Anaesthesia, or the employment of chloroform and ether in surgery, midwifery, etc.

Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1849. FIRST EDITION. Original cloth, minor stains on both boards, very minor spotting; a fine copy overall with the ownership signature of R. Davison, M.D. from Lockport, NY. First edition. “This American volume marks the first book-form publication of Simpson’s essays and speeches, and thus represents his first full-dress exposition of the use of anaesthesia in childbirth and major surgery. The collection was never published in book form in England. . .” (Norman). The book is divided into four parts; the first deals with anaesthesia in surgery, the second with anaesthesia in midwifery, the third with the nature and power of various anaesthetic agents, and the fourth with local anaesthesia.

According to the publisher, in presenting these various essays and speeches to the public, they feel assured that they “are giving the most complete history of Anaesthetic Agents, their discovery, history, mode of preparation, chemical properties, mode of administration, application and benefits resulting from their use, particularly in obstetrics and surgery, which has yet appeared. The author does not confine himself to his own extensive experience, but has collected with great care the results as shown in the practice of the different public hospitals of Great Britain, Ireland, and, as far as could be obtained, of Paris, thus adducing the important evidence of medical statistics to show that the rate of mortality is actually diminished under their use, in addition to the abrogation of pain which they procure. He has also obtained the experience of several eminent private practitioners in regard to their value. The various objections, religious and otherwise, which have been urged against them are met and answered.”

Heirs of Hippocrates 1766; Norman 1946; not in Fulton & Stanton.