Details
SIMPSON, James Young (1811-1870). Account of a New Anaesthetic Agent, as a substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and midwifery. Edinburgh: Murray and Gibb for Sutherland and Knox; London: Samuel Highley, 1847.
8o (213 x 135 mm). Collation: A8 B4. 12 leaves. Postscript dated 15 November 1847. (Title-leaf and last four leaves detached, upper blank corner of final leaf torn away, slight soiling to title and last leaf.) Unbound as issued (formerly stab-stitched, trace of thread remaining); folding fitted chemise and morocco-backed slipcase. Provenance: Dr. J. V. C. Smith, editor of the Boston medical and surgical journal (presentation inscription on title, address panel in the author's hand on last blank page, with postmarks dated November 19 at Edinburgh and November 21 at Liverpool).
PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE USE OF CHLOROFORM, second edition, published two or three days after the first. Simpson, the leading obstetrician of his time, announced his discovery of chloroform's anesthetic properties and his first successful use of it (in an obstetrical delivery on 8 November 1847) in an address to the Medico-Chirgical Society of Edinburgh on November 10th. He immediately had the address published, as the present text, which was quickly summarized or reprinted in several journals in Britain and the United States. Chloroform's considerable advantages over sulphuric ether, enumerated by Simpson in his paper, caused it to rapidly displace ether as a universal anesthetic. Its use in obstetrics was however denounced from various conservative quarters as immoral and hostile to the laws of religion, labor pains being considered God's punishment for Eve's sins, and Simpson was forced to embark "on a long publishing campaign to convert the opposition. His most famous non-scientific argument was that God Himself had been the first anesthetist when He 'caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam' before bringing forth Eve from his rib. Simpson's efforts were finally established by the medical establishment when Queen Victoria chose to take chloroform for the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853" (Norman).
The first edition of the present pamphlet is titled Notice of a new anesthetic agent..., and bears an imprint mentioning the Edinburgh booksellers only. Its postscript is dated 12 November, showing that it must have been printed in a very small number and quickly distributed to the author's associates, for this second edition, which differs textually only in the addition of a paragraph to the end of the postscript, is dated only three days later. The recipient of this copy, J. V. C. Smith, first mentioned Simpson's discovery in the 29 December 1847 issue of his Boston medical and surgical journal, and acknowledged receipt of the pamphlet in the 5 January 1848 issue. Both the Edinburgh editions of this first published announcement of Simpson's discovery are EXTREMELY RARE. Osler 1480; cf. Garrison-Morton 5657 (reprint in the Lancet, 1847); cf. Heirs of Hippocrates 1764 (New York 1848 reprint); Norman 1945.
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PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE USE OF CHLOROFORM, second edition, published two or three days after the first. Simpson, the leading obstetrician of his time, announced his discovery of chloroform's anesthetic properties and his first successful use of it (in an obstetrical delivery on 8 November 1847) in an address to the Medico-Chirgical Society of Edinburgh on November 10th. He immediately had the address published, as the present text, which was quickly summarized or reprinted in several journals in Britain and the United States. Chloroform's considerable advantages over sulphuric ether, enumerated by Simpson in his paper, caused it to rapidly displace ether as a universal anesthetic. Its use in obstetrics was however denounced from various conservative quarters as immoral and hostile to the laws of religion, labor pains being considered God's punishment for Eve's sins, and Simpson was forced to embark "on a long publishing campaign to convert the opposition. His most famous non-scientific argument was that God Himself had been the first anesthetist when He 'caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam' before bringing forth Eve from his rib. Simpson's efforts were finally established by the medical establishment when Queen Victoria chose to take chloroform for the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853" (Norman).
The first edition of the present pamphlet is titled Notice of a new anesthetic agent..., and bears an imprint mentioning the Edinburgh booksellers only. Its postscript is dated 12 November, showing that it must have been printed in a very small number and quickly distributed to the author's associates, for this second edition, which differs textually only in the addition of a paragraph to the end of the postscript, is dated only three days later. The recipient of this copy, J. V. C. Smith, first mentioned Simpson's discovery in the 29 December 1847 issue of his Boston medical and surgical journal, and acknowledged receipt of the pamphlet in the 5 January 1848 issue. Both the Edinburgh editions of this first published announcement of Simpson's discovery are EXTREMELY RARE. Osler 1480; cf. Garrison-Morton 5657 (reprint in the Lancet, 1847); cf. Heirs of Hippocrates 1764 (New York 1848 reprint); Norman 1945.