Anesthesia

The credit for discovering the third major anesthetic of this period in medical history goes to James Young Simpson, a Scottish gynecologist and obstetrician. Simpson used ether in his practice but searched for an anesthetic that would make bearing children less painful for women. He tested several gases until he came upon chloroform in 1847 and began to use it on women in labor. Chloroform use, though, had higher risks than those associated with ether, and it called for greater skill from the physician. Neither ether nor chloroform are used in surgery today.