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Title: VICTORY OVER PAIN

Reference number: 0755

Date: 1956*

Director: d. Henry Cooper

Sponsor: Educational Films of Scotland

Production company: Campbell Harper Films Ltd.

Sound: sound

Original format: 35mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 18.00 mins

Description: The dramatised story of James Y. Simpson's discovery of the anaesthetic effects of chloroform.

Credits: Historical and Technical Advisors (University of Edinburgh) Dr Douglas Guthrie and Dr John Gillies
sc. D M Elliot
camera David Hanley
comm. Tom Fleming

Shotlist: PART I

Credits. The story of James Y Simpson's discovery of the anaesthetic effects of chloroform (.24); Shots of a patient in a modern hospital being anaesthetised before operation (1.23); Reconstruction of the discovery of chloroform as an anaesthetic by the Scottish Surgeon, James Y Simpson. Shots at Edinburgh University where he was a doctor of medicine. Details of others working in the same field. Discovery is made during an experiment in Simpson's home in Edinburgh, which involved inhaling many vapours (8.31).

PART II

No credits. Simpson's niece tries out the drug (1.26); Chloroform is successfully tested at Edinburgh University (3.12); The discovery is announced to the medical world (3.54); Simpson's reply in pamphlet form to the critics on the use of chloroform in childbirth on religious grounds (4.37); Simpson received a letter informing him of the use of the drug on Queen Victoria during the birth of Prince Leopold (4.55); The anaesthetic is used in quantity by both sides during the Franco-Prussian war (5.06); New techniques for administering the drug are developed (5.57); Lister's work at Glasgow University on antiseptics reduces the death rate in surgery dramatically (6.15); Modern anaesthetics, techniques and applications (8.21); ecs (8.40)