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The Problem: A historian from the National
Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland discovers what he believes to be a
mid-1800's medical kit on a Civil War battlefield near Knoxville in Eastern Tennessee.
Inside the kit is a small vial of liquid whose identifying label can no longer be read due
to faded ink. Suspecting that the vial contains an anesthetic used in the Civil War, he
sends the liquid to a laboratory to be examined. What is in the vial?
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A Brief History: Inhalation general anesthetics have
evolved toward the point of ideality in the past 150 years. When chloroform's properties as
an anesthetic were investigated by Sir James Young Simpson in 1847, ether had already been
in use as an anesthetic for 15 years. Owing to the cost and amount needed to cause
unconsciousness, Simpson introduced chloroform as an anesthetic upon recommendation from a
chemist, David Waldie. The utility of ether as an anesthetic faded, and chloroform remained
one of the standard anesthetics for many years until it was later discovered to be harmful to
the human body. Due in large part to the safety factor, nitrous oxide, as well as halothane
and some others, are now used to induce anesthesia in patients. See the Detailed Background
page for more information on the history of the inhalation general anesthetics.
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