This Day in History: Nov 4, 1847: Sir James Young Simpson discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform.

 

Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet (7 June 1811 – 6 May 1870) was a Scottish obstetrician and an important figure in the history of medicine. Simpson discovered the anaesthetic properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical use.

James Simpson was born in Bathgate,^[1] West Lothian, the youngest of seven children, Thomas, John, Alexander, David, George (died young), and a sister Mary.

 

His parents were Mary Jarvey (also known as Jarvie) and David Simpson, originally a baker in Bathgate who became an accountant in the Bathgate branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland.^[2] James received his initial education at the local school, but because of his obvious abilities his father and brothers (his mother died when he was 9) together paid for a college education and he entered the University of Edinburgh when he was 14 years old. He became a Licentiate in 1830 before graduating in 1832 with an MD.^[3] He was appointed Professor of Midwifery (which would now be called Obstetrics) at the University of Edinburgh and physician to Queen Victoria.

 

Simpson's name at birth was "James Simpson", as recorded at his baptism on 30 June. It is unknown why he formally adopted the middle name "Young". One theory is that, as a very young professor, he was flaunting his youth in front of his older peers or alternatively that he was known by the affectionate nickname of "Young Simpson" and decided to incorporate it into his name.

 

Simpson completed final examination at the age of 18 but, as he was so young, had to wait two years before he got his license to practice medicine. At the age of 28 he was appointed to the Chair of Medicine and Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh. He improved the design of obstetric forceps that to this day are known in obstetric circles as "Simpson's Forceps" and, like Semmelweis, fought against the contagion of puerperal sepsis. His most noted contribution was the introduction of anesthesia to childbirth.

Simpson's intellectual interests ranged from archaeology to an almost taboo subject at the time: hermaphroditism. He was a very early advocate of the use of midwives in the hospital environment. Many prominent women also consulted him for their gynaecological problems.

 

 

It was his achievements and wide ranging interests that led to his town house at 52 Queen Street, Edinburgh being a gathering point for many members of society, especially intellectuals. His impish sense of humour got the better of him on at least one of these occasions when he seated a Southern U.S. slave owner next to a freed slave at the dinner table. Since this town house was fairly busy at times, Simpson preferred to keep his wife and children at their country house near Bathgate. In religion Simpson was a devout adherent of the Free Church of Scotland, but he refused to sign the Westminster Confession of Faith, because of what he believed to be its literal interpretation of the book of Genesis.^[4]

Obstetric anaesthesia

 

Sir Humphry Davy used the first anaesthetic in 1799, nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Robert Liston's ether was initially dismissed as an anaesthetic because it irritated the lungs of the patients. In 1847, Simpson discovered the properties of chloroform during an experiment with friends in which he learnt that it could be used to put one to sleep. Dr Simpson and two of his friends, Drs Keith and Duncan used to sit every evening in Dr Simpson's dining room to try new chemicals to see if they had any anaesthetic effect.

 

On 4 November 1847 they decided to try a ponderous material named chloroform that they had previously ignored. On inhaling the chemical they found that a general mood of cheer and humour had set in. But suddenly all of them collapsed only to regain consciousness the next morning. Simpson knew, as soon as he woke up, that he had found something that could be used as an anaesthetic. They soon had Miss Petrie, Simpson's niece, try it. She fell asleep soon after inhaling it while singing the words, "I am an angel!".^[5] There is a prevalent myth that the mother of the first child delivered under chloroform christened her child “Anaesthesia”; the story is retailed in Simpson’s biography as written by his daughter Eve. However, the son of the first baby delivered by chloroform explained that Simpson’s parturient had been one Jane Carstairs, and her child was baptized Wilhelmina. “Anaesthesia” was a nickname Simpson had given the baby.^[6]

 

It was very much by chance that Simpson survived the chloroform dosage he administered to himself. If he had inhaled too much and died, chloroform would have been seen as a dangerous substance, which in fact it is.^[7] Conversely, if Simpson had inhaled slightly less it would not have put him to sleep. It was his willingness to explore the possibilities of the substance that set him on the road to a career as a pioneer in the field of medicine.

 

Death and memorials

 

Simpson was created a Baronet, of Strathavon in the County of Linlithgow, and of the City of Edinburgh, in 1866.^[8] He died at his home in Edinburgh in May 1870 at the age of fifty-eight. A burial spot in Westminster Abbey was offered to his family, but they declined and instead buried him closer to home in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.^[9] However, a memorial bust can be found in a niche at Westminster Abbey in London. On the day of Simpson's funeral, a Scottish holiday was declared, including the banks and stock markets, with over 100,000 citizens lining the funeral cortege on its way to the cemetery, while over 1,700 colleagues and business leaders took part in the procession itself.

 

The Simpson family gifted the town house at 52 Queen Street to the church in 1916. Since then the building has been through many uses including being requisitioned by the army during the Second World War and being used as a centre for training Sunday School teachers in the 1950s. Today, the town house is the premises of a charity called Simpson House, which provides a counselling service for adults and children affected by alcohol and drug use.^[10] There is a plaque on the wall outside to mark the house as having been the home of James Young Simpson from 1845 to 1870.

The Quartermile development, which consists of the Old Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, named its main residential street Simpson Loan in his honour.

References

1.        Jump up ^ Scotland's People; Old Parish Records – Births ref.662/ 0020 0201 http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

2.        Jump up ^ Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords (1861). Journals of the House of Lords, vol. 93. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 332–. Retrieved 6 May 2012.

3.        Jump up ^ "Sir James Young Simpson". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 23 August 2013.

4.        Jump up ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

5.        Jump up ^ Gordon, H. Laing (2002-11). Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform (1811–1870). The Minerva Group, Inc. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-4102-0291-8. Retrieved 11 November 2011.

6.        Jump up ^ Defalque, Ray J.; Wright, Amos J. J: The Myth of Baby “Anaesthesia”. Anesthesiology. September 2009 - Volume 111 - Issue 3 - p 682. doi:10.1097/ALN.0b013e3181b2800f [1]

7.        Jump up ^ T. K. Agasti (1 October 2010). Textbook of Anaesthesia for Postgraduates. JP Medical Ltd. pp. 397–. ISBN 978-93-80704-94-4. Retrieved 15 September 2013.

8.        Jump up ^ The London Gazette: no. 23064. p. 511. 30 January 1866.

9.        Jump up ^ For a photograph of his gravesite, see Baskett, T. F. "Edinburgh connections in a painful world". Retrieved 2008-09-29.

10.     Jump up ^ http://www.simpson-house.org/ourhistory.htm

taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Young_Simpson [04.11.2013]

 

This Day in History: Nov 1, 1555: French Huguenots establish the France Antarctique colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro

 

France Antarctique (formerly also spelled France antartique) was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. Founded as a haven for the Huguenots, the colony was ultimately destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567.

Colonization attempt

Brazil had been discovered in April 1500 by a fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral on behalf of the Portuguese crown, which arrived in present-day Porto Seguro, Bahia, but except for Salvador (the first Brazilian capital city) the rest of the new territory still remained largely unexplored half a century later.

Early French involvement with Brazil

 

Early expeditions of French Norman sailors to the New World have been suggested: Jean Cousin has been said to have discovered the New World in 1488, four years before Christopher Columbus, when he landed in Brazil around the mouth of the Amazon, but this remains unproven.^[1] His travels were succeeded by that of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville in 1504 onboard L'Espoir, which was properly recorded and brought back a Native American person named Essomericq.^[1] Gonneville affirmed that when he visited Brazil, French traders from Saint-Malo and Dieppe had already been trading there for several years.^[2]

 

France continued to trade with Brazil, especially loading Brazilwood (Pau-Brasil), for its use as a red dyes for textiles.^[3] In 1550, in the royal entry for Henry II of France, at Rouen, about fifty men depicted naked Indians and a battle between the Tupinamba allies of the French, and the Tabajaras Indians.^[3]

 

Colonization

 

On November 1, 1555, French vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510–1575), who desired to help the Huguenots find a refuge against persecution, led a small fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers and Huguenot colonists, and took possession of the small island of Serigipe in the Guanabara Bay, in front of present-day Rio de Janeiro, where they built a fort named Fort Coligny. The fort was named in honor of Gaspard de Coligny, a Huguenot admiral who supported the expedition in order to protect his co-religionists.
To the still largely undeveloped mainland village, Villegaignon gave the name of Henriville, in honour of Henry II, the King of France, who also knew of and approved the expedition, and had provided the fleet for the trip. Villegaignon secured his position by making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupinambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese.

 

However, the French crown failed to make good use of Villegaignon's exploits to expand the reach of the French kingdom into the New World, as was being done at the time with the claims of Jacques Cartier in the present-day province of Quebec, Canada. All of these settlements were in violation of the Papal bull of 1493, which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. This division was later defined more exactly by the Treaty of Tordesillas.

 

 

1557 Calvinist arrival

 

Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who initially took little notice of his landing, Villegaignon endeavoured to expand the colony by calling for more colonists in 1556. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge, to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin.

 

After one ship was sent to France to ask for additional support, three ships were financed and prepared by the king of France and put under the command of Sieur De Bois le Comte, a nephew of Villegagnon.^[4] They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray, including theologians Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartrier.^[4] The new colonists, numbering around 300, included 5 young women to be wed, 10 boys to be trained as translators, as well as 14 Calvinists sent by Calvin, and also Jean de Léry, who would later write an account of the colony.^[3] They arrived in March 1557.^[3] The relief fleet was composed of:

• The Petite Roberge, with 80 soldiers and sailors was led by Vice Admiral Sieur De Bois le Comte.^[4]
• The Grande Roberge, with about 120 on board, captained by Sieur de Sainte-Marie dit l'Espine.^[4]
• The Rosée, with about 90 people, led by Captain Rosée.^[4]

 

Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinist, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557 the Calvinists were banished from Coligny island as a result.^[3] They settled among the Tupinamba until January 1558, when some of them managed to return to France by ship together with Jean de Léry, and five others chose to return to Coligny island where three of them were drowned by Villegagnon for refusing to recant.^[3]

 

Portuguese intervention

 

In 1560 Mem de Sá, the new Governor-General of Brazil, received from the Portuguese government the command to expel the French. With a fleet of 26 warships and 2,000 soldiers, on 15 March 1560, he attacked and destroyed Fort Coligny within three days, but was unable to drive off their inhabitants and defenders, because they escaped to the mainland with the help of the Native Americans, where they continued to live and to work.^[5] Admiral Villegaignon had returned to France in 1558, disgusted with the religious tension that existed between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group (see French Wars of Religion).

 

 

Urged by two influential Jesuit priests who had come to Brazil with Mem de Sá, named José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega, and who had played a big role in pacifying the Tamoios, Mem de Sá ordered his nephew, Estácio de Sá to assemble a new attack force. Estácio de Sá founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1, 1565, and fought the Frenchmen for two more years. Helped by a military reinforcement sent by his uncle, on January 20, 1567, he imposed final defeat on the French forces and decisively expelled them from Brazil, but died a month later from wounds inflicted in the battle. Coligny's and Villegaignon's dream had lasted a mere 12 years.

 

Largely in response to the two attempts of France to conquer territory in Brazil (the other one was named France Équinoxiale and occupied present-day São Luís, state of Maranhão), between 1612 and 1615, the Portuguese crown decided to expand its colonization efforts in Brazil.

Sequels

 

 

Other projects were made for the occupation of parts of Brazil in 1579, following the death of Dom Sebastian at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, and also in 1582 under Admiral Filippo di Piero Strozzi, cousin of Catherine de Médicis.

 

 

 

In the 17th century, France again briefly established a colony in Brazil with the establishment of France Equinoxiale.

 

On 21 September 1711, in the 11-day Battle of Rio de Janeiro, René Duguay-Trouin captured Rio de Janeiro, then believed impregnable, with twelve ships and 6 000 men, in spite of the defence consisting of seven ships of the line, five forts and 12,000 men; he held the governor for ransom. Investors in this venture doubled their money, and Duguay-Trouin earned a promotion to Lieutenant général de la Marine.

Notes

1. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} A savage mirror: power, identity, and knowledge in early modern France Michael Wintroub p.21 [1]
2. Jump up ^ Orientalism in early Modern France 2008 Ina Baghdiantz McAbe, p.72, ISBN 978-1-84520-374-0
3. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e f} France and the Americas: culture, politics, and history Volume 3, By Bill Marshall, Cristina Johnston p.185ff
4. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e} History of a voyage to the land of Brazil, otherwise called America by Jean de Léry, p.5ff
5. Jump up ^ David Marley (2008). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present. ABC-CLIO. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-59884-100-8. Retrieved 19 May 2013.

  Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Antarctique [01.11.2013]

This Day in History: Oct 30, 1974: Muhammad Ali wins the Rumble in the Jungle

On October 30, 1974, 32-year-old Muhammad Ali becomes the heavyweight champion of the world for the second time when he knocks out 25-year-old champ George Foreman in the eighth round of the "Rumble in the Jungle," a match in Kinshasa, Zaire. Seven years before, Ali had lost his title when the government accused him of draft-dodging and the boxing commission took away his license. His victory in Zaire made him only the second dethroned champ in history to regain his belt.

 

The "Rumble in the Jungle" (named by promoter Don King, who’d initially tagged the bout "From the Slave Ship to the Championship!" until Zaire’s president caught wind of the idea and ordered all the posters burned) was Africa’s first heavyweight championship match. The government of the West African republic staged the event—its president, Mobutu Sese Seko, personally paid each of the fighters $5 million simply for showing up—in hopes that it would draw the world’s attention to the country’s enormous beauty and vast reserves of natural resources. Ali agreed. "I wanted to establish a relationship between American blacks and Africans," he wrote later. "The fight was about racial problems, Vietnam. All of that." He added: "The Rumble in the Jungle was a fight that made the whole country more conscious."

At 4:30 a.m. on October 30, 60,000 spectators gathered in the moonlight (organizers had timed the fight to overlap with prime time in the U.S.) at the outdoor Stade du 20 Mai to watch the fight. They were chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him"). The ex-champ had been taunting Foreman for weeks, and the young boxer was eager to get going. When the bell rang, he began to pound Ali with his signature sledgehammer blows, but the older man simply backed himself up against the ropes and used his arms to block as many hits as he could. He was confident that he could wait Foreman out. (Ali’s trainer later called this strategy the "rope-a-dope," because he was "a dope" for using it.)

By the fifth round, the youngster began to tire. His powerful punches became glances and taps. And in the eighth, like "a bee harassing a bear," as one Times reporter wrote, Ali peeled himself off the ropes and unleashed a barrage of quick punches that seemed to bewilder the exhausted Foreman. A hard left and chopping right caused the champ’s weary legs to buckle, and he plopped down on the mat. The referee counted him out with just two seconds to go in the round.

Ali lost his title and regained it once more before retiring for good in 1981. Foreman, meanwhile, retired in 1977 but kept training, and in 1987 he became the oldest heavyweight champ in the history of boxing. Today, the affable Foreman is a minister and rancher in Texas and the father of five daughters and five sons, all named George. He’s also the spokesman for the incredibly popular line of George Foreman indoor grills.

taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/muhammad-ali-wins-the-rumble-in-the-jungle [30.10.2013]