James Young Simpson, a baker’s son from Bathgate, rose to be professor of midwifery at Edinburgh. This life follows his schooling, student years and practice, his experiments with ether and then chloroform in 1847, and the fierce medical and religious opposition he fought in defending pain relief, with selections from his own writings.
A readable volume in the Masters of Medicine series, for anyone interested in how surgery and childbirth lost their terrors. Download the free EPUB.