Chloroform

British press, looking for a scapegoat, “even singled out Simpson, and announced that he was the cause of it all. If it hadn’t been for his chloroform, soldiers would never have agreed to the possible agonies of field amputation, the usual treatment for every gunshot wound, and the war would have come to a complete halt for lack of men” (Simpson, 216). Further, Dr. John Hall, who oversaw Britain’s medical system in Crimea, was suspicious of chloroform and warmed about its dangers (Gabriel, 156). Infection produced a mortality rate of 62% for thigh amputations; a scant improvement on the 70% mortality rate during the Battle of Waterloo (Gabriel, 137). In British army, 4000 men died from battlefield wounds whereas 16,000 died from disease (148). Disease rate per 1000 men per annum was 253.5 for French; 161.3 for British, & 119.3 for Russians. (Compared with 110 in Mexican War; 65 in Civil War, and 16 in WWI [Gabriel, 153]).