James Young Simpson
(1811-1870)

Pioneer of anaesthesia

Bathgate-born Simpson was a high-flying young doctor whose major medical preoccupation was the alleviation of physical pain in his patients, particularly those undergoing surgery and childbirth. In 1847 he and two assistants tested chloroform on themselves; in a minute, he delightedly reported, all three were under the table. The anaesthetic was introduced two weeks later to Edinburgh Infirmary, but the forces of superstition fought a strong rearguard action, believing it to be God’s will that humans should suffer. Anaesthesia gained full respectability when Queen Victoria used it in childbirth in 1853.