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James Young Simpson
James Young Simpson (1811-1870) was noted for a forceps design introduced in 1848, and indeed the vast majority of forceps deliveries of the late 19th and early 20th century were done with an instrument popularized by Simpson. However, he deserves far greater recognition and credit for the introduction of anesthesia to obstetrics. Ether was introduced in October 1846 and controversy soon enveloped its use. Simpson clearly was the first to employ it in midwifery in Britain, but he was not quite satisfied with ether and began to search for another anesthetic agent. In February, 1847 J. S. Tracy had suggested chloroform in a letter to the Medical Gazette, and Simpson subsequently used it in labor. There was much opposition to the use of anesthesia from doctors and clergy, who argued that God intended women to suffer the pains of childbirth and man should not interfere. All opposition ceased when Queen Victoria received chloroform for delivery of her 8th child. It became the most widely-used anesthesia for the rest century. Simpson earned a baronetcy from Queen Victoria in 1866. Anesthesia might have earned this, but he also shared with John Lever the discovery of albuminuria in eclampsia, and that presence of albumin preceded the eclampsia. He served as president of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society from 1841 to 1856.
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