THE FOUNDER OF MODERN SURGERY.
Sir James Young Simpson was born on June 7, 1811, in' tho town of Bathgate, Linlithgow, Scotland, where his father was a baker. By his discovery of the anaesthetic properties of chloroform in November, 1817, he made possible tho marvellous developments of modern surgery. In December 181G news of the use of sulphuric ether by Dr. Morton, a dentist of Boston, reached England, and in tho following month Simpson applied ether for tho first time in a midwifery case. In the following November he announced his discovery of chloroform (the trial of which had been suggested to him by Mr. Waldie, a chemist of Liverpool), and suggested it' ns a substitute for sulphuric ether. So convincingly did ho demonstrato the advantages of this new substance that it speedily superseded ether, and continues to-day to bo the most widely-used of all the agents employed in modicino for relieving suffering. Prior to the use of nitrous oxide gas seventy years ago, narcotics were occasionally used to produce anaesthesia, but surgeons generally regarded them with disfavour.
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Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1149, 9 June 1911, Page 5
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178THE FOUNDER OF MODERN SURGERY. Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1149, 9 June 1911, Page 5
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