Queen Victoria: 6 stories from her diaries

A new website features the entire text of Queen Victoria's diaries. Here are six excerpts.

5. Chloroform and childbirth

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's eighth child Prince Leopold

When giving birth on April 22, 1853 to her child Leopold, the eighth of her nine children with Prince Albert, Queen Victoria was administered chloroform and said she found it relieved her pain considerably. "Dr. Snow administered 'that blessed chloroform,' and the effect was soothing, quieting and delightful beyond measure," she wrote.

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