Simpson JY. Account of a new anaesthetic agent as a substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and midwifery, 1847.

Catalog Record: Simpson JY. Account of a new anaesthetic agent as a substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and midwifery, 1847.

Title: Account of a new anaesthetic agent as a substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and midwifery / by J.Y. Simpson.

AccessKey: adjh

Author: Simpson, James Young, Sir, 1811-1870.

WLM Call Number: WO 278 C5 S613 1847 RB

Accession NO.: Copy 1, RB7211 ; Copy 2, RB9424

Publisher: Edinburgh : Sutherland and Knox, 1847.

Physical Description: 23 p. ; 21 cm.

Subject: Ether, Sulphuric.
Subject: Chloroform.
Subject: Anesthesia, Obstetrical.
Subject: Anesthesia, Inhalation.

Abstract: Simpson’s report of his discovery of the narcotic effects of chloroform
through self-experimentation with his assistants Dr. George Keith and
Dr. Mathews Duncan on November 4, 1847. The earliest version of this
paper did not report any surgical use of chloroform but the next
version contained a postscript reporting three surgical chloroform
anesthetics. The last version of this paper adds a fourth surgical case.
Simpson mentions in a postscript that he has used chloroform
successfully in fifty cases.

General Notes: Copy 2 Publisher: Edinburgh : Sutherland and Knox, 1848. Copy 2
measures 22 cm.

General Notes: The Wood Library-Museum copies are the last version. Copy 1 is of the
first three thousand copies printed. Copy 2 is of the first four
thousand printed.

General Notes: Digitized by Northern Micrographics June 22, 2010.
Digitized WLM Reprint.

General Notes: Copy 2, accession number RB9424, is bound with 7 other works (2nd of 8),
and shelved at WO 207 S613 1848 RB.

General Notes: Simpson administered chloroform to an obstetric patient on November 8,
1847, and reported the its narcotic effects on November 10, 1847 before
the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh. Simpson then published
his findings between November 12th and 15th. The November 12th version
was published as a “Notice of a new anaesthetic agent” which was
subsequently changed to “Account of a new anaesthetic agent” published
on November 15, 1847.

Note Bib: Footnotes.