On November 4, 1847, a Scottish doctor named James Young Simpson and his friends, who already knew about the happy feeling caused by substances like ether and laughing gas (nitrous oxide), decided to try something new. They inhaled chloroform, and after a short moment of laughter, they all fell into a deep sleep.
When Simpson woke up, he said, “This is much better than ether.” (A year earlier, in Boston, William Morton had introduced ether as an anesthetic.)
Just four days later, Simpson used chloroform to help a mother give birth, making childbirth less painful for her.
Over the next month, he used chloroform on more than 50 patients. One woman was so happy with the experience that she named her newborn daughter Anesthesia!
But the use of chloroform was risky. In 1848, the first death from chloroform was reported. A young girl named Hannah Green died, most likely because the anesthetic was not given correctly.
This tragedy, along with opposition from the Scottish Calvinist Church (which believed women should suffer in childbirth because of Eve’s punishment), made people doubt the safety of chloroform.
Everything changed in 1853 when Queen Victoria chose to use chloroform during the birth of her eighth child, Prince Leopold. Her doctor, John Snow, had her inhale it from a soaked handkerchief.
The queen loved it so much that she asked for chloroform again during her next childbirth. Because of her approval, chloroform became known as “the queen’s anesthetic.” After that, all doubts about using it disappeared.
One day, Simpson walked into his classroom at the University of Edinburgh, where he was a professor of obstetrics. He proudly announced that Queen Victoria had honored him by making him her personal doctor.
Hearing this, his students stood up and sang together:
“God save the Queen!”