ABSTRACT
James Young Simpson, professor of midwifery in Edinburgh, used ether in his obstetrical practice on 19 January 1847, but the agent had the disadvantage of slow induction and associated vomiting. Simpson was attacked for using pain relief for women in labour, but the cause of obstetrical anaesthesia was greatly strengthened when Queen Victoria had chloroform administered to her by John Snow at the birth of her eighth child in 1853. Intravenous anaesthetic drugs, such as pentothal and ketamine, make the induction of anaesthesia rapid and reasonably pleasant. Under antiseptic precautions and with the addition of a carbolic spray, Joseph Lister performed an open osteotomy on the malaligned bone, which of course involved transforming the situation into what amounted to a compound fracture. In 1869, Lister transferred from Glasgow to become a professor of clinical surgery in Edinburgh, and in 1877, he accepted an invitation to the Chair of Surgery at King’s College, London.
