Chloroform
Samuel Guthrie was a college professor at University of Edinburgh whom was said to be the inspiration behind the development of chloroform. In Guthrie’s teachings he would encourage his students to look into the world of medicine and find it’s flaws. One flaw that he stressed was the lack of an antiseptics and anesthesia. Guthrie suggested that chloroform be used by doctors to treat patients before surgeries so that the surgery could go painlessly. One of Guthrie’s students Sir James Young Simpson took it upon himself to create a substance that would be used to help patients. So in 1831 he created chloroform and it would go on to be used for the purpose of helping injured soldiers during the civil war.
Secondary Source:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v160/n4072/abs/160668a0.html
Secondary Source:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v160/n4072/abs/160668a0.html