Identify the correct combination of person, anaesthetic, and year associated with a major anaesthetic breakthrough.

• A. James Simpson - ether - 1847
• B. Humphrey Davy - nitrous oxide - 1847
• C. James Simpson - chloroform - 1847
• D. Robert Liston - chloroform - 1847

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is who is credited with establishing a reliable anesthetic for surgery and when that breakthrough became widely accepted. James Young Simpson is the figure most closely linked to the major breakthrough of using chloroform as a standard surgical anaesthetic, in 1847. He demonstrated its effectiveness and promoted its adoption in Britain, which is why this pairing uniquely fits the historic moment. Ether had earlier demonstrations in the mid-1840s, but the decisive, widely adopted breakthrough in Britain came with chloroform under Simpson’s influence in 1847. Nitrous oxide was studied by Humphrey Davy long before and did not define the 1847 breakthrough, and Robert Liston, though a pioneering surgeon, did not originate the breakthrough in the way Simpson did with chloroform.