Saturday, August 10, 2013

Twofold duty of a physician

                            Twofold duty of a physician

In the nineteenth century the physician, James Simpson, introduced the use of chloroform, and saved succeeding generations from incalculable suffering. The operating table of those days were as terrible as medieval torture chambers. Determined to alleviate these pains Simpson worked ceaselessly in the laboratory. He would invite two or three doctor friends and continue the research in the evenings. The doctors would sit round a table inhaling from their glasses various compounds of liquid that Simpson prepared. Finally one night Simpson remembered a small bottle of chloroform. The three friends began the nightly ritual of inhalation. After a while all of them fell down and started snoring like drunkards. When they all recovered, one lady asked if she might repeat the experiment and she was handed the glass. In a few minutes, crying, " I 'am  an angel! I'am an angel, " she, too lapsed into unconsciousness. Immediately Simpson started using it for midwifery cases and he was happy that he had achieved the twofold duty of a physician, namely - to alleviate human suffering and to preserve human life.

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