^'°AuSLri92a}      Pharmaceutical  Events  iniSyo.  573 
establishment  prevented  the  fulfillment  of  this  promise.  Simpson 
then  obtained  a  bottle  of  chloroform  from  Duncan  and  Flockhart, 
in  Edinburgh,  but  owing  to  its  specific  gravity,  did  not  consider  it 
of  much  value.  How  could  such  a  hea^^y  liquid  act  as  an  anesthetic? 
In  the  evening  of  November  4,  1847,  a  date  worth  remembering. 
Prof.  Simpson  and  his  two  talented  assistants,  Drs.  Duncan  and 
Keith,  tried  chloroform  by  inhaling  it  from  tumblers.  The  effect 
was  instantaneous  and  remarkable.  Dr.  Keith's  eyes  grew  bright 
and  he  laughed  heartily.  Dr.  Duncan  waltzed  around  the  room 
and  Dr.  Simpson,  the  dignified  professor  of  Medicine  and  Midwifery 
at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  wiggled  his  toes  and  would  have 
stood  on  his  learned  head  for  a  doughnut.  When  some  ladies  en- 
tered the  room,  the  three  gentlemen  were  remarkably  amiable, 
loquacious  and  even  hilarious.  Little  did  they  dream  that  these 
gay  Lotharies  were  drunk — drunk  on  chloroform.  Then  the  sec- 
ondary effects  of  the  chloroform  vapors  became  evident,  the  charm- 
ing doctors  became  confused  and  then  unconscious.  Simpson  was 
the  first  to  revive.  He  found  Duncan  under  the  table  with  eyes 
staring  and  snoring  loudly,  while  Keith  was  kicking  at  the  supper 
table.  The  experiment  was  repeated  a  few  evenings  later,  and  this 
time  Miss  Petrie,  a  niece  of  Simpson,  wanted  to  prove  that  she  was 
as  brave  as  a  man,  inhaled  the  chloroform.  She  folded  her  arms 
across  her  breast  and  fell  asleep  murmuring,  ''I  am  an  angel!  Oh, 
I'm  an  angel" — but  Simpson  searched  in  vain  for  her  wings.  "Bet- 
ter than  ether,"  was  Simpson's  conclusion.  He  read  a  paper  on 
Anaesthetics  before  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Society  of  Edinburgh, 
calling  attention  to  the  superiority  of  chloroform  over  ether,  and  he 
also  began  at  once  to  use  it  in  his  obstetrical  practice  and  with 
great  success. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  all  innovations  meet  with  strenuous 
opposition.  And  so  it  was  with  the  introduction  of  chloroform  as 
an  anesthetic  in  obstetrics.  Not  only  the  unscientific  rabble  shouted 
at  Simpson,  but  also  men  of  brains  and  skill  opposed  the  innova- 
tion, as  Meigs,  of  Philadelphia,  Ramsbotham,  of  Great  Britain,  and 
Scanzoni,  of  Germany.  Even  the  church  opposed  this  apparent 
blessing  and  the  orthodox  quoted  the  passage  in  Genesis  III,  16: 
"In  sorrow  thou  shalt  bring  forth  children."  The  controversy  grew 
so  bitter  that  had  Simpson  been  a  Semmelweis  he  might  have  be- 
come insane,  and  had  he  been  a  Horace  Wells  he  would  have  killed 
himself.    But  he  was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.    He  had  the 
