Description:The following text is taken from a Birmingham Stories oral history interview with Harry McCardie, who grew up in a family home in Birmingham, Edgbaston. Harry is now aged 94 years old and is living in Warwick. During the interview, Harry wanted to tell the story of his father's important achievement in the field of medical science. Harry told us:
"[My father] specialised in anaesthesia. And if you went to the museum in London you's see he made patents for masks to put over the face, you know, and he developed pourers, to pour the liquid...Chloroform was the thing then...Before that, they hit you over the head with a mallet and gave you a bottle of whiskey! But, he invented a thing called ethel chloride and it became very very famous...of course its all needles now. But I've got photographs of the house where the museum is in London and it shows you a pourer with his name on it that he had invented. He was very very good at anaesthesia apparently. [His name was] William Joseph McCardie. [...] I always thought hat he was a marvellous father. He was very very wise and he took a lot of trouble with my brother and myself [...]"
[Birmingham Stories sends many thanks to Harry for his time and interview, which is now part of the Birmingham Stories Archive]
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Note: For further information on William Joseph McCardie, you can also visit the website of "Midland Society of Anaesthetists". The website includes the follwoing information:
"Dr. McCardie was the first anaesthetist outside London to practise solely as an anaesthetist. He was persuaded to specialise in anaesthesia by Sir Gilbert Darling who had decided on the necessity of a specialist anaesthetist after he narrowly escaped a death on the table when performing an operation on a distinguished colleague with anaesthesia provided by a house surgeon. It is perhaps significant that the colleague who nearly died on the table was Lawson Tait, at that time, the most famous surgeon in Europe and North America.
McCardie became an institution in the Midlands. His practice was very extensive for he was invited to give anaesthetics at private houses as well as at hospitals in all parts of the Midlands when special skill was required or it was felt that his personality and manner would inspire confidence. Well informed patients did not ask for an anaesthetic, they asked that Dr. McCardie should attend them. His status at one time was such that he was consulted before the surgeon was selected and he received fees equal to those of the surgeon. his knowledge of the anaesthetic literature was exceptionally wide. Some of his annotated copies of foreign language papers are now in the library of The Nuffield Departmcnt of Anaesthetics, in Oxford.
McCardie was appointed to the staff of the General Hospital in 1897 as a Visiting Anaesthetist; in 1919 he was made the Honorary Anaesthetist and in 1926 Consulting Anaesthetist. He made many original contributions to the practice of anaesthetics and played leading roles in the Society of Anaesthetists and the Section of Anaesthetics of the Royal Society of Medicine, of which he was President soon after its formation. He was Secretary' of the Section of Anaesthetics of the British Medical Association in 1910, Vice-President in 1912 and President in 1922. But possibly his greatest contribution to anaesthesia was that his enthusiasm for the speciality served as "a beacon to guide younger men along the pathway of their vocation".
[Text taken from "The Beginning of Surgical Anaesthesia in Birmingham" by
Edward T. Matthews: see link]