A strange little book

HISTORICAL NOTE

A strange little book

D. J. Wilkinson

Boyle Department of Anaesthesia, Barts and the London NHS Trust, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital,

London EC1A 7BE, UK

Accepted: 24 September 2002

The presence of James Mathews Duncan at the dinner

party held in James Young Simpson’s house on 4

November 1847 is well known. The events leading up

to this important date in anaesthetic history have been

outlined many times as the discovery of the anaesthetic

action of chloroform is heralded as one of Simpson’s

major contributions to medicine.

James Mathews Duncan moved to St. Bartholomew’s

Hospital in 1877 and his family deposited a wealth of

material relating to his work in the library stores some

time before 1950. A review of this material sheds some

interesting new light on these early days of anaesthesia’s

development and even suggests that Simpson’s discovery

might belong to another.

The first book

In the basement library store at St. Bartholomew’s

Hospital, a small privately bound book was discovered

by the author with the words �Mathews Duncan–J.Y.

Simpson� on the spine. The contents page reads: �Notes

on the inhalation of sulphuric ether, J.Y. Simpson,

Newspaper account of the Simpson Centenary Daily

Telegraph June 7th 1911 and Account of the election of

Midwifery Chair Edinburgh 1840�.Inside the book had been pasted various items. The

�Notes on the inhalation of sulphuric ether� was a copy of

Simpson’s paper for the use of ether in midwifery printed

on 28 February 1847 in Edinburgh. The Daily Telegraph

account was published to commemorate Simpson’s birth

and ran to several columns. It gives an overview of his life

and focuses heavily on his discovery of chloroform

anaesthesia. The final item on the contents page is a

detailed account of the appointment of Simpson to the

Chair of Midwifery in Edinburgh. These latter two items

are of no great relevance to anaesthesia.

In the back of this small book and not mentioned on the

contents page is a short letter from J.Y. Simpson to Mathews

Duncan in Paris. The address is (as far as I can read it): �M le

Docteur Duncan, Cour de Commerce 24, Fouburg

St Germain, Paris�. It is �stamped� 1 March 1847 and says:

�My Dear Sir, Many thanks for your letter. I shall ever be

delighted to hear from you, I have sent copies to Velpeau,

Moreau, Roux, Dubois, etc. I wish you could or would

translate the pith of these notes for one of the French

Journals. James Keith will be in Paris in a few days. I believe

we will all yet use the ether in Common Midwifery cases.

Send me all particulars, yours ever truly, J Y Simpson.�(Fig. 1). The letter is dated 28 February 1847 and presum-

ably contained the paper that Simpson had written and

which had been published on the same day in Edinburgh.

This is absolute further confirmation that Duncan was

asked to translate Simpson’s paper for the French and is an

important link in the chain that binds Simpson and

Duncan together. This small booklet is now placed in the

Archives of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (�Barts�) with

several others relating to Duncan’s life.

James Mathews Duncan’s early life

The Barts Archive has a rich repository of items relating to

Duncan and a clear picture of his life and upbringing can be

garnered. He was born on 29 April 1826 in Aberdeen,

Scotland, and was baptised by the Reverend Alexander

Thompson at the family home on the corner of Bon-

Accord Square, then on the outskirts of Aberdeen. His

father, William Duncan, had a commission and shipping

business in Aberdeen together with some lime quarries in

Banffshire. Hismother, Isabella,was some 13 years younger

than his father and was 25 years old when James was born.

He was the fifth of eleven children and, when he was 1 year

old, the family moved to Broadford, a northern suburb of

the city, so that his mother could be nearer to her parents.

This was a large house with considerable gardens and

land. There are descriptions of large flower and vegetable

gardens, greenhouses, a vinery and a hay meadow. The

house was well staffed with a factotum and a cook and the

family obviously lived in style travelling by pony and

carriage and having several large watchdogs at home. At

the age of 4, James was sent to Mr Meston’s Academy; he

was a reputedly severe teacher and James no doubt lookedThis paper is based on one presented at the summer meeting of the

History of Anaesthesia Society in Norwich on 6 July 2002.

Anaesthesia, 2003, 58, pages 36–41.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

36 � 2003 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

forward to the holidays when the family would move to a

rented farmhouse at Dyce, where all would swim and

relax. James moved to Aberdeen Grammar School when

8 years old, an unusually young age to enter this school.

He was noted to have a contempt of any danger that,

together with an unfailing sense of humour, made him a

very popular companion.

Within a few years his father retired and bought a farm

in Skene. James entered Marischal College in 1839 (at the

age of 13) and studied at the Faculty of Arts, obtaining an

MA in 1843 (as a 17-year-old). He soon became fluent in

both French and German, an ability he retained through-

out his life. At the age of 15 he started to study medicine

and regularly attended Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, spend-

ing five months as a dresser to Dr Keith and working in

the Museum of Anatomy. On 28 October 1845, he

passed his second examination for the degree of Doctor of

Medicine and moved to Edinburgh University to

improve his studies attending classes held by Simpson,

Alison, Christison and Syme. He was too young to

graduate as a Doctor of Medicine from Edinburgh

(he needed to be 21 years old) and so gained his MD at

Marischal by special petition in 1846 when aged 20.

Visit to France

In the winter of 1846–47, James Duncan was sent by his

father to study in Paris. He studied at the College Royal

de France and obtained a Certificate of Study on 21

March 1847. This, then, was the time that he received the

letter from Simpson with his paper on ether. Dr James

Keith visited him at this time and it is possible that the

idea of working with Simpson was part of their conver-

sation. In June 1847 he returned to Edinburgh and

became a junior assistant to Simpson, seemingly with a

specific remit to investigate other potential anaesthetic

agents in addition to his other obstetric work.

Later life

In 1851 James Duncan set up in private practice in

Edinburgh, although he still remained on good terms with

Simpson. He had added the name Mathews (his mother’s

maiden name) to his in 1848 to avoid further confusion as

had already arisen over another Dr James Duncan who also

practised in Edinburgh. He obviously enjoyed travelling

and came to London on several occasions, where he was

particularly impressed by the Great Exhibition at that time.

Having been proposed by Simpson, Mathews Duncan

obtained a resident Fellowship of the Royal College of

Physicians, Edinburgh in May 1851, and he started to

lecture there on midwifery in 1853.

He married Miss Jane Hoskiss (Fig. 2) on 21 August

1860, and they were to have 13 children of whom 9 were

to survive him. In 1861, he was appointed to the ward for

the diseases of women at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and

he also helped to found the Royal Hospital for Sick

Children in Edinburgh. In 1862 he was made an

Honorary Member of the London Society of Obstetri-

cians as his fame and skills became more widely known.

Upon the death of his mentor, Simpson, in 1870 it was

expected by many that Mathews Duncan should succeed

him but, despite letters of support from across Great

Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Austria, Russia and

America, Duncan was not appointed. In 1875 he was

awarded an Honorary LLD by Edinburgh University and

then, in 1877, he was invited to become Physician

Accoucher to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Duncan was

said to have visited the hospital; he immediately decided to

take the appointment and said afterwards that �there was to

be found everything he most desired in the world�. His career

continued to flourish as he improved the Barts Depart-

ment and his lectures and teaching were very popular.

When lecturing he was said to begin �slowly with a pleasant

Figure 1 Letter from James Young Simpson to James MathewsDuncan in Paris January 1847.

Anaesthesia, 2003, 58, pages 36–41 D. J. Wilkinson Æ A strange little book......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

� 2003 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 37

Scottish accent. Every word could be taken down and our

attention was kept constantly alive by a humorous or

caustic commentary on the mistaken ideas of those who

disagreed with his own conclusions.� He was made an

honorary member of a wide variety of institutions round

the world including the Medical Society of Edinburgh, the

Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky Tri-State Medical Society,

the Royal Medical College in Ireland, Dublin, the

Gesellschaft fur Geburtshulfe, Leipsig, the Russian Society

of Doctors, the Physikalisch-Medicinische Societat,

Erlangen, the Medical Society of Norway and the Obstet-

rical Society of Philadelphia and that of Louisville. In 1884,

he attended the birth of a grandson of Queen Victoria, the

Duke of Albany, and was thanked by the Queen with a gift

of diamond and sapphire shirt studs (Fig. 3).

He published widely on a variety of obstetric topics and

had the peritoneal folds of the uterus named after him.

Final days

By the end of June 1890, Mathews Duncan had to retire

from work due to ill health. He and his family went to

Blankenberghe in Belgium and then on to Baden-Baden

to try the spa waters. On 15 August he had a severe attack

of angina and, while plans were being made to travel back

to London, he died suddenly on 1 September 1890. He

was brought back to London and buried in Islington

Cemetery. Queen Victoria noted in her diary on 31

September 1890 that �greatly shocked to hear of the death

of Dr Duncan – a very great loss. He was a kind good man

and wonderfully clever in his branch, quite an authority’.

Another book

Also within the Barts Archive amongst the Duncan papers

is a folder entitled �Mathews Duncan Copy 1�, inside which

is a typescript of a 135-page document written by his

eldest sister Isabella. Presumably never published, it is

called �James Mathews Duncan: A sketch for his family�.Duncan died in 1890 and his eldest sister in 1901 so it is

assumed that this was written between these years. The

�sketch� is a wonderfully detailed description of his life

Figure 2 Chalk drawing of Miss JaneHoskiss at the time of her engagement toJames Mathews Duncan by WilliamCrawford RSA and an oil painting ofJames Mathews Duncan by WilliamFettes Douglas.

Figure 3 James Mathews Duncan.

D. J. Wilkinson Æ A strange little book Anaesthesia, 2003, 58, pages 36–41......................................................................................................................................................................................................................


from childhood to death and is easy to read. Within it are

some further details that shed light on the circumstances

around the discovery of chloroform and Mathews

Duncan’s contributions to that discovery.

Isabella writes:

�In the evening and at all odd times came the ex-

periments with anaesthetics which were often inter-

rupted by urgent messages. As a sequel to the

hazardous inhalation of strange vapours his health was

temporarily affected – he became the victim of

headache and indigestion. In November of 1847, as

the story came to me, sometime after however, one

morning in a quiet back room in Dr Simpson’s house,

James, after sniffing at various bottles and inhaling

sundry new vapours, some of them deleterious to

sickening point, found himself awakening slowly and

pleasantly from an unconscious sleep, which the

timepiece showed must have lasted about a quarter of

an hour. Eureka I have found it I can imagine him

exclaiming mentally with natural excitement. The

substance which had put him into this peaceful swoon

was called, if I remember rightly, chloride of formyle.

It had been given with some other bottles to Dr

Simpson by a chemist in Liverpool, where the doctor

went occasionally to visit his wife’s friends. I may be

wrong as to this however, for I had it only from

hearsay. James seized the first opportunity to tell Dr

Simpson his opinion of this compound, and it was

arranged that it should be tested in the presence of the

latter one evening after supper. The successful issue of

this trial fully satisfied Dr Simpson and he at once

considered the discovery of an admirable anaesthetic

accomplished.�This, then, was the famous dinner party at which the

attendees inhaled chloroform in turn and awoke in their

chairs or under the table some time later on.

Isabella Duncan continues:

�It must be acknowledged that James felt rather hurt,

when a little later Dr Simpson published a mono-

graph giving an account of how he discovered

chloroform, the label he gave the substance – to find

that his name was merely classed with Dr Keith’s as

one to whom the discoverer was indebted for help.

No doubt it was somewhat hard on Dr Simpson to

see the crowning point reached by another after the

thought and trouble he had given the subject of

anaesthetics, yet one cannot help feeling that he

would have gained rather than lost had he, in justice

to his young coworker, generously detailed the cir-

cumstances more minutely and accurately. It would

have done him no harm to have told that the

evening meeting was the sequence to a previous

successful experiment by an assistant. However

assailable Dr Simpson might be, James never claimed,

nor wished to claim, the discovery. He was Dr

Simpson’s subordinate and had been working in his

interests, with his materials, so loyalty to his chief

kept him silent.�Here we have an extraordinary claim by the elder sister

of James Mathews Duncan that it was he and not Simpson

who discovered the properties of chloroform. Is there any

corroborating material for this claim?

Another letter

Also within the Barts archive is a letter to Sir Robert

Christison dated 6 March 1875. This was written by

James Mathews Duncan in response to an enquiry from

Christison and gives Duncan’s account of the events

around this time. He writes:

‘Dear Sir Robert, Attending to your suggestion I con-

tribute to the history of the discovery of the anaesthetic

properties of chloroform in which you are at present

interested – this little note. A few days before the

evening when the discovery was completed, I acting as

Dr Simpson’s assistant, accompanied him to the La-

boratory of Dr Gregory, professor of chemistry. From

him Dr Simpson got a variety of substances which had

respirable vapours and we looked at many chemical

preparations which were stored with them in the room

below the seats of his classroom. When the former

came to Dr Simpson’s house they were placed beside

others of a like sort in an oaken cupboard that stood in

a …behind the morning room. It was part of my work

to experiment with these and all other substances I

could find that had any smell or respirable vapour. On

the day of the discovery I selected from the collec-

ted…chloroform and other two or three as deserving

more careful trial than I could make at the time. I am

only nearly certain that the chloroform bottle was one

of those brought from Gregory’s laboratory. At any rate

having had considerable experience in all kinds of

breathings I took particular notice of chloroform as the

best and likely to be most useful judging from the

effects on myself.’

Here, then, Duncan, with our new hindsight, is

perhaps suggesting he inhaled the chloroform and

experienced its effects prior to bringing it to Simpson’s

attention. He continues in his letter:

�Amongst the others selected was what was called nitric

ether which gave me a bad headache of a peculiar kind.

In the evening I brought these bottles to Dr Simpson

and supper being finished I drew his attention to the

chloroform. The result was the discovery. I do not

remember what he called the substance then but cer-

tainly it was not called chloroform. The incidents of



this after supper sitting in which Dr Keith participated

are related with a near approach to accuracy by Pro-

fessor Miller in his ‘‘Surgical experiences of chloro-

form’’ pamphlet shortly afterwards. Miller made his

picturesque statements after getting particulars from the

parties interested with …of the evening. I have written

this from memory and have intentionally avoided re-

ferring to any kind of document. Yours Mathews

Duncan� (Figs 4 and 5).

Conclusions

James Mathews Duncan became interested in anaesthesia

having translated, at his request, Simpson’s original paper

into French while working in Paris. Simpson offered him

a job that entailed research into new anaesthetic agents as

a prime portion of that work. The question that remains is

whether today’s reader can believe the writings of

Duncan’s elder sister who suggests that James discovered

the effects of chloroform and then brought these to

Simpson who then confirmed his findings in the famous

dinner party discovery. Is this family jealousy or a desire

to raise the profile of her recently departed brother

higher? I think not. James Mathews Duncan could not

have been more highly regarded in his chosen field, and

was the doyen of London obstetricians of that era, his

work and his subsequent passing noticed even by the

Queen! He received almost every conceivable recogni-

tion from his peers in the UK and across the world during

his lifetime.

I believe the story recounted in this document. It rings

true from an age when deference to the senior man was

the normal event and would and could not be challenged.

Once the �discovery� was public, any later claim by

Duncan would have looked distasteful and publicity

seeking, and besides Duncan was content with his

position, status and work.

It is likely that Simpson’s trainee, James Mathews

Duncan discovered the anaesthetic properties of

chloroform and then left the popularisation and recog-

nition of that discovery to his Professor, James Young

Simpson.

Figure 4 Part of the letter from James Mathews Duncan to SirRobert Christison concerning the discovery of chloroformwritten on 8 March 1875.

Figure 5 Part of the letter from James Mathews Duncan to SirRobert Christison concerning the discovery of chloroformwritten on 8 March 1875.

D. J. Wilkinson Æ A strange little book Anaesthesia, 2003, 58, pages 36–41......................................................................................................................................................................................................................


Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to Marion Rea, Trust Archivist to St.

Bartholomew’s Hospital and Ms Samantha Searle, Assist-

ant Trust Archivist for their help with the research

involved in this work. In addition an article in the Trust

Newsletter, The Link, by Ms Sally Gilbert, previous

Assistant Archivist, provided several useful additions.

References

All the material quoted in this paper can be found within

the Archives of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London filed

under X303 under items relating to James Mathews

Duncan (1826-1890) 1843-1952.



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A strange little book