Channing and Simpson in Edinburgh

In August of 1852 Dr. Walter Channing, professor of obstetrics and medical jurisprudence at Harvard Medical School, was about to finish an extensive tour of Europe, having left Boston early in May of that year. He was sixtysix at the time, and almost a half century had passed since his previous trip to that continent where as a medical student he studied in Edinburgh and London. The trip had taken him as far east as Moscow and St. Petersburg, north to Denmark, and south to Spain. On August 9th he was again in London, a city greatly changed over the years, "streets, squares and bridges -yes, London Bridge was not in its place. It had floated off down stream." Channing's present destination was Edinburgh where he intended to catch his breath before going on to other parts of Britain, including Ireland. At Edinburgh the crowning event of his trip was to take place-a meeting with Professor James Y. Simpson, the first to use chloroform in childbirth. On separate continents and practically alone, these two great champions of the use of anesthesia in childbirth had each fought a bitter battle against prejudice and bigotry, a battle now all but won. They had much to say to each other. At the time of Channing's visit Simpson was forty-one and at the height of his popularity and fame, although his baronetcy was a few years off and the most important single event since the discovery of anesthesia-the administration of chloroform to Queen Victoria during the birth of her fourth child, Prince Leopold-was six months away. For the women of Britain, this settled the matter for all time. Their memorable meeting is described to some extent by Channing in a book called A Physician's Vacation, published in 1856. It is a travel classic of the period, the only flaw in its excellence being the author's flare for anonymity. Investigation, however, sometimes aided by 'slips' of the author himself, has filled in many of these omissions. Walter Channing has numerous claims to present-day interest. He was Harvard's first medical dean, he was the first to describe the disease called