it was an impure spirituous solution of 
chloroform. 
“ In 1831 Soubeiran, and in 1832 Liebig, prepared liquid by 
a similar process, and separated the chloroform. Dumas, in 
1834, purified it fully, and made an accurate analysis of it; 
he found it to be composed of 12 parts carbon, 1 part hydro¬ 
gen, and 106^- parts chlorine, and named it chloroform, from 
being analogous to formic acid in its composition, but con¬ 
taining chlorine instead of oxygen. From theoretical consi¬ 
derations Liebig termed it perchloride or terchloride of for- 
myle—in chemical symbols C 2 HC1 3 . It is a colourless trans¬ 
parent liquid of specific gravity nearly 1500, or about 1| 
times the weight of water; it boils at 141° F., the vapour 
having a specific gravity nearly four times that of air; it 
quickly evaporates at ordinary temperatures, but does not 
burn easily; it has a sweet taste and agreeable smell; is 
soluble in all proportions in strong spirit, but very sparingly 
soluble in water, to which it communicates its taste in a small 
degree. 
“ To the best of my knowledge, from the result of many 
inquiries, it seems to have been introduced into this country 
as a medicinal agent first in Liverpool, where indeed, in the 
form of a spirituous solution, it has been more known than in 
any other part of the country, and from which, I believe, the 
knowledge of its therapeutic properties has extended. About 
the year 1838 or 1839 a prescription was brought to the 
Apothecaries’ Hall, Colquitt Street, one ingredient of which 
was chloric ether. No substance being known there of that 
name having the properties of that with which the mixture 
had been previously prepared, Dr. Brett, then the company’s 
chemist, in investigating the subject, found in the United 
States’ Dispensatory the formula for its preparation which 
has been noticed above, and prepared some. Its properties 
pleased some of the medical men, particularly Dr. Formby, 
by whom it was introduced into practice in this town. After 
coming to take charge of the company’s laboratories I found 
that the method of preparation yielded a product which was 
not of uniform strength, and sometimes of disagreeable 
flavour. Accordingly I altered the process by separating and 
purifying the chloroform, and dissolving it in pure spirit, by 
which a product of uniform strength and sweet flavour was 
always obtained. Thus prepared, it is much superior to spe¬ 
cimens I have seen of London manufacture. Those members 
of the profession who are in the habit of using it prefer it 
greatly to sulphuric ether, as possessing all its remedial value, 
and being very much more agreeable. 
“The vapour of the so-called chloric ether seems to have 
been tried as a substitute for sulphuric ether in February or 
March last, but without very satisfactory results, which, in¬ 
deed, could scarcely be expected, unless the vapour of alcohol 
possessed the same properties, it being composed principally 
of alcohol. When in Scotland, in October last, Dr. Simpson 
introduced the subject to me, inquiring if I knew of anything 
likely to answer. Chloric ether was mentioned during the 
conversation, and being well acquainted with its composition, 
and with the volatility, agreeable flavour, and medicinal pro¬ 
perties of chloroform, I recommended him to try it, promis¬ 
ing to prepare some after my return to Liverpool, and send 
it to him. Other engagements and various impediments 
prevented me from doing this so soon as I should have 
wished, and in the meantime Dr. Simpson, having procured 
some in Edinburgh, obtained the results which he communi¬ 
cated to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh on the 
10th of November, and which he published in a pamphlet, 
entitled, ‘ Notice of a New Anaesthetic Agent as a Substitute 
for Sulphuric Ether in Surgery and Midwifery.’ ” 
In this paper no remark was made upon Sir James. 
Simpson’s acknowledgment. The author, however, sent 
a copy of the paper to him ; hut Sir James took no no¬ 
tice of it, either by letter or personally. 
As to the amount of credit due to Mr. Waldie for the 
suggestion, the following statement by Mr. Abraham, of 
Liverpool,—a gentleman at that time holding a respon¬ 
sible position in the Apothecaries’ Company, and now a 
member of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society,. 
—has considerable interest:— 
“To judge correctly it is necessary to bear in mind one 
fact in particular, that, at the time when Simpson was induced 
to try chloroform it was not known as a commercial article^ 
I believe it w r as not used except in Liverpool, and there by 
tw r o houses only —the Apothecaries’ Company and Mr. Clay— 
for making chloric ether, to which, I believe, it was usually 
diluted as soon as made. If Simpson had not met with your 
brother, it is not at all likely that he would have seen or 
thought of chloroform; and subsequent experience justifies 
us in assuming that he would never have found out anything 
as good.” 
Mr. Waldie says :— 
“ Some of my friends have considerably overrated the im¬ 
portance of my share in the discovery, but this I have uni¬ 
formly discountenanced. Willingly do I acknowledge that 
the discovery was Dr. Simpson’s, and the honour his due. All 
that I looked for was a distinct and honest acknowledgment 
that I had recommended, or even suggested, to him to try 
chloroform. Out of all the great renown and more substantial 
advantages the discovery brought him, he might easily have 
spared that; but, irrespective of this, I considered it only an’ 
act of justice, and I did not get it. 
“ It may be asked why I did not then demand it—demand 
it from him on appeal to the public ? I did so indirectly to # 
limited extent by the paper already alluded to, and have got 
acknowledgments occasionally more satisfactory than Dr. 
Simpson’s. But I did not press the matter, as I thought it 
lay with others, not with me, to decide what amount of value 
the recommendation or suggestion was worth. Possibly it 
may have been a foolish or a weak course; certainly it has not 
been a very successful one. Yet I hesitated to say that the 
value of my suggestion had been underrated, and would pro¬ 
bably hesitate even now to proclaim so publicly, though I am 
inclined to think so upon evidence that in the circumstances 
seems unimpeachable,—the testimony, indirect, of Sir James 
Simpson himself.” 
He then points out the amount of credit given by Sir 
James Simpson himself, in his last work, the ‘ History 
of Modern Anaesthetics, a Second Letter to Dr. Jacob 
Bigelow,’ to Dr. Jackson for having suggested the use of' 
ether to Dr. Morton, and continues :— 
“Yet, much as is the credit given to Dr. Jackson for sug¬ 
gesting ether, not a word is said of the man who suggested 
and recommended chloroform to Dr. Simpson. His name 
is not once mentioned, and, so far as I am aware, he never- 
got any greater credit from Dr. Simpson for one principal 
means of obtaining his wide-spread renown, than was con¬ 
veyed in a foot-note to his original announcement, to the- 
eflect that Mr. Waldie had first mentioned chloroform to him. 
The statement was not correct, inasmuch as it conveyed n 
proper or sufficient intimation of what I had done. I did not 
merely mention it, I distinctly recommended him to try it, 
and also intended to help him to do it, an intention which 
only circumstances prevented me from carrying out. 
“ I have no wish to detract from the fame of Sir James 
Simpson. I have the highest admiration of his great and 
rare talents, and of the marvellous industry with which he 
applied them to the cultivation of medical science. I can only 
join in the wide-spread regret which his loss to the world has 
called forth, and wish that he had lived to answer, if he could, 
the remarks I have made. His reputation cannot suffer by 
