Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/500

 GUTHRIE

GUTHRIE

Silliman at least as early as August, 1831, and the discovery was several months previous as Guthrie states, in his communication, that "during the last six months a greater number of persons have drunk of the solution of chloric ether, not only freely, but fre- quently, to the point of intoxication."

This effectively and conclusively dis- poses of the claims of Liebig and Soubeiran to priority of discovery of chloroform, since Liebig's discovery, viz.: the production of chloroform by the action of potassium hydroxide on chloral, was first published in Novem- ber, 1831, a month later than the date of Guthrie's paper ("Liebig's Annalen," vol. clxii, p. 161).

Soubeiran, whose method was iden- tical with that of Guthrie and apparent- ly closely contemporaneous, claims to

have published his paper on "Ether Bichlorique" in October, 1831. For- tunately for Dr. Guthrie, the desire of Liebig to establish his own claim led to his careful investigation of the date of publication of the October number of the "Annals de Chemie et de Phy- sique" for 1831. That it could not have been printed in October, 1831, is definite- ly proved by the fact that the metero- logical report for the entire month of October is printed in the October num- ber, which Liebig discovered did not appear until January, 1832.

From a paper by M. P. Hatfield in the

"Chicago Clinic."

Mem. of Dr. Samuel Guthrie and the history

of the discovery of chloroform. Chicago,

1887.

Trials of a Public Benefactor. Dr. Nathan

P. Rice, N. York, 1859.

Littells "Living Age," March 18, 1848.