572 
Pharmaceutical  Events  in  i8yo. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  1920. 
COPBlvAND. 
Dr.  James  Copeland  (i  891-1970),  of  the  Orkney  Islands,  was 
a  medical  polyhistorian.  His  Dictionary  of  Practical  Medicine 
(1834-59)  contains  3509  double  column  pages,  all  written  by  himself. 
As  president  of  the  Pathological  Society  of  London,  Copeland  ex- 
cited many  a  chuckle  of  derision  when  he  claimed  various  modern 
discoveries  as  his  own. 
Albrecht  von  Graefe  (1821-1870),  of  Berlin,  was  the  creator  of 
the  modern  surgery  of  the  eye,  in  fact  the  greatest  of  all  eye  sur- 
geons. In  1854  he  founded  the  Archiv.  fiir  Opthalmologie,  the  lead- 
ing organ  of  this  special  branch  of  medicine  to  date.  Graefe's 
clinic  became  famous  all  over  the  world  and  not  only  student  but 
practising  physicians  came  to  Berlin  to  study  ophthalmology  under 
its  greatest  master. 
SIMPSON. 
Although  not  a  pharmacist,  but  a  physician,  I  must  not  forget 
to  record  the  death  of  Sir  James  Young  Simpson,  because  he  intro- 
duced chloroform  as  an  anesthetic.  Born  in  181 1  in  Linlithgow, 
Scotland,  as  the  son  of  a  baker,  it  was  the  desire  of  his  parents  to 
have  him  educated.  In  1 825  he  entered  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
studied  hard,  and  in  1832,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  graduated 
as  M.D.  His  thesis,  ''On  death  from  Inflammation,"  so  impressed 
the  professor  of  Pathology  that  he  selected  the  recent  graduate  as 
his  assistant.  In  1840  Simpson  became  professor  of  Obstetrics 
and  through  his  great  ability  and  fascinating  personality  soon  ac- 
quired an  enormous  practice. 
The  following  short  account  of  the  introduction  of  chloroform 
as  an  anesthetic  is  taken  from  the  author's  lectures  and  might  be  of 
interest  at  this  time. 
Not  being  quite  satisfied  with  the  effects  of  ether,  which  he  was 
the  first  to  employ  in  obstetric  cases,  namely  January  19,  1847,  Simpson 
searched  for  a  more  lasting  anesthetic.  He  tried  many  substances, 
liquids,  solids  and  gases,  but  without  success.  A  Scotch  pharma- 
cist, David  Waldie,  at  that  time  manager  of  the  Liverpool  Apothe- 
caries Company,  visited  Edinburgh  during  the  summer  of  1847 
and  advised  Simpson  to  try  chloroform,  promised  to  send  some  on 
his  return  to  Liverpool.    However,  a  fire  in  the  laboratory  of  his 
