22 JUNE 1934, Page 20

OUR GREATEST BENEFACTOR

[To the Editor of TILE SPECTATOR.]

Sin,—May I venture a comment on Mr. E. M. Forster's article on " Our Greatest Benefactor " ?

Historically his reference to Simpson as destroyer of pain is inaccurate. Hickman was the first anaesthetist, introducing nitrous oxide gas. He was followed in Boston, U.S.A., by Morton, with ether. Simpson came later with chloroform : he was the introducer therefore of a new drug, not of a new principle. Whether that new drug has been to the world's advantage is doubtful. The greatest surgeon in this country today never allows its administration to his patients, and " doubts whether the world is a better or safer place since its introduction."—I am, Sir, &c., F.R.C.S.