Although its narcotising properties were known to some extent, no one who used it at that time seems to have conceived the idea of fully testing its properties. In 1831, Ives, of Newhaven, treated a case of difficult respiration by actual inhalation of the vapour, and published the facts in “Silliman’s Journal” in January, 1832. Four years later, Dr. Formby, of Liverpool, prescribed it in hysteria; and Tuson, of London, employed it in the treatment of cancer and neuralgia in 1844. [Sidenote: Simpson’s investigations] The fact that one or two deaths had been attributed to the use of ether about this time, caused many workers to make a search for other agents with similar properties. Foremost among these investigators was Dr. James Young Simpson, Professor of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh, who personally experimented with several chemical liquids in the hope of finding something less disagreeable and persistent in smell than ether. [Illustration: DAVID WALDIE] [Sidenote: Waldie suggests the use of chloroform] About this time, Jacob Bell, a chemist, and a founder of the Pharmaceutical Society, published a suggestion that chloric ether should be used for inhalation instead of sulphuric ether; but his suggestion was apparently never put into practice. In October, 1847, Waldie, a chemist of Liverpool, was visiting Edinburgh, and in conversation with Professor Simpson, suggested to the latter the use of chloroform. He recommended the Professor to try it as an anæsthetic, and promised to make and send him some on his return to his home in Liverpool. [Illustration: SIR JAMES YOUNG SIMPSON] It appears to have been in that city that the drug was first introduced and probably first used in England as a medicinal agent. Waldie states that about the year 1838 a prescription was brought to the Apothecaries’ Hall, Liverpool (where he held the position of manager), of which one of the ingredients was chloric ether. The preparation was at that timen apparently not known in this country, for Dr. Brett, the chemist of the Company, specially prepared some from the formula he found in the United States Dispensatory. Its properties pleased some of the medical men, particularly Dr. Formby, by whom it was introduced into local practice. Waldie, finding that the preparation was not uniform in strength, improved the process by separating and purifying the chloroform, and dissolving it in pure spirit, by which a product of sweet flavour was obtained. [Sidenote: On the eve of the great discovery.]