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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+(1811-1870), by Henry Laing Gordon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform (1811-1870)
+       Masters of Medicine
+
+Author: Henry Laing Gordon
+
+Editor: Ernest Hart
+
+Release Date: October 24, 2010 [EBook #34128]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHLOROFORM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+
+(1811-1870)
+
+BY H. LAING GORDON
+
+  LONDON
+  T. FISHER UNWIN
+  PATERNOSTER SQUARE
+  MDCCCXCVII
+
+
+Copyright by T. Fisher Unwin, 1897, for Great Britain and Longmans
+Green & Co. for the United States of America
+
+
+MASTERS OF MEDICINE
+
+EDITED BY ERNEST HART, D.C.L
+
+
+  "HOMINES AD DEOS NULLA IN RE
+  PROPIUS ACCEDUNT QUAM
+  SALUTEM HOMINIBUS DANDO."
+
+    CICERO.
+
+      Title.                         Author.
+
+  JOHN HUNTER              _Stephen Paget_
+  WILLIAM HARVEY           _D'arcy Power_
+  SIR JAMES SIMPSON        _H. Laing Gordon_
+  EDWARD JENNER            _Ernest Hart_
+  HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ    _John G. McKendrick_
+  WILLIAM STOKES           _Sir William Stokes_
+  CLAUDE BERNARD           _Michael Foster_
+  SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE      _Timothy Holmes_
+  THOMAS SYDENHAM          _J. F. Payne_
+  VESALIUS                 _C. Louis Taylor_
+
+
+[Illustration: J. Simpson]
+
+
+To PROFESSOR ALEXANDER RUSSELL SIMPSON
+
+
+  "Him by the hand dear Nature took,
+  Dearest Nature, strong and kind."
+
+    RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+
+  "When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it."
+
+    _Id._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+I have endeavoured to condense the vast amount of matter which has
+been written concerning this Master of Medicine and his work into the
+form of a readable narrative, and to represent him in his social and
+intellectual environment in accordance with the object of this Series.
+The selections from his own writings illustrate as far as possible his
+versatility and many-sided character. I have chosen for quotation out
+of the numerous sketches and memoirs of him those written from
+undoubted knowledge of the man.
+
+I am indebted especially to Professor A. R. Simpson for kind advice,
+to Mr. Cuthbertson of the Edinburgh University Library for useful
+help, to Mr. C. Louis Taylor for valuable criticism, and to my wife
+for assistance in research and compilation. I have also to thank those
+friends who from time to time have favoured me with personal
+reminiscences of Sir James.
+
+The following are the chief works, in addition to Simpson's own
+writings, from which my information has been drawn:--(1) "The Jubilee
+of Anæsthetic Midwifery"; (2) "Keiller and Credé"; (3) "History of the
+Chair of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh," being addresses by
+Professor A. R. Simpson; (4) Miss Eve B. Simpson's "Sir James
+Simpson"; and her (5) "Dogs of other Days;" (6) "Twenty Years and
+their Lesson; a Retrospect and Review" (_Scots Observer_, 1891); (7)
+Dr. Duns's "Memoir of Sir J. Y. Simpson"; (8) Professor Gusserow's
+"Zur Erinnerung an Sir J. Y. Simpson"; (9) Mr. Cuthbertson's
+"Student's Pilgrimage"; (10) "The Story of Edinburgh University," by
+Sir A. Grant; (11) "The Life of Sir Robert Christison"; (12) "The Life
+of Robert Knox"; and numerous back numbers of the _Century Magazine_,
+the _Lancet_, the _British Medical Journal_, the _Medical Times and
+Gazette_, the _Edinburgh Medical Journal_, &c., &c.
+
+FOREST HILL, _October, 1897_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                                          PAGE.
+     I. Birth and Childhood. (1811-1825)                             1
+    II. Student Days. (1825-1830)                                   17
+    III Further Studies. (1830-1835)                                36
+    IV. Early Practice and Professorship. (1835-1840)               52
+     V. Professor and Physician. (1840-1847)                        66
+    VI. The Discovery of Anæsthetics. (1844-1847)                   88
+   VII. The Fight for Anæsthesia. 1847 onwards                     111
+  VIII. Home Life--Controversies                                   133
+    IX. Archæology--Practice                                       152
+     X. Personal--Professorial--Professional                       164
+    XI. Further Reforms--Honours                                   186
+   XII. Failing Health--Death                                      202
+        Appendix                                                   223
+        Index                                                      227
+
+
+
+
+SIR JAMES SIMPSON
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 1811-1825
+
+  The state of the healing art at Simpson's birth--Birthplace--Family
+  superstitions--His father's bakery--His mother's Huguenot
+  descent--Commencement of schooldays--Natural and antiquarian
+  features of Bathgate district--The village hand-loom weavers as
+  antiquarians and naturalists--His interest in Nature and craving
+  for knowledge--Brothers' and sister's care for him--Size of his
+  head--Village doctor's record of his birth--Schooldays cease at age
+  of fourteen--Influence of his environment in developing his
+  character.
+
+
+James Young Simpson, who will ever be remembered as the discoverer of
+the pain-annulling power of chloroform, was born in the year 1811, at
+a period when there was room for a hero in the practice of the healing
+art in the British Islands.
+
+It is true that in the seventeenth century Harvey had laid bare the
+great fact of the circulation of the blood and the practical Thomas
+Sydenham had swept aside the highly empirical systems and theories of
+medicine which had successively supplanted each other since
+Hippocrates first taught, and urged men to found their knowledge upon
+what they actually saw--on observation and experiment; and that in the
+eighteenth century men like Cheyne, Heberden, Cullen, and the
+wonderful Jenner had appreciably assisted in developing medicine at
+the same time that Hunter was raising surgery nearer to the level of a
+science. But even while Simpson was growing out of childhood all the
+powers of such professional giants as Bright, Addison, Abernethy,
+Astley Cooper, and Charles Bell, were insufficient to dispel the
+massive cloud of mystery and superstition which enveloped the practice
+of both medicine and surgery in this country and obscured whatever
+there was of truth in the teaching of these men.
+
+In the first decade or two of this century the medical profession had
+not yet entirely abandoned the use of the golden-headed cane, nor had
+what Oliver Wendell Holmes calls the solemn farce of overdrugging yet
+ceased. "Humours," "impostumes," "iliac passions," and such like were
+still spoken of--terms now heard only amongst country-folks in remote
+districts and that rarely, or encountered in curious old medical
+publications. Messes and abominations, prepared by the apothecaries
+according to more or less secret recipes handed down through the
+Middle Ages, were swallowed in good faith; blood-letting was still a
+panacea; and such remedies as that of holding a live puppy to the
+body for the relief of colic still had their professional advocates,
+but happily a decreasing number; whilst those pains
+
+          "... In the hour,
+  When the veil of the body we feel
+  Rent round us--while torments reveal
+  The motherhood's advent in power"
+
+--pains which Simpson was the first truly to relieve by his
+application of anæsthetics, were gravely said to be alleviated by
+the swallowing of a concoction of white onions and oil. Surgery
+was no doubt ahead of medicine; but the early surgical records of
+this century have little more than a curious interest to modern
+practitioners. Operations entirely unknown to our professional
+forefathers less than a century ago are now performed in safety
+daily. Such mysterious diseases as "icteric irritative fever" and
+"acute sinking" after operations, dreaded then with the fear that is
+always inspired by unseen or ill-understood dangers, have vanished
+before the progress of modern science in which the introduction of
+anæsthesia was the first great step.
+
+The practice of the branch of medicine which Simpson made so
+peculiarly his own--that of obstetrics--originally in the hands of
+women only, had been fiercely contested for by the two sexes during
+two centuries, and such was the feeling against man-midwives in
+Scotland that the dispute had scarcely ceased at Simpson's birth. The
+stronger sex, however, was then at last asserting its superiority,
+and to be an accoucheur was beginning to be considered after all as
+worthy of a gentleman. The despised art was preparing for its
+renaissance.
+
+Simpson grew to manhood whilst science, aided by precise methods of
+accurate observation, was shedding new light upon physic, surgery,
+and obstetrics. In fulfilling his great part in establishing the
+healing art on a firm scientific basis, Simpson encountered the full
+force of the ignorance and prejudice of his day both within and
+without his profession. It was, perhaps, fortunate that he was brought
+up in a small village and in a rank of life where he would meet from
+his earliest days with many superstitious beliefs and practices,
+strange and utterly irrational. A mind such as his would meet,
+reason, and experiment these out of existence. Probably through
+these circumstances he conceived the taste for archæology and
+antiquarian research which were his recreation in later years; but,
+what was more important, he gained also some training for the
+struggle with ignorance, untruth, and irrationalism, into which he
+threw with his eager vigour the whole strength of his manhood.
+
+Simpson was born in the village of Bathgate, in Linlithgowshire, where
+his father, David Simpson, was the local baker. David's father, who
+died at the ripe age of ninety-one a few years after James's birth,
+was the descendant of a line of small hard-working farmers, who added
+to his work and his profit the practice of farriery. Although modern
+science has, by the aid of bacteriology, proved such practitioners of
+the rough veterinary medicine of the day to have been right in
+ascribing to unseen influences many of the diseases of animals which
+they found themselves powerless to check, the methods they employed
+for treatment when what they called witchcraft was at work scarcely
+have the support of present-day practitioners. In one of his addresses
+upon archæology Simpson records how his grandfather ordered and his
+own father took part in the burial alive of a cow in order to appease
+the evil spirit which was spreading the plague of murrain with fatal
+effect. And the older gentleman was known to have had more than one
+serious encounter with a witch. On one occasion an old beggar woman,
+who plied her calling in quite an original method--that of being
+wheeled in a barrow from farm to farm--hurled curses at old Simpson
+for ordering a servant to wheel her from his house on to her next
+calling-place, and vowed an awful vengeance on his family if he did
+not replace the servant with one of his stalwart sons. The farmer
+recollected that an ill event had followed the old woman's last visit,
+and quickly drew a sharp flint from his pocket and made a gash across
+her forehead with it. "Ah," he exclaimed, "I see what ye're noo, ye
+auld witch; but I've scored ye aboon the braith and my house is
+safe."
+
+Simpson noted these and many other curious practices and beliefs, and
+afterwards pointed out in one of his addresses that they were
+probably, for the most part, relics of the pagan creeds and customs of
+our ancestors. He urged the making of a collection of the folk-lore of
+Scotland, ere it utterly disappeared before the march of modern
+civilisation, and suggested that, perhaps, some archæological Cuvier
+might one day be able to re-construct from these mythological
+fragments distinct pictures of the heathen practices, rites, and
+faiths of our forefathers.
+
+In his early boyhood he listened to many stories of local and family
+superstitions told to him with all the earnestness of a firm believer
+by his father. He himself was the object of superstitious admiration
+to the simple villagers all through his boyhood, and they freely
+foretold great deeds from him in later years; for he was a seventh
+son, and the good luck which seventh sons were supposed to bring had
+appeared in the family soon after his birth. Up to the day on which
+James first saw the light, June 7, 1811, the baker's business had been
+going steadily from bad to worse, and the shop books showed that on
+that very day the lowest depths were reached. The baker, David
+Simpson, seems to have been curiously lacking in business method,
+although he was a hard-working man. But after James's birth he wisely
+interested his wife in his affairs, with the result that she
+energetically and successfully bestirred herself to recoup their
+fallen fortunes. Mrs. Simpson was directly descended from a fugitive
+Huguenot family, settled for many years on a farm near Bathgate, and
+intermarried with well-known families. Through her, indeed, Simpson
+claimed a distant relationship with the national hero, Sir William
+Wallace. The cares of her family and the strain of managing the
+increasing baker's business proved too much for her always delicate
+constitution, and she died when James was only nine years old. There
+is no doubt that the youngest child and favourite son had an unusually
+large share of his mother's society during those years; he was a
+peculiarly attractive child, "a rosy bairn wi' laughin' mou' and
+dimpled cheeks," and his manner, even when he was little more than an
+infant, was quiet and affectionate. When physical sufferings overtook
+the mother, the child's quiet sympathy and engaging manner helped and
+comforted her. Her own nature was bright, vivacious, and energetic,
+quick to think and prompt to act; and she was full of love, sympathy,
+and piety. These maternal traits influenced the youth, and added a
+soft, refined--delicately refined--tone to the paternal influence,
+whence he received self-reliance and habits of persevering industry.
+
+The boy's school-life began at the age of four years. The orthodox
+learning came very easily to him; he entered into both work and play
+so whole-heartedly that he at once became known as the "wise wean,"
+and was at the same time ever sought after by his school-mates as a
+companion in out-door sports. The parish schoolmaster was one James
+Taylor, who had considerable ability for the post, and encouraged his
+pupils by kindly personal interest to develop affection for learning.
+But for Simpson there were other teachers and greater subjects for
+study in the countryside around Bathgate. The district was full of
+rich treasures for the field naturalist and for the antiquarian.
+Bathgate lies between the Firth of Forth and the Pentland Hills, in a
+geologically varied district, with a varied and abundant flora and
+fauna--more so in those days when Bathgate was a small village of
+hand-loom weavers than latterly, when it was a thriving little town,
+the centre of a coal, shale, and ironstone mining industry. The
+archæological features of the neighbourhood were full of interest.
+There was the famous "Catstane," of Kirkliston, which had puzzled
+antiquarians even before the establishment of the Scots Society in
+1780, and at Kipps was one of the few remaining cromlechs--and that a
+ruined one--in Scotland; whilst the line of the Roman wall between the
+Firth of Forth and the Clyde was not far distant. There were traces of
+a Cistercian monastery founded by David I., and various hills and
+fields and caves were associated with the names of Sir William
+Wallace, Robert Bruce, and King Edward I.
+
+Simpson thoroughly familiarised himself in boyhood with the natural
+features, as well as with the antiquarian objects in the district.
+He continued to investigate them during his vacations when a student
+at Edinburgh University, and rendered the neighbourhood famous
+archæologically by masterly monographs written when he was at the
+height of his fame. Amongst the village hand-loom weavers, a race
+of peculiarly observant and intelligent men, there were some who
+studied both the antiquarian objects and the natural history of
+Linlithgowshire. Simpson used to speak of one man, a daily labourer
+at the loom, who was able to write, in correct Latin, an accurate
+description of any plant or animal brought before him, although
+his earnings at the loom never amounted to fifty pounds a year.
+These men thoroughly enjoyed the evident interest of the "young
+philosopher" in their discussions and demonstrations, at the same
+time kindly directing his mind towards the simple, painstaking, true
+methods of observing and reflecting upon nature. There was no lack
+of change in his environment for him; his interest in natural
+phenomena was roused and kept alive during his drives round the
+countryside delivering bread to the farmers and cottagers, or in
+occasional visits to his parents' relations. He daily took his turn
+behind the shop counter, reading, writing, or drawing in the
+interval of waiting for customers. He trained himself to read or
+do his school lessons as readily in a roomful of romping children
+as in the quiet of the bedroom. It has been said that he never knew
+an idle moment from the day of his birth onwards, and his was such
+an indomitable and persevering energy that the remark is no
+exaggeration. But the pathway to greatness was made specially smooth
+for James Simpson. He was set upon it, and protected in his
+childhood, and guided in his youth, with the one definite object
+always in view. The Simpson family as well as the whole Bathgate
+community, took it for granted that eminence was to be his in
+whatever walk of life he entered seriously upon. His sister Mary and
+his brother Alexander looked upon him as a special care; the former
+watched over him as a mother, and the latter helped him in the ups
+and downs of boyhood, just as he constantly stood by him throughout
+the difficult days of his later career. It had always been a
+custom in Scots families of humble rank that one child, either from
+the exhibition of a natural aptitude, or through the ambition of
+the parents, was singled out to receive the advantages of a fuller
+education such as is within the reach of every able lad in Scotland.
+Honour and glory would thus be brought to the family, greatest of
+all if from the pulpit, while the less favoured members of the family
+would plod on in the same sphere of life as their parents. The world
+owes a great deal to the Simpsons, and particularly to Alexander, who
+cheerfully seconded their father's efforts to help forward their
+young brother, without a suspicion of jealousy. They knew he would
+be great some day, and therein they looked for their reward.
+
+Happily there were ample means for all their requirements derived from
+the now prosperous bakery. The money was kept in one drawer, the till
+where the shop earnings were placed. All the household were free to
+draw thence supplies for their ordinary wants, James without stint;
+and he alone was exempted from the condition that he who profited must
+also contribute by the sweat of his brow. The boy took very full
+advantage of his fortunate circumstances and drank deeply of all the
+knowledge that came near and ever hunted for more. With each
+succeeding year the craving to know, and to know thoroughly, became
+more and more his ruling passion; by the time his schooldays were over
+it had gained complete mastery over him; happily for the human race
+Providence had so endowed him that when knowledge had come wisdom did
+not linger.
+
+He was never in any way led away by the temptations that no doubt
+beset every boy in a village of hard-drinkers such as Bathgate was in
+his youth. Alexander took pains to warn him--"Others may do this,
+Jamie, but it would break all our hearts and blast all your prospects
+were you to do it," he said. It was not necessary to make appeals to
+James to work and fulfil the family predictions; he was as firmly
+determined to be great as they were sure he would be: He never forgot
+how much he owed to the loving help of his family, and to the fact
+that he was the youngest son growing up at a time when the family
+struggles were fairly over; when instead of its being an effort for
+the parents to provide the necessary funds for his education, the
+shop-till was well filled and the elder brothers and the loving sister
+were at hand eagerly willing to help. In student days when struggles
+came and the path seemed dark and beset with dangers, the knowledge of
+the firm faith in his powers of the family at home and of the scarcely
+smaller faith of the weavers, was a powerful incentive in the moments
+when he required any other than that of the spirit within him.
+
+We cannot feel otherwise than thankful that up to the age of fourteen,
+when his schooldays ended, he had access to but a limited stock of
+literature wherewith to gratify his hunger for knowledge. To satisfy
+his appetite he was driven into the fields and the forests; every
+sense was stimulated, and became developed through repeated use. Thus
+he laid the foundation of his phenomenal faculty of rapid and accurate
+observation, and of his no less phenomenal memory.
+
+His imagination was fed with the legends of the district and tales of
+his remote moss-trooper ancestors told to him of an evening by his
+father. Though happily saved from being a bookworm to the exclusion of
+sounder means for acquiring knowledge, he devoured and digested every
+scrap of literature which came in his way. Like all Scots children of
+his class he learnt his Bible thoroughly from end to end--a knowledge
+which served him well in later years. Shakespeare followed the Bible
+in his own review of his favourite reading as a boy; but a gazetteer
+or an almanac was quite as acceptable. His taste was for solid
+fact--fact which he could learn and put to the test; thus the great
+open book of Nature was the attraction he most readily yielded to. But
+nothing in book form ever came amiss to him; if between the covers
+there was useful information to be had, Simpson extracted it and
+stored it away in his capacious brain.
+
+The unusually large size of his head, a source of admiration in
+manhood, was in childhood an object of wonder to observers. In manhood
+he wore his hair in long locks, and this was apparently his habit in
+boyhood. Once a strange barber cut his hair so close that his brother
+took upon himself to go and rebuke the man. "The callant had suck a
+muckle head," was the retort, "I was doin' my best to mak' it look
+respectable." A close-cropped head gave altogether a too sportive
+appearance to the "young philosopher" in the eyes of the watchful
+elder brother.
+
+There is no evidence that Simpson displayed in his schooldays any
+special leaning towards the medical profession; it cannot be
+reasonably urged that his grandfather's rough skill in the treatment
+of animals fostered any medical tendency in him, for James was but
+five years old when the old man died. Even had he been of an age to
+understand them, the methods employed would have scarcely recommended
+themselves to a youth of Simpson's nature, sufficiently to raise a
+spirit of emulation within him. It is also not recorded that the
+village doctor took any special interest in the boy or brought any
+influence to bear upon him; although his note-book thus gives the
+earliest record of the future prince of obstetricians:--
+
+  275.--June 7. Simpson, David, baker, Bathgate. Wife, Mary Jarvie.
+  Æ. 40. 8th child, son. _Natus_ 8 o'clock. _Uti veniebam natus._
+  Paid 10s. 6d.
+
+James displayed his superiority so decidedly in the village school
+that when he reached the age of fourteen it was decided to send him to
+Edinburgh University without further waste of time. It was no unusual
+age for boys to commence their University career in Scotland. There
+was no secondary education in the Scots provinces, but instruction
+intermediate between that of the parish school and what is ordinarily
+known as University education was given within the walls of the
+University itself. Boys of humble rank who aspired to a profession
+were sent up, as indeed many still are, at the age of fourteen or
+fifteen, to attend these junior Arts classes in which this instruction
+was, and still is, imparted. The University was crowded with
+schoolboys of all ranks of life gathered together from town and
+country, and consisted of nothing more than a collection of
+class-rooms devoted to the giving of instruction in lecture form. This
+stepping-stone of junior classes threw open the higher education to
+hundreds of youths whose equals in England had no such advantage at
+that time. Scots University education besides being thorough was
+decidedly cheap, so that the church, law, and medicine received many
+recruits from the class out of which Simpson was drawn.
+
+His environment up to the age of fourteen was well calculated to train
+him for the great work that lay before him. The legends of the
+district, and the sight of the objects of archæological interest which
+he came across in his rambles out of school hours, were powerful
+stimuli to his sensations; whilst the accurate observation of natural
+phenomena in field and hedge which the kindly interested weavers
+helped him to, was also a valuable educative influence. It is probable
+that his senses received much of the training which was to lead to his
+ultimately being the greatest physician of his day by these means,
+rather than from the instruction imparted to him in the village
+school, or derived by him independently from the books that came in
+his way. It was undoubtedly a fortunate circumstance that he was born
+and bred in an out-of-the-way country district, where he drew his
+lessons from Nature and the phenomena which lay round him, rather than
+in a great city where he would have been educated on the stereotyped
+orthodox system. When we look further back, asking why he saw sermons
+in stones and books in the running brooks, to which the bulk of his
+schoolfellows were entirely blind, we are bound to confess that we
+find no satisfactory answer in his family history, to which it is
+customary to look for an explanation of such tendencies. Heredity
+played no great part in making Simpson great; from the paternal side
+there was imparted to him a vigorous physique; from his mother he
+received the bright, happy, sympathetic, and alert disposition, which
+descended through her from his French ancestors. He was provided with
+a brain of marvellous quality and phenomenal size. But it was the
+environment which acted upon this brain and brought out the capacities
+born in him without any apparent hereditary bias, and which might have
+remained entirely latent under less favourable circumstances. No small
+part of the development was due to the people among whom he lived; a
+race of men accustomed to rely upon their senses which were always
+with them, rather than upon books which they seldom saw, even if they
+were able to read them; and to observe not only all that lay around
+them, but also the characteristics of their fellowmen with whom they
+were brought into contact--the close contact of different classes
+which obtains in village and rural life. Simpson was taught to study
+Nature whether in field or fellow-creature first, and the knowledge
+and opinions of men as expressed in books afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+STUDENT DAYS. 1825-1830.
+
+  Visit to Edinburgh--Sent to the University--Takes the Arts
+  classes--Gains a bursary--Influence of MacArthur and Reid--Robert
+  Knox the anatomist--The Burke and Hare murders--Superiority of the
+  extra-mural teachers of the day--Edinburgh an intellectual
+  centre--University life--His mode of living as a student--Apprenticed
+  to a chemist--Studies surgery under Liston--Regularly falls asleep
+  in the obstetric class--Influence of his teachers--Verse
+  writing--Description of the medical student of the day--Vacation
+  work--Death of his father--Obtains qualification to practice at
+  the age of eighteen.
+
+
+Although Edinburgh was only eighteen miles from Bathgate, Simpson
+visited it only once as a schoolboy; probably he walked all the way,
+for railroads were as yet unknown and it was not a long walk for a
+country-bred vigorous youth. He exercised his already formed habit of
+noting objects of interest during this great event in his boyhood, and
+in his journal there are copies of old inscriptions from tombs in the
+famous Greyfriars' Churchyard to which he made his pilgrimage.
+
+The boy's nearest and dearest ambition was to become a student at "the
+College," as Edinburgh University was familiarly termed. It received
+encouragement in the periodical return to the village of elder boys
+who had gone up before him. He was specially struck, and afterwards
+stimulated, by the appearance of one John Reid, his senior by two
+years, and his former companion in many a country ramble, who came
+back for the vacations smartened up both physically and mentally by
+the new life.
+
+Although the collegiate life characteristic of Oxford was unknown in
+Scots Universities, there was social intercourse amongst the boys very
+different from that of the village. The ancient Edinburgh University
+attracted students from all parts of the world, mostly for the medical
+curriculum, but many preceded the professional course with a year or
+two's attendance on the Arts classes; and it was usual for young
+Englishmen of good family to spend a session at Edinburgh before going
+to Oxford or Cambridge. Probably before he entered the medical
+classes, Simpson rubbed shoulders with lads of all ranks from home and
+abroad. Pillans was at this time the Professor of Humanity, Wallace
+held the chair of Mathematics, John Wilson--better known as
+Christopher North--that of Moral Philosophy, and Dunbar was Professor
+of Greek. Wallace had begun life as a bookbinder's apprentice, and
+Dunbar had risen from being a gardener; the example of these men under
+whose influence he was brought encouraged the baker's son to go and
+do likewise.
+
+The family had sent him off to the College with the mission to be
+famous, and he was beginning only in an orthodox fashion when he
+entered himself for the curriculum in Arts. It had been easy for him,
+with his magnificent brain power, to stand _dux_ of the village school
+over the ordinary village youth; but here, in Edinburgh, he was
+brought into competition with the picked boys from other country
+schools, and intellectually eager youths from town schools where the
+course of instruction was such as more easily to lead to early
+University success than that of the Bathgate parish school. At first
+he found difficulty and desponded. The keen observer with senses all
+alert was dashed to find so much of the College life to which he had
+so eagerly looked forward only a magnified repetition of the dull
+school routine. But he was too intent on ultimate success to be
+repulsed by his initial disappointment, and soon brought his mind into
+adjustment with the circumstances he found himself in, reserving
+leisure time and vacations for the exercise of his faculties as he
+most loved to exercise them. He did not persevere in the Arts course
+after he found his tastes led him to other studies; he did not trouble
+to obtain the Master of Arts degree, which was then conferred in a
+very lax manner; probably he saw its worthlessness, for it was not
+until the passing of the Scots Universities Act in 1858 that this
+degree became really valuable. He recognised, however, the value of
+laying a good foundation of general knowledge; without straining after
+any distinction he acquitted himself creditably in all his classes. In
+the second year of the curriculum he won one of the numerous small
+bursaries of the value of £10 a year, for which logic was one of the
+chief subjects of examination; but as candidates were restricted to
+those who possessed either the name of the founder, Stewart, or that
+of his wife, Simpson, the competition was not particularly severe. His
+individuality and natural straightforwardness attracted the attention
+of some of his professors. The boldness of his original essays
+provided them with food for comment in a manner dear to the
+professorial heart.
+
+The Arts curriculum served him usefully in helping to develop a
+literary style and in teaching him how best to express his vigorous
+thoughts, as well as in strengthening his knowledge of Latin and
+Greek. According to the record preserved on his class certificates he
+worked attentively and diligently; but the mere fact that he did not
+excel is sufficient proof that he did not make an attempt.
+
+During his Arts course Simpson lodged at No. 1, Adam Street, along
+with the John Reid already mentioned, who was now a medical student,
+and with a Mr. MacArthur, who had been a junior master at the Bathgate
+school, but had now also commenced to study medicine. MacArthur was a
+man of dogged determination; he urged Simpson to persist with his
+Arts course when his spirit seemed to rebel against it, and so long as
+they were together seems to have maintained some of the authority of
+the usher over both of the youths. The spirit of work was strong
+within him. Soon after Simpson joined him he related that he could
+then do with four hours' sleep, John Reid with six, but he had not
+been able to break in James yet. What MacArthur and the Arts course
+could not do, however, the attraction of medicine accomplished without
+effort, and Simpson soon formed the habit of early rising.
+
+It seems remarkable that so much study should have been required when,
+compared with to-day, the science of the healing art was in but a
+rudimentary condition. The teachers of the day had, in spite of
+Sydenham, a great regard for authority, and burdened their students
+with much that is utterly unknown to the present generation, and, if
+known, would be regarded as worthless. A very large part of the
+curriculum consisted of practical and bedside work, so that book study
+was necessarily left to the evening or early morning. All three
+students, moreover, were fired with ambition, and thirsted for
+something more than mere professional knowledge. MacArthur constantly
+urged on his two young friends, and foretold great things for them if
+only they would work. When he afterwards heard of their successes he
+used to say, "Yes, but _how_ they worked." Simpson became the
+greatest living obstetrician, and Reid rose to be Professor of
+Physiology in St. Andrew's University. MacArthur never became famous;
+his name is known only because of the initial impetus which his
+influence gave to the professional careers of his two young friends.
+
+In his close association with two such men as MacArthur and Reid,
+Simpson was again fortunate in his environment. The art of medicine
+was also fortunate inasmuch as at the right moment the right
+influences were at work to direct his mind towards it. While occupied
+in mastering the laws of hexameter and iambic or in assimilating the
+prescribed portion of Virgil and Tacitus, he happily now and then,
+living with two such enthusiastic medical students, got a taste of the
+more stimulating study of things scientific--food which was more
+agreeable to his mental palate, more suited to his mental digestion.
+By peeps into anatomical books, by little demonstrations of specimens
+in their lodgings, and by occasional visits to some of the lecture
+rooms or the wards of the Infirmary, his appetite was whetted for that
+great study of nature which his youthful training at Bathgate had
+prepared him for, and for which his mental constitution was specially
+adapted. One can picture the eagerness with which he would cast aside
+the finished Greek or Latin essay and urge the not unwilling embryo
+professor to demonstrate a bone or lecture on an anatomical
+preparation.
+
+Sometimes as a special favour he was taken by Reid to hear one of the
+lectures of the notorious Robert Knox, the extra-academical teacher of
+anatomy, whose strong personality and unrivalled powers as a lecturer
+were at that time attracting to Surgeon's Square hundreds of students,
+while Munro (Tertius) was mechanically repeating his grandfather's
+lectures from the University chair.
+
+It was towards the end of 1828, when Simpson was just about commencing
+his medical studies that Edinburgh, and in fact the whole of civilised
+Europe, was horrified by the revelation of the doings of Burke and
+Hare, when they were at last brought to justice for the long series of
+crimes perpetrated for the purpose of selling the bodies of their
+victims to the anatomical schools. Knox having a class of some four
+hundred students had special difficulty in meeting the demand for
+"subjects," and it was brought to light at the trial of Burke that the
+majority of the bodies were disposed of to Knox. As was only natural,
+a fierce indignation against Knox sprang up in the city. His residence
+was assailed and his effigy burnt. His life was in danger at the hands
+of the mob on more than one occasion.
+
+Lord Cockburn in his "Memorials of His Time" says that all the
+Edinburgh anatomists incurred an unjust and very alarming though not
+an unnatural odium--Dr. Knox in particular, against whom not only the
+anger of the populace but the condemnation of more intelligent
+persons was directed. "But," he says, "tried in reference to the
+invariable and the necessary practice of the profession our anatomists
+were spotlessly correct and Knox the most correct of them all."
+
+These were stirring times in Edinburgh medical circles. The strong,
+cool demeanour of Knox under the persecutions to which he was
+subjected, must have made an indelible impression on Simpson's mind,
+and the memory of it may have served to strengthen him in later years
+when himself subjected to the unjust accusations of thoughtless and
+ignorant people.
+
+One night when Knox had attracted a large class to hear him on a
+favourite subject, the crowd in the street mustered in unusual force;
+the yells and howls from outside were heard distinctly in the
+class-room. The students got alarmed, and kept looking to the doors of
+egress. Knox perceiving the restlessness and alarm of his audience
+paused, and then addressed to them reassuring words, expressing his
+contempt for the cowardly mob, and reminding them of the great men who
+at different times had suffered persecution for the cause of their
+science. His statement was received with such cheers as resounded
+beyond the class-room walls and actually cowed the uproarious mob, so
+loudly did the students applaud the words of the man who, they knew,
+daily placed his life in danger in order to lecture to them, and whose
+last hour seemed to have come, so great and threatening was the crowd
+on this particular evening.
+
+If Simpson did not actually witness such a scene as the foregoing--he
+was not a member of Knox's class until the session 1830-31--he must at
+least have known full well about it at the time, and shared with the
+whole body of students the worship of the man as a hero. His fellow
+lodger, Reid, was not only a distinguished pupil in Knox's class, but
+became one of Knox's demonstrators in 1833, and was always a prominent
+Knoxite. We know also that Knox went down to Bathgate to visit Reid's
+relations there, so that it is justifiable to conclude that Simpson
+came closely in contact with this remarkable teacher. That the
+relationship between Reid and Simpson was most intimate we have the
+former's own words for. At a public dinner given to him when appointed
+to his professorship in 1841, he said, "In the croupier (Simpson) I
+recognise my earliest friend, a native of the same village. We were
+rivals at school and at college. We stood to each other from boyhood
+upwards in every possible relation, whether of an educational,
+warlike, delicate, or social character, which the warm and fitful
+feelings peculiar to boyhood and youth can produce."
+
+In the end Knox and Reid quarrelled over a scientific matter. Knox
+never recovered from the effect of the Burke and Hare incident; in
+spite of the favourable report of an influential committee appointed
+to inquire into his share in the proceedings, and his own explicit
+statements, the public never acquitted him of at least a wilful
+shutting of his eyes to much that ought to have aroused his
+suspicions. His crowded class-room gradually became empty during the
+next few years, and the once brilliant, talented, and determined man
+became demoralised and left Edinburgh. Christison says that Knox
+finally died almost destitute in London, and that one of his last
+occupations was that of showman to a party of travelling Ojibbeway
+Indians.
+
+However the strong personality and attractive lecturing of Knox may
+have influenced him, it is undoubted that to the personal influence of
+MacArthur and Reid, acting upon his constant hunger to know nature and
+truth, stimulated as it was by what he saw of anatomy and physiology,
+we owe the fact that Simpson decided to enter the medical profession.
+
+Although the number of medical students in Edinburgh University
+reached one of its highest points during the years that Simpson was a
+student, it is remarkable that with one, or perhaps two, exceptions,
+the University professors were men of no marked eminence in their
+various subjects. On the other hand, the extra-mural teachers included
+men of such wide reputation as Knox, Lizars, and Liston. Syme, who
+reached the height of his fame as a surgeon about the same time that
+Simpson became renowned, had just resigned the teaching of anatomy to
+take up surgery; shut out at first from the wards of the Royal
+Infirmary by jealous colleagues, he was boldly establishing for
+himself the little Minto House Hospital, which became the successful
+nursery of his own unsurpassed system of clinical teaching, and
+remains in the recollection to this day as the principal scene of Dr.
+John Brown's pathetic story, "Rab and his Friends." It was chiefly
+these extra-academical teachers who at that time made the medical
+school famous, and were raising for it a reputation in surgery such as
+it had acquired in physic in the days of Cullen. In certain subjects
+the students would, according to the regulations for the degree, take
+out their tickets of attendance on the professor's course of lectures,
+but would put in only a sufficient number of appearances to entitle
+them to the necessary certificates; the real study of the subject
+being made under the more accomplished teacher outside the University
+walls.
+
+Edinburgh was at this period much more than the scene of the foremost
+medical and surgical teaching of the day in the world. It was a
+striking centre of intellectual activity. Sir Walter Scott,
+Cockburn, and Jeffrey were famous in literature and politics; Chalmers
+and Moncrieff in Church affairs; and Aytoun, John Wilson, Sir
+William Hamilton, and Sir David Brewster were names that attracted
+men from far and wide to the modern Athens. English and foreign
+advocates, scholars, artists, squires, and noblemen mingled together
+to hear or see some of these men. Lord John Russell, Henry
+Temple--subsequently Lord Palmerston--and Lord Melbourne were
+amongst the young Englishmen who attended university classes for a
+session or two; and H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and his brother the
+Duke of Edinburgh, each matriculated in later days. When Simpson began
+his studies Knox was the great lion, without a visit to whose
+class-room no sojourn in Edinburgh was complete; just as in later
+years Simpson's house in Queen Street was the resort of all sorts
+and conditions of distinguished people.
+
+The University had little control over her students once they were
+outside the gates of the quadrangle. There were no residential
+colleges; each youth found lodgings for himself suitable to his means,
+and led a perfectly independent life. So long as he conducted himself
+with propriety within her walls his Alma Mater cared little how he
+conducted himself or how he fared outside. Before 1858, when the Town
+Council controlled University affairs, there were sometimes attempts
+to order the comings and goings of students. It is recorded that in
+1635 the Town Council discovered that the scholars of the College were
+much withdrawn from their studies by "invitations to burials," which
+"prejudiced their advancement in learning," and they enacted that no
+student was to be permitted to attend burials except those of
+University or city worthies. This was at a time when some of the
+students were provided with residences inside the University, but by
+the beginning of the eighteenth century College residence had ceased.
+From time to time attempts have been made to render the students
+conspicuous in the city by the wearing of red gowns, but without
+success; and those of all faculties continue to be their own masters,
+in marked contrast to the mode of government in force at Oxford and
+Cambridge. Recently, in the eighties, a batch of students who had
+figured in the police-court after a riot in the gallery of a theatre
+were surprised to find themselves summoned before the Senatus
+Academicus and rusticated for varying periods; this, however, was but
+a spasmodic exercise of power. The chief advantage claimed for this
+custom of leaving the student to his own devices is that it encourages
+independence and develops each man's individuality better than a
+system of discipline and control. In men of Simpson's calibre it
+certainly has had a good effect.
+
+Although the family in Bathgate strained every nerve to keep James
+well supplied with the necessary funds as a student, they were not
+able to place him in such a pecuniary position as to make it
+unnecessary for him to exercise economy: He appears to have been very
+careful indeed of the money which he had; much more careful than when
+he reckoned his income by thousands. He kept methodical accounts of
+his expenses down to the most trivial items, and regularly submitted
+them to his family. His cash-book opened with the following quotation
+from a small book called the "Economy of Life," which figures at a
+cost of ninepence:--"Let not thy recreations be expensive lest the
+pain of purchasing them exceed the pleasure thou hast in their
+enjoyment"; and to this he added:--
+
+  "No trivial gain nor trivial loss despise;
+  Mole-hills, if often heaped, to mountains rise.
+  Weigh every small expense and nothing waste;
+  Farthings long saved amount to pounds at last."
+
+It is easy to see here the imprint of a well-known national
+characteristic, from which, however, he completely shook himself free
+when prosperity came to him.
+
+His share of the rent of the Adam Street lodging amounted to only
+three shillings a week. The entries in the cash-book show how frugally
+he lived and how every spare sum was devoted to the purchase of books.
+His library, the foundation of much of his encyclopedic knowledge, was
+a curious mixture. Adam's "Antiquities," Milton's Poems, Byron's
+"Giaour" and "Childe Harold," a Church Bible, Paley's "Natural
+Theology," Fife's "Anatomy," and "The Fortunes of Nigel," were amongst
+those entered as purchased. The daily entries were such as the
+following:--"Subject (anatomical), £2; spoon, 6d.; bread and tart, 1s.
+8d. Duncan's Therapeutics, 9d.; snuff; 1-1/2d.; Early Rising,
+9-1/2d."
+
+He followed out the usual student's custom of the day of learning
+dispensing by serving for a time in a chemist's shop. The late Dr.
+Keiller, of Edinburgh, used to relate how, while he himself was so
+employed in a chemist's shop in Dundas Street, one day "a little
+fellow with a big head" was brought in and entered as a pupil by a
+relative. The little fellow was Simpson, and no sooner was he left in
+the shop than he sat down with a book upon drugs, and turning to the
+shelves took down drug after drug to read up. The prompt industry of
+the big-headed fellow deeply impressed Keiller.
+
+James attended most of the University classes, but studied surgery
+under the great Robert Liston, the foremost extra-mural surgeon,
+daring and skilful as an operator and of great repute as a lecturer,
+who afterwards filled the post of Professor of Clinical Surgery in
+University College Hospital, London. Liston was an abrupt-mannered but
+sincere man, and a keen lover of truth. He was a warm advocate of
+hospital reform, and was successful in introducing several needed
+improvements into the Royal Infirmary after a fierce fight. Here again
+Simpson was brought under the influence of a strong, self-reliant man
+with a distinct tendency towards controversy; to whom he was also
+attracted by the fact that Liston was a native of Linlithgowshire.
+Liston and Syme, after being close colleagues, quarrelled most
+fiercely, and were bitter rivals until Liston removed to London in
+1835. Simpson attended Liston's lectures during three sessions.
+
+There is no record of his having obtained great distinction in any of
+the medical classes, but his certificates show that he worked with
+pre-eminent diligence in them all, and obtained a characteristic
+mastery of each subject. If any exception occurred it was in the very
+subject in which he afterwards earned his greatest scientific
+fame--that of obstetrics. He attended Professor James Hamilton's
+course of lectures on that subject early in his career, and apparently
+felt so little interest--the subject only became a compulsory one for
+examination for qualification in 1830--that he regularly went to sleep
+during the lecture. The excuse urged was that the lecture being a late
+one, three to four in the afternoon, it found him tired out after a
+long morning of study, lectures, and practical work. But had he been
+keenly interested he would have been wide awake, for Hamilton was a
+forcible, if plain, lecturer.
+
+Hamilton was another of Simpson's teachers who exhibited the same
+uncompromising fighting characteristics--eager and strenuous in his
+efforts to obtain some object--which Simpson himself afterwards
+displayed. He fought hard for fifteen years to gain recognition for
+the subject which he taught, and to have it included in those
+necessary for qualification. He succeeded in the end, but in the
+course of the struggle had to bring two actions at law against
+professional brethren. In one the defendant was Dr. Gregory, whose
+teaching was mainly responsible for the British system of medical
+practice in the early part of this century, viz., free purging,
+free bleeding, and frequent blistering, and who was the inventor of
+that well known household remedy, Gregory's powder. Gregory was also
+a pugnacious man and could not abide the pretensions of the
+representative of the despised art of midwifery; he administered a
+public caning to him, and had to pay £100 in damages which, it is
+said, he offered to pay over again for another opportunity of
+thrashing the little obstetrician. This encounter occurred before
+Simpson became a student, but the memory of it was frequently
+revived in the subsequent disputes which Hamilton carried on.
+
+The notes which Simpson took of the curriculum lectures were concisely
+made and full of comments, criticisms, and queries. He by no means
+bowed down to authority; he allowed nothing to pass which he did not
+understand at the time, and specially noted points which it seemed to
+him his teachers themselves did not understand.
+
+Like most young men of his abilities and temperament, Simpson took
+pleasure in rhyming, and some of his verses are preserved. They
+indicate something of the rollicking spirit of the medical student's
+life seventy years ago. The medical student at that date has been
+described in a recent interesting sketch of Edinburgh student life as
+wearing a white great-coat and talking loud; his hat was inclined
+knowingly to one side of his head, and the bright hues of an Oriental
+handkerchief decorated his neck. There was a great deal of acting in
+his motions. He was first at the door of the theatre on a Saturday
+night, and regardless of the damages sustained by the skirts of his
+coat, secured the very middle seat of the fifth row of benches in the
+pit. Simpson, however, hardly conformed to this description. He
+enjoyed recreation as much as any man, and had a keen sense of humour
+which made him popular among his fellow students, but he was saturated
+with the love of study and was not led into extravagances of the Bob
+Sawyer type, or the harmless inanities of Albert Smith's immortal
+Medical Student.
+
+During the long summer vacation he noted carefully his observations on
+the botany, zoology, geology, and even the meteorology of the Bathgate
+district. Dr. Duns, in his memoir, points out that he was much more at
+home with the phenomena of organic than with those of inorganic forms.
+His highest powers came into play when he had to do with the presence
+of life and its varied manifestations. Even his antiquarian notes
+illustrated this. He passed at once from the things to the thoughts
+and feelings of the men associated with them.
+
+In the holidays he also assisted the village doctor in visiting and
+dispensing, and lent a willing hand in his father's shop when he was
+wanted, often enough driving the baker's cart on the daily round of
+bread delivery.
+
+In January of the year 1830 his father was taken seriously ill, and
+James hastily left Edinburgh and tended him till his death. On his
+return he presented himself for the final examination at the College
+of Surgeons. This he passed with ease and credit in April, and found
+himself a fully qualified medical practitioner at the age of
+eighteen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FURTHER STUDIES. 1830-1835
+
+  Applies for a village appointment--Disappointment--Brother's help
+  to further studies--Dispensary assistant--Obtains University M.D.,
+  1832--Thesis--Assistant to the Professor of Pathology--Turns to
+  obstetrics--Attends Professor Hamilton's lectures again--Royal
+  Medical and Royal Physical Societies--Edward Forbes--The
+  Oineromathic Society--Foreign tour--Visits Liverpool and meets
+  Miss Jessie Grindlay--His characteristics, principles, and
+  methods, with extracts from addresses.
+
+
+There now came the first crisis in Simpson's medical career. After
+his father's death he felt that having obtained his qualification
+to practise it was his duty to relieve his family of the burden of
+supporting him through more extended studies. After due deliberation
+he applied for a small appointment which would have served as a
+nucleus for private practice, that of parish surgeon to a small
+village on the banks of the Clyde. Those in whose hands the
+appointment lay were not impressed with his fitness for the post,
+and he was not elected, "I felt," he afterwards said, "a deeper
+amount of chagrin and disappointment than I have ever experienced
+since that date. If chosen, I would probably have been working there
+as a village doctor still." Although such a commencement might have
+delayed his ultimate rise to eminence, it cannot be agreed that it
+could possibly have prevented it. It was at this crisis that what he
+tenderly referred to as "the ceaseless love and kindness of a dear
+elder brother" came to his rescue, and by Alexander's or, as he
+affectionately called him, "Sandy's" help, he returned to Edinburgh
+to resume his studies in the winter session, 1830-31. His other
+brother, David, had started in business as a baker at Stockbridge,
+close to Edinburgh, and James boarded with him there for a time.
+His qualification enabled him to become assistant to a Dr. Gairdner
+in dispensary practice, a class of work he had had some experience of
+in the previous year while staying with Dr. Girdwood at Falkirk during
+the summer. Dr. Gairdner was much struck with Simpson's abilities,
+which he stated, "promised the most flattering expectations." In the
+course of his first experiences of actual practice he became
+impressed with the necessity for a knowledge of obstetrics, and
+therefore attended lectures on the subject by Dr. Thatcher, an
+extra-mural teacher of repute, who subsequently applied for the
+University chair of midwifery when Simpson was the successful
+candidate.
+
+His chief object, however, was to qualify for the degree of Doctor
+of Medicine of the University, and this he succeeded in doing in
+1832. The regulations for this coveted degree were, for the times,
+wonderfully complete; it was held in such high estimation and such
+large numbers qualified annually--in 1827 there were one hundred and
+sixty graduates--that the authorities felt justified in being
+stringent. The length of the course of study necessary for graduation
+had been fixed at four years, and required the candidate to have
+attended classes in Anatomy, Surgery, Materia Medica, and Pharmacy,
+the Theory and Practice of Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Midwifery,
+Chemistry, and Botany, as well as a three months' course in any two
+of the following:--Practical Anatomy, Natural History, Medical
+Jurisprudence, Clinical Surgery, and Military Surgery. The first
+step in examination took place at the house of one of the professors
+where the candidate was questioned in literary subjects, chiefly
+Latin, and in the different branches of Medicine and Surgery. If he
+passed this satisfactorily he was examined more minutely by two
+professors in the presence of the others, and was subsequently given
+two Aphorisms of Hippocrates to explain and illustrate in writing and
+to defend before the faculty, as well as two cases with questions
+attached. The last step was the presenting of a thesis which was
+read by one of the faculty and was publicly defended by the
+candidate on the day of graduation. All this examination was
+conducted in Latin. Simpson's thesis was entitled: "_De causa
+mortis in quibusdam inflammationibus proxima_." He was amongst the
+last graduates who were examined through the medium of Latin, for
+after 1833 the language was optional, and English soon became the
+only one used; at the same time the examinations were differently
+arranged, and made to consist of more thorough and prolonged written
+and oral stages. Being on a pathological subject, Simpson's thesis
+was allotted to Thomson, the professor of Pathology, to examine,
+who not only recommended the author for the degree, but was so
+impressed by the ability displayed in the dissertation that he sought
+him out and promptly offered him the post of assistant, which
+Simpson as promptly accepted. This appointment was most welcome. Not
+only did it give him a much desired opportunity for pathological work,
+but the salary of £50 a year enabled him to free his family from
+the immediate necessity of supporting him.
+
+If to MacArthur and John Reid was due the credit of first directing
+Simpson's thoughts to the study of medicine, to Professor John Thomson
+belongs the credit of having made him an obstetrician. "At Dr.
+Thomson's earnest suggestion and advice," says Simpson, "I first
+turned more especially to the study of midwifery with the view of
+becoming a teacher of this department of medical science." He lost no
+time in throwing himself heartily into the work that was nearest to
+him, and became almost indispensable to his chief. Most of his time
+was spent in the Pathological Museum, busily engaged in arranging,
+classifying, and describing the preparations, but he also assisted in
+preparing the professor's lectures. He took up more readily than
+Thomson the then new mode of study by the microscope, and it is
+related that once he composed a lecture for his chief on this subject
+which Thomson delivered without previous perusal. Several times as
+Thompson read the lecture to the class he looked up to glare at his
+assistant, and when they returned to the side room he shook his fist
+in his face, saying, "I don't believe one d--d word of it."
+
+Although Simpson was now earning enough by his salary as assistant to
+meet his expenses at the time, his family maintained their loving
+interest in his welfare. His sister told him he was working too hard
+and hurting his health. "Well," he replied, "I am sure it is just to
+please you all."
+
+Sandy, who had married in 1832, watched his career carefully, and when
+the cholera made its appearance in Scotland he made a will with a
+provision for "my dear James" in the event of his death. "I daresay,"
+he addressed his family therein, "every one of you has a pleasure in
+doing him good by stealth as I have had myself."
+
+By Thomson's advice Simpson attended Hamilton's lectures in the winter
+session 1833-4, and this time with awakened interest. With the
+definite object of devoting himself to Midwifery clearly in view
+Simpson worked with all his phenomenal energy during the years from
+1832 to 1835, studying the subject while he was helping Thomson. He
+entered the front rank of the young graduates of his day, and was
+elected a member of the Royal Medical and Royal Physical Societies in
+the same year, 1833. Both these societies were for the encouragement
+of scientific study and discussion among students and young graduates,
+and to obtain the Presidential chair of either was a high honour. The
+Royal Medical Society was the oldest Society in the University, having
+been established in 1737 by the great Cullen and others; it had always
+been of great account in the University, and the originality of the
+utterances on professional matters which emanated from it made it then
+a power to be reckoned with not only in Edinburgh, but throughout
+European professional circles. For membership of the Royal Physical
+Society he was proposed by Edward Forbes, a brilliant youth, who
+subsequently distinguished himself in Natural History, and held the
+University Chair in that subject for a brief period until cut down
+prematurely at the age of thirty-nine. Forbes was the leader of a set
+of able young students who have left a distinct mark in the history of
+the University. John Reid was an intimate friend of Forbes, and
+Simpson was probably as intimate with him. Forbes was the founder and
+editor of the best of all the shortlived literary ventures of
+Edinburgh undergraduates--_The University Maga_, which was issued
+weekly in 1834; and he was also one of the founders of the
+Oineromathic Society, "The brotherhood of the friends of Truth."
+Forbes thus described the nature of this Society in song:--
+
+  "Some love to stray through lands far away,
+    Some love to roam on the sea,
+  But an antique cell and a college bell,
+    And a student's life for me.
+  For palace or cot, for mead or grot
+    I never would care or pine,
+  But spend my days in twining lays
+    To Learning, Love, and Wine."
+
+"Wine, Love, and Learning" was the motto of this curious brotherhood,
+and it numbered in its membership many men of the day, who afterwards
+became eminent, such as Forbes himself, Reid, George Wilson, Goodsir,
+and Bennet. Simpson must have been quite cognisant of this Society's
+doings; he was closely associated with its leaders, but his name does
+not appear in any of the lists of members still preserved. His
+whole-hearted devotion to the ~MATHÊSIS~ probably prevented his
+uniting with the brotherhood to worship the ~ERÔS~ and ~OINOS~. The
+brotherhood was conspicuously united. In the great snowball riot of
+1837, which was quelled only by the reading of the Riot Act and the
+marching down at the double from the Castle of the Cameron Highlanders
+into the University gates, they fought shoulder to shoulder.
+
+In 1835 Simpson felt that the time had come to enter into serious
+practice and turn his acquired knowledge to account. Fifty pounds a
+year was no large income on which to satisfy his craving for
+learning, and there was no surplus from which by any means to repay
+his family for their assistance. Before taking any decided step,
+however, he desired to pay a visit to the Continental centres of
+medical science and teaching. The funds for the proposed tour were
+promptly found by his brothers Alexander and John; by their assistance
+he was enabled to visit Paris, Liége, and Brussels, as well as London
+and Oxford. He was accompanied by Dr. (now Sir Douglas) Maclagan, and
+kept a journal of the tour, which is an interesting example of his
+lively powers of observation. In London he visited the leading
+hospitals, and made the acquaintance of the leading physicians and
+surgeons, amongst whom were many _alumni_ of his own _alma mater_. In
+the journal he freely and concisely criticised the men, their methods,
+and their hospitals. In Paris he followed the same plan, going the
+round of all the hospitals, and searching for and grasping the
+principle which guided each distinguished man's thought and teaching.
+He took more than a medical interest in all that he saw, and noted the
+appearance and habits of the people of each place that he visited. At
+the end of his coach ride from London to Southampton, on the way to
+Paris, he sat down to write:--"The ride as far as Windsor Park was
+delightful, and from the top of the coach we had two or three most
+lovely glimpses of English scenery. After passing Windsor the soil was
+rather inferior in many parts, and we passed every now and then large
+tracts of heath.... The neatness and cleanliness of the English
+cottages is greatly superior to all that we have in Scotland; the
+little patches of garden ground before, behind, and around them set
+them off amazingly. I wish the Scottish peasantry could by some means
+or other be excited to a little more love of cleanliness and
+horticulture. I did not see above two or three dirty windows, men or
+women along the whole line of road. The snow-white smock-frocks of the
+Hampshire peasantry do actually look well in my opinion."
+
+At Liége on June 13th he wrote:--"And is it possible that I here begin
+a second volume of a journal?... I began my journal chiefly with some
+distant prospect of teaching myself the important lesson of daily
+notation. I am vain enough to flatter myself now that I have partly at
+least succeeded. At all events that which was at first a sort of task,
+at times rather an annoying task, has now become to me a pleasure. If
+I had my first volume to write over again I think I would now write it
+twenty times better. In writing a journal 'tis needless to think of
+making no blunders in the way of blots and bad grammar or of crooked
+sentences. We, or at least I, have occasionally felt so confoundedly
+tired at night that if I had been obliged to attend to such minutiæ I
+certainly would not have been able to advance above two sentences.
+
+"This morning rose by half-past seven--dressed and breakfasted on
+coffee and rolls, read the _Liége Courier_, and by nine o'clock called
+on Professor Fohman with a copy of Dr. Reid's paper on the glands of
+the whale, which I had promised him yesterday. The Professor kept us
+until five minutes to ten, lecturing us on his discoveries upon the
+original elementary tubular structure of animal tissues. Somebody has
+remarked that no person ever entered into or at least came out of the
+study of the Book of Revelation without being either mad before or mad
+after it. I would not choose to say that Dr. F.'s case is perfectly
+analogous, but has it not some analogy? He seems to run wild on
+elementary tubular texture; ... he hates Lippi and his researches with
+a perfect hatred. Lippi has been preferred to him by the Parisian
+Academy. Is he not working against Lippi, and it may be against truth,
+if they happen to go together, which I do not believe?
+
+"We have taken our seats in the diligence to-morrow for Louvain, and
+on leaving Liége I must confess that I leave one of the most lovely
+places I have seen on the Continent. 'Tis rich, populous, busy; the
+town in itself is old and good, though not so neat and clean as Mons;
+its environs wild and romantic. Besides it seems full of good-natured
+_gash_ old wives, and sonsy, laughing-faced, good-looking, nay, some
+of them very good-looking girls."
+
+The homeward journey was made _viâ_ Birmingham, Liverpool, and
+Glasgow. In Liverpool he called upon a distant relative named
+Grindlay, established there as a shipper, and laid the foundation of a
+life-long friendship with the family. He also then for the first time
+met Miss Jessie Grindlay who afterwards became his wife.
+
+With the end of this tour, Simpson brought to a close the more
+strictly student part of his career, although it remained true of
+him, as of all eminent scientific men, that he was a student to the
+end of his days. He felt himself now fully equipped to enter into
+the professional battle, and he stepped into the arena, not only
+full of vigorous life and hope, but possessed of highly trained
+faculties, keen senses, and lofty ideals. It was his strong,
+personal characteristics, apart from his accomplishments, which at
+once placed him head and shoulders above his fellows. "He had a great
+heart," says a recent writer, "and a marvellous personal influence,
+calling forth, not only the sympathy and love of his fellowmen,
+but capable of kindling enthusiasm in others almost at first
+sight." It is impossible to overestimate this personal influence in
+analysing the elements of his ultimate success, and it is more
+impossible for those who did not feel it to realise its nature; but
+that he became the beloved as well as the trusted physician is due to
+this influence. "He had no acquaintances," says the writer already
+quoted; "none could come into contact with him and stop short of
+friendship." This was a powerful trait to possess; it cannot be
+denied that he was fully aware of it and its value; and used it with
+good effect in establishing himself as the greatest physician of his
+day.
+
+As a scientist he started with an eager desire for knowledge and
+reverence for truth, to which was added the highly developed power of
+mental concentration born of early self-training. When most men would
+be waiting in what they would term enforced idleness, Simpson would be
+busy with book or pen, deeply attentive to his occupation despite
+surrounding distractions or temptations to frivolous idleness. He took
+the full measure of the value of Time and handled his moments as
+another would a precious metal. "At all times," he said himself, "on
+all occasions, and amidst the numerous disturbing influences to which
+the medical man is so constantly subjected, he should be able to
+control and command his undivided mental attention to the case or
+object that he may have before him.... In the power of concentrating
+and keeping concentrated all the energies of attention and thought
+upon any given subject, consists the power of thinking strongly and
+successfully upon that subject. The possession or the want of this
+quality of the mind constitutes the main distinction between the
+possession or the want of what the world designates 'mental abilities
+and talents.'"
+
+His high ideals, his conception of the functions of the physician,
+and the strivings of the scientist are best shown in his own
+words:--"Other pursuits become insignificant in their objects when
+placed in contrast with ours. The agriculturist bestows all his
+professional care and study on the rearing of crops and cattle; the
+merchant spends his energies and attention on his goods and his
+commissions; the engineer upon his iron-wheels and rails; the sailor
+upon his ships and freights; the banker upon his bills and his
+bonds; and the manufacturer upon his spindles and their products. But
+what after all are machinery and merchandise, shares and stocks,
+consols and prices-current, or the rates of cargoes and cattle, of
+corns and cottons, in comparison with the inestimable value and
+importance of the very lives of these fellowmen who everywhere move
+and breath and speak and act around us? What are any, or what are all
+these objects when contrasted with the most precious and valued gift
+of God--human life? And what would not the greatest and most
+successful followers of such varied callings give out of their own
+professional stores for the restoration of health and for the
+prolongation of life--if the first were once lost to them, or if
+the other were merely menaced by the dreaded and blighting finger of
+disease?"
+
+In one of his addresses of later years he urged upon his students the
+objects and motives which had been his in early professional
+life:--"The objects and powers of your art are alike great and
+elevated," he said. "Your aim is as far as possible to alleviate
+human suffering and lengthen out human existence. Your ambition is to
+gladden as well as to prolong the course of human life by warding off
+disease as the greatest of mortal evils; and restoring health, and
+even at times reason itself, as the greatest of mortal blessings....
+If you follow these, the noble objects of your profession, in a proper
+spirit of love and kindness to your race, the pure light of
+benevolence will shed around the path of your toils and labours the
+brightness and beauty that will ever cheer you onwards and keep your
+steps from being weary in well-doing; ... while if you practise the
+art that you profess with a cold-hearted view to its results, merely
+as a matter of lucre and trade, your course will be as dark and
+miserable as that low and grovelling love that dictates it."
+
+Simpson's method of study was simple, at the same time that it
+involved immense labour. In entering upon a new work his first
+proceeding was to ascertain conscientiously all that had already been
+said or written by others upon the subject. He traced knowledge from
+its earliest sources and was able, as he followed the mental workings
+of those who had preceded him, to estimate the value of every vaunted
+addition to the sum of knowledge; and to weigh the theories and new
+opinions of men which had been evolved with the progress of time, and
+which had sometimes obscured, instead of casting greater light upon
+the truth. His antiquarian tastes added to his knowledge of Latin
+helped him in this work and turned a tedious task into a real
+pleasure. This preliminary accomplished, he plunged into the work of
+adding to the knowledge of the subject by thought, research,
+experiment, or invention.
+
+In writing upon an abstract subject he would disentangle the confused
+thoughts of his predecessors and restate their opinions in direct and
+simplified language. But matters of opinion never had such an
+attraction for him as matters of fact; in dealing with these latter he
+would test by experiment the statements of authorities and correct or
+add to them by his own researches. Most of his professional writings,
+as well as his archæological works, are valuable for the historical
+_résumé_ of the knowledge on the subject as well as for his additions.
+His later writings show as careful an attention to the inductive
+method with which he started, as those produced in the days of his
+more youthful enthusiasm; when fame was attained and fortune secured,
+when excessive work was sapping his physical strength, he never sank
+into lazy or slovenly methods in scientific work, but ever threw his
+whole vigour into the self-imposed task.
+
+When studying Nature directly he was constantly asking her "why?"--just
+as in his notes of his teacher's lectures the query was ever recurring.
+He never felt himself beaten by an initial failure, but returned again
+and again with his questions with renewed energy each time. He was not
+to be denied, and in this manner he wrested from Nature some of
+those precious secrets the knowledge of which has relieved suffering and
+prolonged human life in every corner of the globe. "He never kept
+anything secret," says his nephew and successor, Professor A. R.
+Simpson, "that he thought could help his fellows, and it is hard to
+say whether his delight was greater in finding some new means to cure
+disease, or in demonstrating to others his methods of treatment."
+
+He was indeed clothed in well-nigh impenetrable armour, and provided
+with powerful weapons, when in the autumn of 1835 he returned from his
+foreign tour to commence the serious fight in which his avowed object
+was not only to obtain professional eminence, but to stand forth a
+proud benefactor of the human race. Although he appealed always
+directly to Nature and used his own well-trained eyes and ears in
+preference to those of others, he did not completely brush aside
+authority as Sydenham had done; he hesitated neither to extract all
+that was valuable, nor to discard what appeared worthless from the
+writings of past masters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+EARLY PRACTICE AND PROFESSORSHIP. 1835-1840
+
+  President of Royal Medical Society--Personal appearance--Practice
+  among the poor--Corresponds with Miss Grindlay--Lecturer on
+  obstetrics--Resignation of Professor Hamilton--Applies for
+  vacancy--Active candidature--Strong opposition--Marriage--Account
+  of the midwifery Chair--The medical professors at the time--Their
+  opposition--Cost of candidature--Triumphant election.
+
+
+In November, 1835, Simpson was elected one of the annual Presidents of
+the Royal Medical Society; a position which has been occupied by many
+young Edinburgh graduates, who have subsequently risen to fame. He
+took pains to make his inaugural address worthy of the occasion, and
+chose a subject connected with the pathology of obstetrics. It was a
+great success, and contributed largely towards giving him a recognised
+position as an authority in that branch of study. After appearing in
+the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_ for January, 1836, it was
+translated into French, Italian, and German. It also obtained for him
+his first foreign honour--one of a long list that was made up through
+his lifetime--that of corresponding member of the Ghent Medical
+Society; indeed, his early works received more attention and
+appreciation abroad than at home. In 1836, in order to widen his
+experience in his chosen subject, he filled the post of house-surgeon
+to the Lying-in Hospital, and held it for twelve months. He was also
+elected a Fellow of the Edinburgh College of Physicians. From this
+time he became a profuse writer on professional subjects, and
+developed an easy and convincing style; he carried on this work _pari
+passu_ with practice amongst the poorer classes of the city and in
+addition to his work in connection with the Pathology Chair, always
+keeping in view his great object of becoming an obstetrician. It was
+not until 1838 that he became an independent lecturer on Midwifery. He
+had intended to do so earlier, but owing to Professor Thomson's
+ill-health, he had been called upon to act as Deputy-Professor of
+Pathology, a most valuable and useful employment.
+
+Simpson's personal appearance at this time has been described by one
+who visited a meeting of the Royal Medical Society on an evening when
+he was in the chair:--"The chair was occupied," says the narrator, "by
+a young man whose appearance was striking and peculiar. As we entered
+the room his head was bent down, and little was seen but a mass of
+long tangled hair, partially concealing what appeared to be a head of
+very large size. He raised his head, and his countenance at once
+impressed us. A pale, rather flattish face, massive brent brows, from
+under which shone eyes now piercing as it were to your inmost soul,
+now melting into almost feminine tenderness; a coarsish nose with
+dilated nostrils, finely chiselled mouth which seemed the most
+expressive feature of the face ... Then his peculiar rounded soft body
+and limbs, as if he had retained the infantine form in adolescence,
+presented a _tout ensemble_, which even if we had never seen it again
+would have remained indelibly impressed on our memory."
+
+In Simpson's youth physicians and surgeons made a habit of cultivating
+peculiarities of appearances and behaviour, but he was so shaped by
+nature as to attract attention without artificial aid. The growth of
+long hair seemed a natural accompaniment to his massive head and broad
+expressive countenance.
+
+His practice at this time was scattered over the city, and he took
+long tramps in the course of the day. In one of his letters to his
+brothers, who were still loyally supporting him in his increasingly
+successful endeavours to establish himself after his heart's desire,
+he says:--"The patients are mostly poor it is true, but still they are
+patients; ... if my health is spared me, I do hope I may get into
+practice sufficient to keep me respectable after the lapse of years;
+but I know years must pass before that. At present I enjoy the best
+possible spirits and health, and with all my toils was never happier
+or healthier."
+
+_Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre._ Simpson knew how to wait; he
+knew that waiting did not mean inactivity. Every opportunity that
+arose for advancement found him prepared to take full advantage of
+it.
+
+That his lectures on pathology were acceptable was made manifest by
+the address presented to him by the students of the class at the end
+of his temporary term of office, testifying to his zeal, fidelity, and
+success, their admiration of his high talents, of the varied and
+extensive research which he displayed, and of his uniform and kind
+affability which, while it exalted him in the eyes of all as a
+teacher, endeared him to each as a friend.
+
+During this period he kept up a correspondence with the Miss Grindlay,
+of Liverpool, whose appearance he had been struck with when he visited
+the family, and towards the end of 1837 he found time to visit there
+again accompanied by Dr. John Reid.
+
+The way for his appearance as an extra-academical lecturer on
+midwifery was made clear at the end of 1837 by the death of Dr.
+Macintosh, a successful teacher of that subject. He had been in
+negotiation, without success, with this Dr. Macintosh for the taking
+over of the part or whole of his lectures, and found it easy to step
+at once into his place at his death. He was firmly determined to
+succeed ultimately to the University Chair of Midwifery. On one
+occasion he pointed out to some friends the then holder of the Chair,
+Professor Hamilton, thus:--"Do you see that old gentleman? Well,
+that's my gown!"
+
+The good luck which had been his during his boyhood did not desert him
+when he began his course of lectures; for not only did he speedily
+attain a reputation for teaching, science, and practical skill,
+wonderful for one so young, but he had not two years to wait after
+thus establishing himself before the chair of his ambition fell vacant
+owing to the resignation in 1839 of Professor Hamilton, who died soon
+afterwards at the age of seventy-two.
+
+It was a bold step for so young a man--for Simpson was only
+twenty-eight--to apply for the professorship. He was, however, not
+without his precedent. The second Monro obtained the Anatomy Chair at
+twenty-five, Alison filled that of Physic at thirty, and Thomas Hope
+and Alexander Christison were Professors of Chemistry and Medical
+Jurisprudence respectively each at the age of twenty-four. But this
+subject was one which was popularly thought to require a man of
+experience and especially a married man. Simpson had devoted his
+energies but partially to midwifery for only four or five years, and
+except for his short hospital appointment and recent experience as a
+lecturer on the subject had in the eyes of many no greater claim to
+the post than any other general practitioner, except in the fact that
+he had obtained a wide reputation in the science of the subject by
+his contribution to its literature and his researches. This last was
+the point on which he himself most relied; for his age he had done
+more scientifically than any of his opponents. Those who had watched
+his career knew that he possessed in addition to zeal and ability,
+brilliant teaching and practical powers. The objection of his youth
+was less easily got over than that of his unmarried state. With
+characteristic promptness, as soon as he had determined to apply for
+the Chair and found that as a bachelor his chances would be small, he
+disappeared for a time from Edinburgh, and returned triumphantly with
+Miss Jessie Grindlay, of Liverpool, as his wife. It was a bold stroke
+which delighted his supporters, discomfited his opponents, who saw
+therein the removal of a barrier to his success and a weapon from
+their hands, and astonished the worthy town councillors in whose gift
+the appointment lay.
+
+The Edinburgh Chair of Midwifery was established in 1726, and was
+indisputably the first Chair of its kind in the British Islands, and
+probably in the world. It was in that year that the Town Council first
+established the medical faculty, by appointing two Professors of the
+Theory and Practice of Medicine and two of Medicine and Chemistry. A
+Chair of Anatomy had been instituted six years earlier through the
+instrumentality of the first Monro who became its first occupant.
+These five chairs were considered sufficient wherewith to teach all
+the medical knowledge of the day, and although appointed _ad vitam
+aut culpam_ the professors received no remuneration out of the city
+revenues. The Chair was not reckoned at first as a faculty Chair, but
+was termed a city professorship. The newly created medical faculty
+would have no midwifery within the precincts of the University; and
+this is scarcely surprising when we remember that at first the only
+persons lectured to by the city professor were women of an inferior
+class in whose hands the practice of the art almost entirely lay.
+
+Along with this appointment the Town Council established a system of
+regulation for midwifery practice within the city. It ordered that all
+midwives already in practice should at once be registered, and that no
+persons should thereafter enter on the practice within the city until
+they had presented to the magistrate a certificate under the hands of
+at least one doctor and one surgeon who were at the same time members
+of the College of Physicians or of the Incorporation of Chirurgeons,
+bearing that they had so much of the knowledge and principles of this
+art as warranted their entering on the practice of it; whereupon a
+licence should be given them signed by four magistrates at least
+entitling them to practise. It was further enacted that certain pains
+and penalties were to be inflicted upon ignorant persons for
+practising without this licence whereby their "want of skill might be
+of such dangerous consequences to the lives of so many people." It is
+to be presumed that as qualified medical men granted them these
+certificates and that these women had extensive practices, they
+possessed also a fair amount of skill. But slowly and gradually they
+had to give way and retire to the rank of nurses before the rise and
+growing public tolerance of the qualified male practitioner of
+obstetrics.
+
+The second occupant of the chair, appointed in 1739, was elevated to a
+place in the medical faculty, but Professor Thomas Young, who occupied
+it in 1756, was the first to teach the subject to medical students by
+means of lectures and clinical instruction. As already noted, it was
+left for James Hamilton to obtain the recognition of midwifery as a
+subject, a knowledge of which was necessary for the obtaining of the
+University medical degree.
+
+At the time when Simpson was straining every nerve to gain the post he
+coveted, the medical faculty of the University comprised the following
+professors of the following subjects:--Botany, Robert Graham, who
+established the Edinburgh and Glasgow Botanical Gardens; Anatomy,
+Monro the third; Chemistry, Hope, who discovered strontium in the lead
+mines of Argyleshire; Institutes of Medicine, Alison, an eminent
+physician and philanthropist who first pointed out the connection
+between destitution and epidemics of disease, and secured improved
+Poor Laws for his country; Practice of Physic, James Home; Materia
+Medica, Christison, the world-reputed toxicologist; Natural History,
+Robert Jameson; Clinical Surgery, James Syme, the wonderful operator
+and teacher, and inventor of the "macintosh" waterproof; Military
+Surgery, Ballingall; Medical Jurisprudence, Traill; Pathology,
+Thomson; and Surgery, Charles Bell, the discoverer of the double
+function of the nerves, who was ranked in his day on the Continent as
+greater than Harvey. It was thus not an undistinguished body that
+Simpson strove to enter; several of the best-known members were
+comparatively young men, recently appointed to their posts, and full
+of the rising scientific spirit. It is little to their credit that
+they were practically unanimous in opposing the candidature of this
+young and enthusiastic scientist, who afterwards shed such lustre on
+the University from the chair which they would have denied him for no
+reasons other than his youth and his humble origin.
+
+Fortunately for Simpson and for the University, the appointment did
+not lie in the gift of the professors, but was entirely in the hands
+of the Town Council, comprising thirty-three citizens.
+
+Such an election was always a matter of keen interest to the
+inhabitants of Edinburgh, and each candidate brought all the direct
+and indirect influence within his power to bear on every councillor
+whom he could reach. The Professors in the various faculties had no
+doubt great influence; they openly canvassed for the candidate they
+favoured, and did not hesitate to decry those they did not approve of.
+Shortsighted as this professorial opposition was, it proved no small
+difficulty in Simpson's way. Foremost amongst his opponents was Syme,
+who commenced a long feud with him by supporting his chief rival, Dr.
+Kennedy; "I feel no hesitation in stating," he wrote purposely for
+publication, "that of all the candidates in the field, he (Kennedy) is
+out of all question, according to my judgment, the one that ought to
+be elected." Sir Charles Bell was equally emphatic, and characterised
+Simpson's testimonials, in a note which Kennedy circulated, as given
+by "good-natured people merely to do a civil thing to a friend"--which
+was his mode of describing the declarations of some of the most
+eminent men of the day.
+
+Each candidate also brought political influence to bear, and Whig and
+Tory grew agitated as the contest became keener. Simpson seems to have
+thought that both political parties were in opposition to him, but he
+certainly had the strong support of Ritchie of _Scotsman_ fame, and
+the no less important influence of Mr. Duncan Maclaren.
+
+When writing to ask Mr. Grindlay for his daughter's hand, Simpson
+candidly confessed his pecuniary position at the time. He referred to
+a debt of £200 already owing to his brother Sandy, and added:--"Again
+he gave me a bill for £120 to assist me in furnishing my house. This
+has been renewed and becomes due in January. He hopes to be able to
+pay it, and I fondly imagined I would have paid the half, but this
+canvass has involved me in new difficulties, and besides, I have
+endeavoured to assist my sister to go out to Van Diemen's Land. As it
+is now I am self-sufficient enough to think that I am as well off as
+regards station in my profession as any who started here in the race
+of life with me. They have all, I believe, been aided by friends or by
+private wealth. They have almost all been fortunate enough to have the
+protection of a father's roof during the first years of practice. I
+have had no such advantages, but have worked and stood alone. I have
+accumulated for myself a library and museum, worth £200 at least,
+amidst these difficulties. These I have won by my pen and my lancet,
+and these are my only fortune. And now could you trust her future
+happiness to me under such circumstances? I did not intend to ask her
+hand at present. I fondly hoped I might have _first_ cleared myself of
+my debts."
+
+Grindlay did not hesitate, but willingly gave his daughter, as she was
+willingly given, for better or worse.
+
+The expenses of the canvass amounted to about £500, an amazingly large
+sum; he spared no expense in printing and posting his testimonials and
+letters to every one who had any influence with the Council, however
+small; but taking into consideration the cost of printing and postage
+in 1839, it is difficult to realise how the money was expended. His
+aim was to make known his scientific attainments, powers as a
+teacher, and personal qualifications which he felt, if duly realised,
+would outweigh the disadvantages of his youth and comparative
+inexperience. His testimonials spoke in strong terms of his abilities
+and characteristics; they were a good deal more numerous and elaborate
+than is customary to-day, but Kennedy's also made a fat volume of 150
+octavo pages.
+
+As the day of election drew near the excitement amongst citizens,
+professors, and students grew intense. Of the five candidates in the
+field, three, including his former teacher Thatcher, speedily fell out
+of the running. Dr. Evory Kennedy, of Dublin, and Simpson stood face
+to face as rivals. Kennedy was no mean opponent, and his supporters
+honestly considered him the better man of the two; his attainments
+certainly merited warm support. The prophets foretold a close
+struggle, and the event proved them correct. So keen was public
+interest that when a report was circulated that Kennedy was a bad
+lecturer, his friends brought him over from Dublin a few days before
+the election, hired a public room, and made him lecture to a crowded
+and enthusiastic audience to dispel that illusion. In spite of this
+the popular vote was decidedly in Simpson's favour; if the citizens
+had had votes Simpson would have been returned at the head of the poll
+by a large majority.
+
+On Tuesday, February 4, 1840, at a Council meeting, at which all
+thirty-three members were present, the Provost himself proposed
+Kennedy, while Baillie Ramsay proposed Simpson. The result was
+awaited with breathless suspense, the chamber being crowded by anxious
+spectators. Simpson's enthusiasm had infected his supporters; he had
+kindled the first sparks of that enthusiastic affection with which the
+citizens of Edinburgh ever after regarded him; when his triumph, by
+the narrowest majority, was announced, the cheers resounded loud and
+long.
+
+The same evening he was able to write to Liverpool:--
+
+  "1, DEAN TERRACE.
+
+  "I was this day elected Professor. My opponent had sixteen and I
+  had seventeen votes. All the political influence of both the
+  leading Whigs and Tories here was employed against me; but never
+  mind, I have got the chair in despite of them, Professors and all.
+  Jessie's honeymoon and mine is to commence to-morrow."
+
+It was the man's strong individuality which carried the day. The town
+councillors threw aside the political and academic bias of those who
+endeavoured to lead them, and elected the man who had boldly said,
+"Did I not feel I am the best man for the Chair I would not go in for
+it"; and had more boldly gone on showing them how thoroughly he felt
+what he said until they themselves came to believe it.
+
+The gift of this Chair, as of many others in the University, has now
+passed from the hands of the Town Council into those of a body of
+curators, seven in number, three nominated by the University Court
+and four by the Town Council; such a body might have made a more
+cautious choice, but never a more fortunate one both for the city
+and the University than this of their long-headed and far-sighted
+predecessors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+PROFESSOR AND PHYSICIAN. 1840-1847
+
+  Success as a lecturer--Increased practice--Generosity--Fashionable
+  patients--Memoir on Leprosy--Controversy concerning the Pathology
+  Chair--Address to the Graduates, 1842--Squabbles--Purchases 52,
+  Queen Street--A great and good physician--Called to London--Visit
+  to Erskine House--The daily scene at 52, Queen Street--Rangoon
+  petroleum and Christison--The disruption--His family--Appointed
+  Physician-Accoucheur to the Queen for Scotland.
+
+
+Simpson had not long been engaged upon his new duties before the town
+councillors gladly saw, and his brother professors were obliged to
+admit, that the baker's son was bringing a mighty genius to bear upon
+the subject of his choice from the chair of his ambition. He cherished
+no ill-feeling against those _confrères_ who had actively opposed his
+candidature, but set to work amidst his new surroundings conscious
+that the best way to obliterate bitter feelings was by gradually
+creating a stronger feeling--that of respect for him as a man and a
+worker. He had dealt heavy blows himself during the conflict--blows
+not easily forgotten. The position demanded tact and patience, and he
+was not found wanting in either. He converted many who had worked
+against him into adherents, admirers, and even friends.
+
+His lectures speedily attracted students. Besides those who were
+entering the profession, grey-headed and grey-bearded men, whose
+student days had long since passed away, came to sit at the feet of
+this remarkable young man and hear the so recently despised subject
+dealt with in his own masterly, scientific manner. Conciseness,
+clearness, and directness characterised his delivery; while with
+illustration and anecdote he made his dull subject fascinatingly
+interesting. It was his custom to write out on a black-board notes of
+the subject on which he was about to speak--concise, pithy headings,
+which were hung up in the theatre and which he proceeded methodically
+to explain and enlarge upon. So successful were his efforts that even
+in the first session he was able to make the proud boast that his
+class was for the first time in its history the largest in the
+University, and this in spite of the fact that one of the leading
+professors altered his lecture hour to the same hour as Simpson's,
+with the purpose of injuring the attendance at Simpson's class.
+
+A direct result of the reputation obtained through his course of
+lectures and improved professional position was the rapid increase of
+his practice and the improvement of the class of his patients, so that
+pecuniary profit came within his reach. He continued to be a general
+practitioner, however, attending to all classes of cases that came to
+him; but his zeal for midwifery and the diseases of women, together
+with his renown in those subjects, brought mostly patients of the
+female sex to his consulting-room. With the improved position there
+came necessarily increased expenditure, which at first exceeded the
+income; he never stopped to consider the patients' circumstances or
+whether he was likely to be paid for his services. "I prefer to have
+my reward in the gratitude of my patients," he said. He treated all
+that came to him, and his generous nature was oftentimes taken
+advantage of by persons very well able to remunerate him; moreover, at
+this time, when his pecuniary profit did not equal his professional
+reputation, he cheerfully helped many who appealed to him with amounts
+he could ill spare.
+
+His father-in-law generously and willingly stood by him until the fees
+began to come in more freely--his brother Sandy, who had supported him
+hitherto, having now other claims upon his purse. He found two
+ordinary but costly steps advisable--first, to move into a better and
+more centrally situated house; and, secondly, to obtain a carriage,
+"both to support my rank among my wealthier compeers and to save my
+body from excess of work." The outlay was justified in the result; the
+fees from students and from his private practice very soon enabled him
+to repay the debts to his brothers and his father-in-law without
+inconvenience and with grateful pleasure. Once and for ever within
+the first few years of his professorship he placed himself in a safe
+position, free from all pecuniary anxiety.
+
+If he had laboured hard to fit himself for the front rank of his
+profession, his work on attaining that position showed increase rather
+than abatement. His private practice alone was the work of more than
+one ordinary individual, and his professorial duties took up some of
+the best hours of his day. In the evenings and at all odd times he
+busied himself with absorbing current or ancient literature, or in
+preparing his own contributions to both professional and general
+knowledge either with the pen or by experiment. "Oh that there were
+double twenty-four hours in the day," he sighed at a time when he was
+working at highest pressure, practising amongst peers, commoners, and
+cottagers alike, who all flocked to his residence or sent long
+distances for him. When Princess Marie of Baden, wife of the Duke of
+Hamilton, came under his special care in 1843 he felt that he was
+placed at the top of his profession in Scotland, and must have
+smilingly recalled the words of old Dr. Dawson, of Bathgate, when he
+heard of the successful contest for the Chair. "It's all very well,"
+he had said, "to have got the Chair! But he can never have such a
+practice as Professor Hamilton. Why, ladies have been known to come
+from England to consult him!"
+
+They came from the furthest parts of Greater Britain to consult
+Hamilton's successor, in spite of the old doctor's prognostication!
+
+The energy as well as the versatility of the man is well shown in the
+works which he found time to carry on while he was thus establishing
+himself as a teacher and as a practitioner, during the years from 1840
+to 1845. One of his first literary efforts, not wholly professional,
+the Memoir on "Leprosy and Leper-Houses," was produced at that time.
+It was a work of relaxation and pleasure, for it carried him deeply
+into his favourite archæology. The fascination which this subject
+always had for him sprang from his love of nature, and of the greatest
+work of nature--man. "The leading object and intent of all the
+antiquarian's pursuit is MAN," he said, "and man's ways and works, his
+habits and thoughts, from the earliest dates at which we can find his
+traces and tracks upon the earth, onwards and forwards along the
+journey of past time. During this long journey he has everywhere left
+scattered behind him and around him innumerable relics forming so many
+permanent impressions and evidences of his march and progress."
+
+The quantity and quality of the information concerning leper hospitals
+which he collected and embodied in his memoir, contributed to the
+Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society in March, 1841, was phenomenal.
+He had consulted old manuscripts and registers, monastic chronicles,
+burgh records, and Acts of Parliament, as well as works of antiquity,
+travel, and history. He gave close upon five hundred references, as
+well as a list of one hundred and nineteen leper-houses, whose
+existence in Britain and whose history he had traced. The work
+illustrates the objects and proper methods of antiquarian research,
+which twenty years afterwards he dilated upon in his address from the
+Chair of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. In the course of it he
+pointed out how vigorously our ancestors had set to work to stamp out
+the disease when it spread through Europe during the period from the
+tenth to the sixteenth century. The method adopted was that still
+employed--segregation; about the twelfth century scarcely a town or
+burgh in France and Britain was without its leper-hospital. Although
+we in Britain are happily now freed from its ravages, other parts of
+the world are not so fortunate. It is still regarded popularly as an
+incurable disease, as it was in 1597, when one Catherine Livingstone
+was gravely brought to trial for witchcraft, one instance of which had
+been that she dared to state her ability to cure "leprosie, which the
+maist expert men in medicine are not abil to do." The indictment set
+forth that she "took a reid cock, slew it, baked a bannock with the
+blude of it, and gaf the samyn to the leper to eat." The witch's
+remedy is scarcely more curious and certainly no less useful than
+those recommended two centuries later by John Wesley in his "Primitive
+Physic," where, moreover, he cheerfully, if somewhat too briefly to
+satisfy the modern inquirer, reports the cure "of a most desperate
+case" by the drinking of a half-pint of celery-whey morning and
+evening.
+
+Scotland was severely smitten by leprosy in the centuries when it
+overspread Europe; Robert Bruce fell a victim to it in 1339, and the
+disease seems to have lingered in the North after it had almost
+vanished from England.
+
+Simpson's paper was published in the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
+Journal_ in three parts in 1841 and 1842, and to this day is the most
+valuable contribution to the interesting and important history of the
+disease. Some of the information had been collected in his student
+days. In his antiquarian researches he had frequently met with
+references to the dirty and unwholesome habits and surroundings of
+Scots towns in early days. The thought that dirt and disease were
+directly connected--a new thought even so recently as fifty years
+ago--led to his investigations. He found that leprosy was most
+prevalent at the time when his country was most dirty; but he was not
+able to establish his supposition that the cause of the disease lay in
+the insanitary surroundings of the people; indeed his researches
+proved that, on the contrary, leprosy had declined and practically
+disappeared from the country long before any material improvement in
+sanitary conditions took place.
+
+Simpson's conduct when Professor Thomson resigned the Chair of
+Pathology illustrates the vigour with which he entered into quite
+casually arising incidents where he saw that strength and a fight were
+necessary to conquer an evil or prevent an abuse. Thomson resigned in
+1841 owing to ill-health. The Chair had been established by William
+IV. in 1831 on the representations of Thomson himself, who succeeded
+in satisfying Lord Melbourne that the subject was worthy of the
+dignity of a separate Chair, in spite of the protests of the Senatus
+Academicus, who throughout the history of the medical faculty
+generally appear to have been actuated more by personal considerations
+and professional jealousies, where new developments were in process,
+than by zeal for their _Alma Mater_. Professors Syme and Alison
+actively led an agitation that with Thomson's resignation the separate
+teaching of pathology should be brought to an end. Without a moment's
+hesitation, in the midst of his hard work, and suffering from
+indifferent health, Simpson plunged into a controversy with these
+colleagues, in which he silenced at once and for ever the detractors
+who had sneered at him as an ignorant, uncultured man-midwife. The
+controversy as usual was followed with intense interest by Edinburgh
+folks, and Simpson received a first taste of that popular approval
+which undoubtedly was one of the enjoyments of his life. The Crown
+avoided the difficulty of deciding between the rival petitioners for
+and against the Chair by transferring its patronage to the Town
+Council, who showed the same foresight which had led them to appoint
+Simpson, in deciding to maintain its existence. Unfortunately their
+wisdom failed when they elected as Thomson's successor a man who,
+although of brilliant attainments, subsequently brought discredit upon
+his University and himself by becoming a convert to homoeopathy.
+Simpson, who was indirectly instrumental in securing the Chair of
+Pathology for this man became his bitterest opponent when he declared
+himself a follower of Hahnemann's unorthodox and mistaken doctrines.
+
+In 1842 it fell to Simpson's lot to deliver the customary address to
+the medical graduates after they had received their degrees at the
+annual ceremonial on the 1st of August. He treated his listeners to a
+discourse on the duties of young physicians. When we remember that he
+had attained to his then high professional position while he was no
+more than a young physician himself, we recognise that he was but
+setting forth the ideals and principles which had been and still were
+his guides in life and conduct.
+
+After warning his audience against regarding the gaining of the
+coveted degree as the end of their student career, instead of as in
+reality the opening up of a lifetime of observation and study, he
+pointed out that self-patronage was the best of all patronage. "Place
+from the first," he said, "all your hopes of advancement upon the
+breadth and extent of your medical abilities alone.... Rather walk by
+the steady light of your own lamp than by the more dazzling, but to
+you more uncertain, lustre borrowed from that of others ... Young
+physicians often dream that by extending the circle of their private
+acquaintances they thus afford themselves the best chance of extending
+the circle of their private patients.... No man will in any case of
+doubt and danger entrust to your professional care the guardianship of
+his own life or of the life of those who are near and dear to his
+heart, merely because you happen to be on terms of intimacy with him.
+The self-interest of human nature forbids it.... The accomplishments
+which render you acceptable in the drawing-room are not always those
+that would make your visits longed for or valued in the chamber of
+sickness and sorrow.... Give therefore your whole energies to
+medicine; and in its multiplied departments you will find 'ample room
+and verge enough' for the most energetic as well as the most
+comprehensive mind. Place your faith in no extrinsic influences. Let
+your own professional character be the one great patron to whom you
+ever look for your professional advancement." He exhorted the young
+practitioners above all to save and economise their time, and to
+regard it as a property to be avaricious of and of every item of which
+they were to render a proper account to themselves. "It is by
+carefully preserving, confirming, and making diligent use of these
+broken and disjointed portions of it, which others thoughtlessly waste
+and destroy, that almost all the highest reputations in the medical
+profession have been formed." He strongly urged the value of a "proper
+covetousness of time." "Look around, and you will find that those who
+have the most to do in the way of business as practitioners have also
+apparently the most time to spare as observers and writers.... And
+why? Because they have all their daily duties perfectly assorted and
+arrayed; they save from loss and destruction every possible fragment
+of time and this very industry and precision procures them more true
+leisure than indolence can boast of."
+
+In referring to the relation of practitioner to patient, he
+spoke on a subject which has been much discussed in recent years
+without altering the principle originally laid down in the oath of
+Hippocrates:--"Whatever," said Simpson, "is communicated to you
+as a matter of professional confidence, must ever remain buried
+within your own breasts in all the silence and secrecy of the
+grave." He concluded his address with well-judged remarks on the
+relation of the physician to his professional brethren, counselling
+his hearers to observe the Golden Rule, and, moreover, "if it be
+possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men;
+never allow the darker part of your nature to persuade you to
+the attempt of over-taking him who has distanced you in the race
+of life by any unjust efforts to lame the character, and thus
+diminish the speed, of your adversary. And if such attempts are
+made upon you by others, have no dread of them--if you are armed
+strong in honesty, if you have pursued a line of irreproachable
+truth and unbending rectitude of conduct. 'Be thou as pure as
+snow thou shalt not escape calumny.'... Your future career is a
+matter of your own selection, and will be regulated by the conduct
+which you choose to follow. That career may be one of happiness or
+self-regret, one of honour or of obscurity, one of wealth or of
+poverty. The one or other result is not a matter of _chance_, but
+a matter of choice on your part. Your diligence and industry for
+the next few years will almost inevitably secure for you the one;
+your apathy and indolence will almost inevitably entail upon you
+the other. May God, in His infinite goodness, enable you to
+select the wiser and the better path."
+
+In this address, as in that previously quoted, we hear him exhorting
+his young listeners to a line of conduct which we know to have been
+broadly his own in practice as well as in ideal. During these early
+years as professor, Simpson had to ward off many ill-disposed
+adversaries, and he met their attack with the determination and
+powerful preparedness that characterised his attitude in later years,
+when he experienced the hostility so constantly opposed to genuine
+reformers, and men who have lived ahead of their times. He sometimes
+regarded these encounters regretfully himself; but none the less
+remembered to
+
+  "Bear't that the opposed may beware."
+
+The correspondence pertaining to some of these disputes was filed and
+ticketed, with brief contempt, "Squabbles." His controversy with
+Professor Syme over a personal matter in 1845 was not to the credit of
+either of these great men, and, as Simpson himself confessed, was
+equally discreditable to their profession. Simpson had seen, as has
+been pointed out, several of his teachers fighting long and strongly
+for their own cherished objects; and he doubtless then, in his student
+days, learnt the lesson that vigorous persistence had the power to
+gain much that at first seemed hopeless; he fought with such energy,
+that he accomplished in his own lifetime what the example of others
+might have led him to think would have been accomplished only by his
+successors.
+
+The growth of his practice up to 1847 was little short of phenomenal.
+In 1845 he purchased No. 52, Queen-street, the house which he
+inhabited up to his death, and which became the Mecca of hundreds upon
+hundreds of pilgrims from all quarters of the globe. Here, in those
+years, he was sought and consulted by unceasing crowds; in the public
+mind he was undoubtedly endowed with more than human powers, and
+regarded as a magician, at the wave of whose wand pain and disease
+would vanish. This caused him much embarrassment, and brought upon him
+the abuse of ignorant persons, irritated to find that, after all, even
+in Simpson's person, there was a limit to human powers; or of others
+with unimportant ailments who were disappointed to find that, once
+having made his diagnosis of their condition, he would have no more of
+them, preferring to place his time at the disposal of those whose
+sufferings were real and capable of relief, or whose cases were
+complicated and interesting. The question of remuneration was always
+secondary, and so careless was he in pecuniary matters that it is
+related that he would wrap up interesting specimens, professional or
+antiquarian, in bank notes; and his trusted valet was in the habit of
+emptying his pockets at night of the money earned in the day, to
+prevent its being lost, mislaid, or given away to undeserving persons.
+With him work was first and fee second. Like a great modern teacher he
+was able to say, "Work first--you are God's servant; fee first--you
+are the fiend's." To Simpson "work was master and the Lord of Work,
+who is God."
+
+The personal power and attractiveness of the man were large factors in
+gaining the practice which he now enjoyed. But he did not depend for
+success on these alone, by any means. His professional reputation was
+fully won by great work in obstetrics and gynæcology, and by the
+introduction of methods and instruments which contributed to the
+saving of countless lives. It has been said that he gave a new life to
+the obstetric art, and presided at the birth of gynæcology. He had
+done this before the great deed was dreamt of which hands his name
+down to posterity, before his discovery of the anæsthetic power of
+chloroform. Simpson was a great physician, the leading practitioner
+of the art and exponent of the science with which his name will always
+be connected. But many great physicians have failed to fulfil as
+Simpson did, Robert Louis Stevenson's description of the physician:--
+
+"Generosity he has such as is possible to those who practise an art,
+never to those who drive a trade; discretion tested by a hundred
+secrets; tact tried in a thousand embarrassments; and what are more
+Heraclean cheerfulness and courage. So it is that he brings air and
+cheer into the sick room, and often enough, though not so often as he
+wishes, brings healing."
+
+Great as a man and great as a physician, Simpson was actually run after
+by the greatest in the land. In 1845 he was summoned professionally
+to London, and gave an interesting description of his kindly reception
+by the Duchess of Sutherland and her family in a letter written from
+Stafford House. His advent to London was a matter of notoriety, and
+he noted that he bought in the street a life of himself which
+mightily diverted him and made him laugh until he was sore. A year or
+more later he was invited for rest and change to Erskine House by
+Lord Blantyre, where he says, "the Duchess of Sutherland, the Marquis
+and Marchioness of Lorne, and two Ladies Gower have made up with myself
+all the strangers." "Tell Janet," he wrote to his brother, "I think now
+artificial flowers very ungenteel. The ladies here wear nothing but
+real flowers in their hair, and every day they come down with
+something new and for us males to guess at. Often the Duchess wears a
+simple chaplet of ivy leaves, sometimes a bracken leaf is all she sports
+in her head ornaments, and beautiful it looks. Rowans and 'haws' are
+often worn beaded into crowns or flowers or chaplets. Heather is also
+a favourite. On Thursday Lady Lorne came down with a most beautiful
+chaplet tying round and keeping down her braided hair. It was a long
+bunch of bramble leaves and half-ripe bramble berries--actual true
+brambles. They have been all exceedingly kind to me, and I really
+feel quite at home among them though the only untitled personage at
+table."
+
+The daily scene at 52, Queen Street was now unique. Those who had the
+fortune to lunch or breakfast in that hospitable house never forgot
+it. Statesmen, noblemen, artists, scientists, clergymen, and
+politicians from various countries sat down together and entertained
+each other or attempted to do so in their different languages. The
+host guided the conversation while he still glanced over the newspaper
+or some newly published book, and never failed by skilful leading to
+entice out of every one the best knowledge that they possessed. With
+his quick insight he rarely failed in his estimate of character, but
+rapidly perceived even in a stranger where the conventional ceased and
+the real man began.
+
+No stranger to Edinburgh omitted to bring or obtain an introduction
+to the genial professor; all were welcome, and an open table was kept.
+The scene has been described from intimate knowledge in the columns of
+the _Scots Observer_ as follows:--"Luncheon is set on the table, and
+some ten, twenty, or even fifty people wait the appearance of their
+host, who is on his rounds maybe, or in another room ministers to an
+urgent case. A stranger who has not learnt that the great Simpson was
+only in the broadest sense a punctual man--of minutes, hours, he knew
+nothing, but none more reliably punctual, few so unsparingly regular
+in working while 'tis called to-day--might be prompted by hungry
+discontent to suggest that none but the wealthiest can keep the doctor
+from his guests. The mere suggestion would be infamous, for rich and
+ragged alike pay fees or not exactly as it pleases them. Whatever the
+cause, the host still lingers, and the impatient stranger has time to
+wonder how it is that so odd an assortment of human beings should be
+met together in one room. Lords and Commons rub shoulders at his
+table; the salt of the earth sit down side by side with the
+savourless; tweed jostles broadcloth; the town-bred Briton looks
+askance at his country-bred compatriot, and both unconsciously shudder
+at the Briton with no breeding at all. In one room are assembled
+together the American of bluest blood; the Yankee bagman; the
+slave-owning Southerner, and even the man of colour hateful to both
+alike. The atmosphere is chill like the grave, each guest, eyeing his
+neighbour suspiciously, shrinks into his own social shell; on each
+face the meanness and snobbery of humankind is, if not aggressively
+expressed, at least clearly legible; when all at once Simpson bustles
+in. In a few minutes, under the genial influence of his presence, all
+tongues are set a-wagging, and well may you ask whether the men who
+leave his house after luncheon are those who half-an-hour ago regarded
+each other with cold disdain. For now they are cordial, kindly,
+sympathetic; each has been induced to show whatever was attractive in
+his nature, or to give the fruits of his experience. If in one short
+hour Simpson could thus transform a crowd of frigid, haughty strangers
+into an assemblage of decent, amiable human beings, what could he not
+achieve in a day, a year, or a life?"
+
+His reception of members of his own profession was specially cordial,
+and if those from any one country were more welcome than others, it
+was the many who crossed the Atlantic to see and hear him. America had
+the greatest share in the birth of anæsthetics, and Simpson's intimacy
+with so many of the profession in the United States made it easy for
+them to welcome his assistance in that great event. Gynæcology, too,
+was eagerly taken up in America, and many were Simpson's admirers from
+that country who returned home fired by his influence to work out for
+themselves valuable additions to that science.
+
+Simpson paid close attention to current events in other branches of
+science, in politics, and in religion. Sir Robert Christison and he
+were at one time associated in an enterprise which narrowly escaped
+being the source of a fortune to him. Rangoon petroleum which was
+obtained from pits dug on the banks of the Irawaddy had been
+chemically investigated by Christison, and he had isolated from it a
+substance which he named petroline; unfortunately, unknown to him, a
+German chemist had independently made the same discovery a few months
+earlier, and christened the substance paraffin. When, a few years
+later, it occurred to Simpson that the crude Rangoon petroleum might
+serve as a lubricant for machinery and prove cheaper than those in
+general use, he applied to Christison. He met with willing assistance,
+but a refusal on principle to have anything to do with a patent, which
+Christison laughingly suggested, might be called "Simpson's
+incomparable antifriction lubricant!"
+
+"When I called for Simpson," says Christison, in his Recollections,
+"his two reception rooms were as usual full of patients, more were
+seated in the lobby, female faces stared from all the windows in
+vacant expectancy, and a lady was ringing the door bell. But the
+doctor brushed through the crowd to join me, and left them all kicking
+their heels for the next two hours."
+
+Their experiments proved that petroleum was vastly superior to sperm
+oil, the best known and most commonly used lubricant. Simpson
+proceeded to take out a patent, having no such scruples as Christison;
+but to his chagrin found that he had been forestalled by others, and
+had to abandon the subject.
+
+About the period now referred to Scotland was stirred from end to end
+by the ecclesiastical movement which culminated in the crisis known as
+the Disruption, when, for reasons connected with the jurisdiction of
+the National Church, a majority of its members severed their
+connection therewith in a public and dramatic fashion, and "came out"
+to found the now strong and vigorous Free Kirk. Simpson at first
+steered clear of all the squabbles and discussions which the movement
+gave rise to, but when affairs approached a crisis he threw his lot in
+with the leaders of the new movement, and became a staunch Free
+Churchman.
+
+Busy as he was, Simpson fully enjoyed his home and all the inner
+domestic life. He was a cheery and hearty host to his intimate
+friends, and took a pleasure in impromptu entertainments got up by
+himself in his own house, when he found time at his disposal for such
+amusement. His first child--a daughter--of whom he was mightily proud,
+was born in 1840; his first son, David, in 1842; and the second,
+Walter, in 1843. In 1844 the young couple, in the midst of their
+rising prosperity, suffered the loss of their daughter, who died after
+a brief illness. Simpson felt the loss keenly, and wrote pathetically
+on the subject to his relations; long afterwards he loved to talk of
+her and her winning ways.
+
+By 1846 the vast majority of his work lay in obstetrics and
+gynæcology, although he himself would no doubt have indignantly
+repelled the suggestion that he was a specialist; his mind recognised
+the interdependence of all the great branches of the healing art, and
+the necessity for any who wished to excel or be useful practitioners
+to be _au courant_ with each and every branch. He had early shown that
+as a pathologist alone he was worthy of a niche in the temple of fame;
+and in later days he was urged to apply for the vacant chair of Physic
+in his own University; while Professor A. R. Simpson tells us that
+foreigners working in the sphere of surgery sometimes spoke of him as
+a surgeon.
+
+Early in 1847 his good friend, the Duchess of Sutherland, wrote to
+inform him that the Queen had much pleasure in conferring upon him the
+vacant post of Physician to Her Majesty. In the Queen's own words,
+"His high character and abilities made him very fit for the post." He
+held this post until his death, under the title of Physician
+Accoucheur to the Queen for Scotland.
+
+Thus in his thirty-sixth year, to the pride of his family and of the
+whole village community in which he had been born and received his
+early training, to the admiration of patients and friends, as well as
+to his own conscious satisfaction, the Bathgate baker's son had risen
+by his own efforts to the highest attainable position in his native
+land. But the work which was to make him one of the most conspicuous
+figures in the history of medicine, and raise him to a place of honour
+in the grateful estimation of humanity, was scarcely begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF ANÆSTHETICS. 1844-1847
+
+  His early sympathy for suffering--Surgical methods before the
+  discovery of anæsthetics--His mental struggle caused by the
+  sickening sights of the operating theatre--His researches into the
+  history of anæsthesia--Indian hemp--Mandrake--Alcohol--Hypnotism and
+  other methods--Inhalation of drugs--Sir Humphry Davy--Anæsthetics
+  discovered in America--Horace Wells and laughing-gas--Morton and
+  ether--Ether in Great Britain--He uses it in midwifery
+  practice--Search for a better-anæsthetic--Discovery of anæsthetic
+  power of chloroform.
+
+
+From his earliest student days the desire had ever been present in
+Simpson's mind to see some means devised for preventing the sufferings
+endured by patients on the operating table, without, as he put it,
+"interfering with the free and healthy play of the natural functions."
+It is difficult for us at the close of the nineteenth century to
+understand, without an effort of the imagination, the strong
+incentives which he had for such a wish. Even to-day, when operations
+are conducted without the infliction of pain, young students are not
+unfrequently overcome by the sight and the thought of what is in front
+of them. At the commencement of a winter session the theatre is
+crowded with those students who are entering upon surgical study, and
+with others, not so far advanced, who have come to get a preliminary
+peep at the practice of this fascinatingly interesting art. Many of
+these at first succumb and faint even before the surgeon has begun his
+work, and sometimes are only persuaded to pursue their studies by the
+encouragement of kindly teachers.
+
+Simpson also went through this trying experience, but it must have
+been a greater struggle to him to persist. The surroundings of the
+surgeon at the commencement of the century were vastly more repugnant
+to a youth of sensitive nature than to-day. The operating theatre then
+has been compared to a butcher's shambles; cleanliness was not
+considered necessary, and little attention was paid to the feelings of
+the patient. He was held down by three or four pairs of powerful arms
+as the surgeon boldly and rapidly did his work, despite the screams,
+stopping, perhaps, only to roughly abuse the patient for some agonised
+movement which had interfered with the course of action. The poor
+wretch saw the instruments handed one by one by the assistant, and
+heard the surgeon's calm directions and his remarks on the case. The
+barbarous practice of arresting bleeding by the application of red-hot
+irons to the surface of the wound had indeed ceased three centuries
+before, when that humane reformer, Paré, displaced it with the method
+of tying the open blood-vessel, but the patient's blood gushed forth
+before him until arrested, into the sawdust spread to receive it, and
+the sight and the hot odour of it oftentimes mercifully caused him to
+faint. The spirit of Paré who, when relating a successful operation,
+would humbly add at the end, "I dressed him; God healed him," had not
+descended to those who practised in Simpson's day the art for which
+Paré did so much. It had grown to be necessary for a surgeon to be
+rough and callous; it was expected of him by the public; he was a man
+to be pointed at in the street, and shuddered at when he passed, by
+all who devoutly prayed they might escape his clutches. Much of this
+conduct was mere mannerism; it had become the custom, and had to be
+maintained in order to preserve the dignity and stamp the identity of
+the surgeon. Much of it arose from the haste with which the surgeon
+had to work; the quicker the operation the better chance had the
+patient; it was no uncommon thing to see a bystander timing the
+surgeon's work, as the professional time-keeper carefully times a
+race; and the rapidity of each surgeon's performances was a subject of
+comparison and admiration amongst the students of his day. Much of it
+also arose from the effect of the hideous scenes in the operating room
+upon the surgeon himself; his nerve had to become of iron if he
+desired to succeed, and with the nerve the face and the manner, but
+not necessarily always the heart hardened also. Tennyson possibly
+recollected these days, when he wrote of the surgeon who
+
+  "Sent a chill to my heart when I saw him come in at the door,
+  Fresh from the surgery schools of France, and of other lands;
+  Harsh red hair, big voice, big chest, big merciless hands."
+
+When Simpson first saw Liston raise his knife to operate on a poor
+Highland woman, he actually felt so repelled that he contemplated
+abandoning his studies, and made a serious attempt to enter upon legal
+work instead. But the mental struggle with which medical men of all
+countries, and in all times, can sympathise out of their own
+knowledge, ended in a victory for medicine, and a triumphant return to
+his studies with the question permanently engraved on the tablets of
+his mind, "Can nothing be done to prevent this suffering?"
+
+It is necessary and it is certainly beneficial that we should thus
+remind ourselves of the horrors which surrounded the surgeon so
+recently as sixty years ago. "Before the days of anæsthetics," wrote
+an old patient to Simpson, in a letter which he treasured with
+pride--the writer was himself a medical man--"a patient preparing for
+an operation was like a condemned criminal preparing for execution. He
+counted the days till the appointed day came. He counted the hours of
+that day till the appointed hour came. He listened for the echo in the
+street of the surgeon's carriage. He watched for his pull at the door
+bell; for his foot on the stair; for his step in the room; for the
+production of his dreaded instruments; for his few grave words, and
+his last preparations before beginning. And then he surrendered his
+liberty and, revolting at the necessity, submitted to be held or
+bound, and helplessly gave himself up to the cruel knife.".
+
+It was, indeed, a monstrous ogre this giant Pain, holding the poor
+weak human creature in its merciless clutches, which Simpson even in
+his youthful days bethought himself to attack. It is well that we who
+are the heirs, should know how Simpson and those others whose names
+are ever associated with his, slew the monster, won the victory, and
+championed the human race forward into a land where further victories
+undreamt of by themselves are now being daily won.
+
+Simpson searched into ancient history in order to ascertain the
+methods, if any, by which in remote and mediæval times surgeons sought
+to prevent the pain of operations. The most time-honoured method seems
+to have been by the internal administration of drugs, the chief one
+used being Indian hemp, which was well known in the East, and under
+one of its names _haschish_ gave origin to the term assassin (strictly
+eater of haschish). A certain Arab Sheikh got together a band of
+followers to whom he administered haschish, which produced in them its
+usual effect--beautiful dreams of a delightful paradise. He induced
+them to believe so thoroughly in his power to gain for them at death
+permanent entrance to this paradise that they obeyed all his ferocious
+and bloodthirsty behests. Thus these assassins became known as men
+obedient to their leader in any murderous enterprise. Indian hemp was,
+and still is, used as a luxury all over the East, as well as to annul
+pain, and was used by criminals doomed to torture or execution.
+Simpson thought the _nepenthe_ of Homer was a preparation of this
+drug; he also refers to the fact that Herodotus relates that the
+Massagetæ inhaled the vapour of burning hemp to produce intoxication
+and pleasurable excitement.
+
+Mandrake was used in a similar manner and for similar purposes as
+Indian hemp in the Middle Ages, but it fell into disuse on account of
+the fatal results that often followed. It is frequently referred to by
+Shakspeare both for its narcotic properties and for its fabulous power
+of uttering a scream when torn up by the roots, to hear which meant
+death or madness. Simpson cited also well-known passages from
+Shakspeare to prove that the practice of "locking up the spirits a
+time" was known to that poet.
+
+In later days the intoxication produced by alcohol was taken advantage
+of, and instances of its use have been known in quite recent years in
+the Colonies, where both a surgeon and chloroform were out of reach.
+
+No drug, however, was known to be of such value in producing
+anæsthesia as to be constantly used, and many trials were made of
+other means, notably that of compressing the nerves supplying the part
+to be operated upon, but this was found to be too painful in itself.
+The stupor produced by compressing the carotid arteries--a method
+taken advantage of by the ruffians known as garotters--was also put in
+practice for a time during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
+but it was found too barbarous a method even for those days.
+
+Hypnotism was known to the Indians, Egyptians, and Persians at a very
+remote period, and may possibly have been used by them sometimes to
+produce anæsthesia for surgical purposes. Simpson was attracted by the
+words of the poet Middleton in his tragedy "Women, beware Women"
+(1617) where he says--
+
+  "I'll imitate the pities of old surgeons
+  To this lost limb--who ere they show their art
+  Cast me asleep, then cut the diseased part."
+
+When hypnotism made one of its periodic re-appearances in 1837, this
+time under the name of mesmerism, after that extraordinary exponent of
+its powers Mesmer, Simpson recognised in it a possible method for
+"casting the patient asleep" before operation and set to work to
+investigate its phenomena. A Frenchman named Du Potet, disheartened by
+the prejudice against mesmerism in his own country, came to London in
+1837, and was fortunate enough to receive the support of Dr. John
+Elliotson, physician to University College Hospital. Elliotson's
+advocacy of the new practice was received with ridicule by the
+profession, and was treated with such scathing contempt by the
+_Lancet_ and other journals, that he was completely ruined.
+
+Simpson was very successful in his experiments with mesmerism,
+conducted on the lines suggested by Elliotson, but he recognised that,
+after all, it was not the agent for which he was seeking, and dropped
+his researches.
+
+He did not resume them even when Liston, a few years later, stimulated
+by the advocacy of the Manchester surgeon Braid, who met with a better
+reception than Elliotson, and by the relation of a long series of
+successful cases by a surgeon named Esdaile, in Calcutta, actually
+performed operations with success on patients brought under its
+influence.
+
+The first suggestion to produce anæsthesia by the _inhalation_ of
+drugs was made by Sir Humphry Davy in 1800. He discovered by
+experiment upon himself that the inhalation of _nitrous oxide_
+gas--commonly known as a _laughing gas_--had the power of relieving
+toothache and other pains; he described the effect as that of
+"uneasiness being swallowed up for a few minutes by pleasures."
+Although he stopped short at this stage, and does not seem to have
+used the inhalation to produce actual loss of consciousness, he,
+nevertheless, forecast the future by suggesting that nitrous oxide
+might be used as an inhalation in the performance of surgical
+operations, in which "no great effusion of blood" took place.
+
+Some thirty years later Faraday pointed out that _ether_ had
+effects upon the nervous system when inhaled, similar to those of
+laughing-gas. These two drugs came to be inhaled more in jest than
+in earnest; more as an amusing scientific experiment for the sake of
+the pleasure-giving excitement they set up, than for the purpose
+Davy had suggested. Ether, it is true, was recommended even before
+Davy's day for the relief of the suffering in asthma, but until the
+fifth decade of the century no one had attempted to prevent
+suffering as inflicted by the surgeon or the dentist, by producing
+the state of unconsciousness brought about by the inhalation of such
+drugs as ether--a process now known to the world as anæsthesia.
+
+The persons who first made the bold experiments which resulted in the
+discovery of how to produce anæsthesia were Americans; and two men
+were prominently concerned in the discovery. Several others made
+isolated and successful efforts with both ether and nitrous oxide, but
+they lacked the confidence and the courage to make their success
+public and to persist in their experiments. Of these, Dr. Long, of
+Athens, Georgia, was one of the earliest; he is said to have
+successfully removed a tumour from a patient under the influence of
+ether in 1842, and in the Southern States he is regarded as the
+discoverer of anæsthesia. Dr. Jackson, of Boston--a scientific
+chemist--laid claim to the honour of the discovery after others had
+fought the fight and established the practice of anæsthesia. Neither
+of these men, for the reason already given, deserves the honour which
+is now universally attributed to their fellow-countrymen, Wells and
+Morton.
+
+Horace Wells was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1815, and was
+educated to the profession of dental surgeon. He gave much attention
+to the desire present in the minds of many men at that time to render
+dental operations painless. On December 10, 1844, he witnessed at a
+popular lecture the experiment of administering laughing-gas, and
+noticed that a Mr. Cooley, while still under the influence of the gas,
+struck and injured his limb against a bench without suffering pain.
+The idea at once occurred to Wells that here was the agent he was in
+search of, and the very next day he experimented upon himself. If it
+has ever been fortunate to have toothache it was so for Wells that
+day; he was troubled by an aching molar which was removed by a
+colleague named Rigg, whilst he was fully under the influence of
+nitrous oxide; and thus he began what he himself at once called on
+recovering consciousness, "a new era in tooth-pulling." He proceeded
+promptly to test the experiment upon others and with complete success;
+and then making his success known, he proceeded with his former pupil
+Morton to Boston, and gave a public demonstration of his method which
+unfortunately was so imperfectly carried out that he was laughed at
+for his pains and stigmatised an impostor. Wells himself stated that
+the failure was due to the premature withdrawal of the bag containing
+the gas, so that the patient was but partially under its influence
+when the tooth was extracted. Wells and Morton were ignominiously
+hissed by the crowd of practitioners and students gathered to see the
+operation. Wells never recovered from the disappointment and the
+illness which resulted, and although he was able to explain his
+discovery to the French Academy of Science in 1846, he unfortunately
+died insane in New York two years later. Undoubtedly he was the first
+to discover the practicability of nitrous oxide anæsthesia, and to
+proclaim the discovery with a discoverer's zeal. Although his career
+ended so sadly, his efforts had, nevertheless, inspired to greater
+endeavour his colleague Morton, who had not only been associated in
+his experiments, but had been deeply interested in the subject for
+many years.
+
+William Thomas Green Morton was born in 1819; his father was a farmer
+at Charlton, Massachusetts. He qualified as a dentist at Baltimore,
+and entered into successful practice at Boston. Fired with the same
+ambition as Wells, he made attempts to extract teeth painlessly with
+the assistance of drugs administered, or sometimes of hypnotism. In
+December, 1844, after Wells's failure with nitrous oxide gas, he
+wisely abandoned that agent and investigated another which promised
+better results. He experimented first with a drug known as _chloric
+ether_, but failing to get the desired effect, and at the suggestion
+of the aforementioned Dr. Jackson, he proceeded to investigate the
+effect of ordinary ether. The first experiments were made on animals,
+and were so encouraging that he believed he had at last found the
+desired agent, provided the effect on human beings corresponded with
+that upon dumb creatures. Boldly and heroically he made the necessary
+experiment upon himself, and on September 30, 1846, inhaled ether from
+a handkerchief while shut up in his room and seated in his own
+operating-chair. He speedily lost consciousness, and in seven or eight
+minutes awoke in possession of the greatest discovery that had ever
+been revealed to suffering humanity. We can picture the man gradually
+awakening in his chair first, to the consciousness of his surroundings
+and then to the consciousness of his great achievement; sitting with
+his physical frame excited by the influence of the drug which he had
+inhaled, and his soul stirred to its deepest depth by the expanding
+thought of the far-reaching effects of what he had done.
+
+"Twilight came on," he said, in subsequently relating the event. "The
+hour had long passed when it was usual for patients to call. I had
+just resolved to inhale the ether again and have a tooth extracted
+under its influence, when a feeble ring was heard at the door. Making
+a motion to one of my assistants who started to answer the bell, I
+hastened myself to the door, where I found a man with his face bound
+up, who seemed to be suffering extremely. 'Doctor,' said he, 'I have a
+dreadful tooth, but it is so sore I cannot summon courage to have it
+pulled; can't you mesmerise me?' I need not say that my heart bounded
+at this question, and that I found it difficult to control my
+feelings, but putting a great constraint upon myself I expressed my
+sympathy, and invited him to walk into the office. I examined the
+tooth, and in the most encouraging manner told the poor sufferer that
+I had something better than mesmerism, by means of which I could take
+out his tooth, without giving him pain. He gladly consented, and
+saturating my handkerchief with ether I gave it to him to inhale. He
+became unconscious almost immediately. It was dark. Dr. Haydon held
+the lamp. My assistants were trembling with excitement, apprehending
+the usual prolonged scream from the patient, while I extracted the
+firmly-rooted bicuspid tooth. I was so much agitated that I came near
+throwing the instrument out of the window. But now came a terrible
+reaction. The wrenching of the tooth had failed to rouse him in the
+slightest degree; he remained still and motionless as if already in
+the embrace of death. The terrible thought flashed through my mind
+that he might be dead--that in my zeal to test my new theory, I might
+have gone too far, and sacrificed a human life. I trembled under the
+sense of my responsibility to my Maker, and to my fellowmen. I seized
+a glass of water and dashed it in the man's face. The result proved
+most happy. He recovered in a minute, and knew nothing of what had
+occurred. Seeing us all stand around he appeared bewildered. I
+instantly, in as calm a tone as I could command, asked, 'Are you ready
+to have your tooth extracted?' 'Yes,' he answered, in a hesitating
+voice. 'It is all over,' I said, pointing to a decayed tooth on the
+floor. 'No,' he shouted, leaping from his chair. The name of the man
+who thus for the first time underwent an operation under anæsthesia
+induced by ether was Eben Frost."
+
+The nature of the agent used by Morton was kept secret only a short
+period; the steps he took to bring his discovery before the medical
+profession would have rendered it difficult if not impossible, even if
+ether had not a penetrating tell-tale odour. Morton laid his method
+before one of the surgical staff of the Massachusetts General
+Hospital, Boston, the same institution where Wells's ill-managed
+demonstration had taken place two years before; he requested, with
+complete confidence, to be allowed to exhibit the powers of his agent.
+The surgeon was sceptical, but wisely consented, after having
+satisfied himself that there was no risk to life. A patient suffering
+from a tumour was chosen, and readily consented to act as a subject
+for demonstration. A large crowd of professional men and students
+assembled in the surgical theatre on the morning of October 16, 1846,
+the day chosen for the trial. The senior hospital surgeon, Dr. J.
+Collins Warren, was to perform the operation. The spectators, many of
+whom no doubt recollected the failure with laughing-gas, were disposed
+to deride when the appointed hour passed and Morton did not appear;
+but the delay was due only to the desire of the dentist to bring a
+proper inhaler, and although the crowd received him with a chilling
+reserve, and the occasion was one fit to try the nerve of the
+strongest, Morton did not lose his presence of mind. He promptly
+anæsthetised the patient, and as unconcernedly as does the modern
+administrator, nodded to the surgeon that the patient was ready. From
+the first moment that the knife touched the patient, until the
+operation was concluded, no sound, no movement indicated that he was
+suffering. The men who had scoffed once and had come, even the surgeon
+himself, prepared to scoff again, realised the success and the wonder
+of it, and remained to admire. "Gentlemen, this is no humbug,"
+exclaimed Dr. Warren, as he finished his handiwork. When the patient
+recovered he was questioned again and again, but stoutly maintained
+that he had felt no pain--absolutely none. "Gilbert Abbott, aged
+twenty, painter, single," was the description of the man on whom was
+performed the first surgical operation under the influence of ether.
+
+News of the great success rapidly spread, and the experiment was
+repeated by Morton and others in America, and similar work was taken
+up throughout Europe. It cannot be said that Morton derived much
+benefit from his discovery. Although the greatness of it was
+recognised in his lifetime, and he received several honours and
+presents, he entered into prolonged squabbles concerning the discovery
+which worried him into a state of ill-health, ending in his death in
+1868. A monument was erected over his grave by the citizens of Boston,
+bearing the following concise description of his achievement:--
+
+          "WILLIAM T. G. MORTON,
+
+  "Inventor and revealer of anæsthetic inhalation,
+  By whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled;
+  Before whom in all time surgery was agony,
+  Since whom Science has control of Pain."
+
+Whilst the discoverer of nitrous-oxide anæsthesia was dying from
+chagrin and inaction, and the revealer of anæsthetic inhalation by
+ether was wasting time in unworthy disputes concerning priority, and
+fruitless endeavours to gain pecuniary reward, a bolder than either
+had taken up the work where they had left it, with the high object of
+pursuing it until he had for ever established the benefit to humanity
+which he recognised in it. He went straight forwards and onwards,
+strong in his endeavour; undeterred by the jeers of the ignorant, the
+opposition of the prejudiced or the attacks of the jealous, with no
+thought of or wish for reward except that which was to come daily from
+the depth of sufferers' hearts.
+
+During the Christmas holidays of 1846 Simpson was in London, and
+discussed the new discovery with Liston, who was one of the first to
+operate under ether in Great Britain at University College Hospital.
+The great surgeon thought that the chief application of the process
+would be in the practice of rapidly operating surgeons; it was at
+first generally believed that the inhalation could be borne for only a
+brief period. Simpson speedily showed that no evil resulted if the
+patient remained under the influence of the vapour for hours. In the
+month of January, 1847, he gained for the Edinburgh Medical School the
+proud honour of being the scene of the first use of anæsthetics in
+obstetric practice. In March of the same year he published a record of
+cases of parturition in which he had used ether with success; and had
+a large number of copies of his paper printed and distributed far and
+wide at home and abroad, so eager was he to popularise amongst the
+members of his profession the revolutionary practice which he
+introduced. From the day on which he first used ether in midwifery
+until the end of his career he constantly used anæsthetics in his
+practice. He quickly perceived, however, the short-comings of ether,
+and having satisfied himself that they were unavoidable, he set about
+his next great step, namely, to discover some substance possessing the
+advantages without the disadvantages of ether. In the midst of his now
+immense daily work he gave all his spare time, often only the midnight
+hours, to testing upon himself the effect of numerous drugs. With the
+same courage that had filled Morton he sat down alone, or with Dr.
+George Keith and Dr. Matthews Duncan, his assistants, to inhale
+substance after substance, often to the real alarm of the household at
+52, Queen Street. Appeal was made to scientific chemists to provide
+drugs hitherto known only as curiosities of the laboratory, and for
+others that their special knowledge might be able to suggest. The
+experiments usually took place in the dining-room in the quiet of the
+evening or the dead of night. The enthusiasts sat at the table and
+inhaled the particular substance under trial from tumblers or saucers;
+but the summer of 1847 passed away, and the autumn was commenced
+before he succeeded in finding any substance which at all fulfilled
+his requirements. All this time he was battling for anæsthesia, which,
+particularly in its application to midwifery, was meeting with what
+appears now as an astonishing amount of opposition, on varying grounds
+from all sorts and conditions of persons; but the vigour and power of
+his advocacy and defence of the practice in the days when laughing-gas
+and ether were the only known agents, were as nothing to that which he
+exerted after his own discovery at the end of 1847.
+
+The suggestion to try chloroform first came from a Mr. Waldie, a
+native of Linlithgowshire, settled in Liverpool as a chemist. It was a
+"curious liquid," discovered and described in 1831 by two chemists,
+Soubeiran and Liebig, simultaneously but independently. In 1835 its
+chemical composition was first accurately ascertained by Dumas, the
+famous French chemist. Simpson was apparently not aware that early in
+1847 another French chemist, Flourens, had drawn attention to the
+effect of chloroform upon animals, or he would probably have hastened
+to use it upon himself experimentally, instead of putting away the
+first specimen obtained as unlikely; it was heavy and not volatile
+looking, and less attractive to him than other substances. How it
+finally came to be tried is best described in the words of Simpson's
+colleague and neighbour, Professor Miller, who used to look in every
+morning at nine o'clock to see how the enthusiasts had fared in the
+experiments of the previous evening.
+
+"Late one evening, it was the 4th of November, 1847, on returning
+home after a weary day's labour, Dr. Simpson with his two friends
+and assistants, Drs. Keith and Duncan, sat down to their somewhat
+hazardous work in Dr. Simpson's dining-room. Having inhaled several
+substances, but without much effect, it occurred to Dr. Simpson to
+try a ponderous material which he had formerly set aside on a
+lumber-table, and which on account of its great weight he had
+hitherto regarded as of no likelihood whatever; that happened to
+be a small bottle of chloroform. It was searched for and recovered
+from beneath a heap of waste paper. And with each tumbler newly
+charged, the inhalers resumed their vocation. Immediately an
+unwonted hilarity seized the party--they became brighteyed, very
+happy, and very loquacious--expatiating on the delicious aroma of
+the new fluid. The conversation was of unusual intelligence, and quite
+charmed the listeners--some ladies of the family and a naval
+officer, brother-in-law of Dr. Simpson. But suddenly there was a
+talk of sounds being heard like those of a cotton mill louder and
+louder; a moment more and then all was quiet--and then crash! On
+awakening Dr. Simpson's first perception was mental--'This is far
+stronger and better than ether,' said he to himself. His second was to
+note that he was prostrate on the floor, and that among the friends
+about him there was both confusion and alarm. Hearing a noise he
+turned round and saw Dr. Duncan beneath a chair--his jaw dropped,
+his eyes staring, his head bent half under him; quite unconscious, and
+snoring in a most determined and alarming manner. More noise still
+and much motion. And then his eyes overtook Dr. Keith's feet and legs
+making valorous attempts to overturn the supper table, or more
+probably to annihilate everything that was on it. By and by Dr.
+Simpson having regained his seat, Dr. Duncan having finished his
+uncomfortable and unrefreshing slumber, and Dr. Keith having come to
+an arrangement with the table and its contents, the _sederunt_ was
+resumed. Each expressed himself delighted with this new agent, and
+its inhalation was repeated many times that night--one of the ladies
+gallantly taking her place and turn at the table--until the supply of
+chloroform was fairly exhausted."
+
+The lady was Miss Petrie, a niece of Mrs. Simpson's; she folded her
+arms across her breast as she inhaled the vapour, and fell asleep
+crying, "I'm an angel! Oh, I'm an angel"! The party sat discussing
+their sensations, and the merits of the substance long after it was
+finished; they were unanimous in considering that at last something
+had been found to surpass ether.
+
+The following morning a manufacturing chemist was pressed into
+service, and had to burn the midnight oil to meet Simpson's demand for
+the new substance. So great was Simpson's midwifery practice that he
+was able to make immediate trial of chloroform, and on November 10th
+he read a paper to the Medico-Chirurgical Society, describing the
+nature of his agent, and narrating cases in which he had already
+successfully used it. "I have never had the pleasure," he said, "of
+watching over a series of better and more rapid recoveries; nor once
+witnessed any disagreeable results follow to either mother or child;
+whilst I have now seen an immense amount of maternal pain and agony
+saved by its employment. And I most conscientiously believe that the
+proud mission of the physician is distinctly twofold--namely to
+alleviate human suffering as well as preserve human life." In a
+postscript to the same paper he states on November 15th that he had
+already administered chloroform to about fifty individuals without
+the slightest bad result, and gives an account of the first surgical
+cases in which he gave the agent to patients of his friends, Professor
+Miller and Dr. Duncan, in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. "A great
+collection," he says, "of professional gentlemen and students
+witnessed the results, and amongst them Professor Dumas, of Paris, the
+chemist who first ascertained and established the chemical composition
+of chloroform. He happened to be passing through Edinburgh, and was in
+no small degree rejoiced to witness the wonderful physiological
+effects of a substance with whose chemical history his own name was so
+intimately connected." Four thousand copies of this paper were sold in
+a few days, and many thousands afterwards.
+
+It is worthy of mention that, according to a promise, Professor Miller
+had sent for Simpson a few days after the discovery to give chloroform
+to a patient on whom he was about to perform a major operation;
+Simpson, however, was unavoidably prevented from attending, and Miller
+began the operation without him--at the first cut of the knife the
+patient fainted and died. It is easy to imagine what a blow to
+Simpson, and to the cause of anæsthesia this would have been had it
+happened while the patient was under chloroform.
+
+Thus in little more than a year from the date of Morton's discovery of
+the powers of ether, Simpson had crowned the achievement by the
+discovery of the equally wonderful and beneficial powers of
+chloroform. Already he had made two satisfactory answers to the
+question he had early set himself--first, the application of
+anæsthesia to midwifery practice; and, second, the discovery of the
+properties of the more portable and manageable chloroform; the third,
+and perhaps the greatest, the defence of the practice, and the beating
+down of the powerful opposition to anæsthesia was yet required to
+render his reply complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE FIGHT FOR ANÆSTHESIA. 1847 ONWARDS
+
+  His faith in chloroform--Confused public opinion on the
+  subject--Personal attacks--Opposition on professional
+  grounds--His reply--Opposition on moral grounds--His
+  reply--Opposition on religious grounds--His reply--Her Majesty
+  the Queen anæsthetised--Indiscrete supporters--The Edinburgh
+  teaching of anæsthesia administration--The far-reaching effects
+  of the successful introduction of anæsthesia.
+
+
+Professor Simpson firmly believed that he possessed now in chloroform
+an anæsthetic agent "more portable, more manageable and powerful, more
+agreeable to inhale, and less exciting" than ether, and one giving him
+"greater control and command over the superinduction of the anæsthetic
+state." Fortified by this belief, full of facts relating to the
+subject, and fired with zeal and enthusiasm, he was prepared to meet
+the opposition which from his knowledge of human nature he must have
+anticipated. So bravely and so emphatically did he champion the cause
+that he became identified with it in the public mind. The revelation
+of anæsthesia, the discovery of chloroform, and the application of
+anæsthetics to surgery as well as to midwifery were attributed to him
+by all classes of the community, not even excepting many of his own
+profession. Chloroform was spoken of as if ether had never existed;
+and chloroform and chloroforming displaced the terms anæsthetic and
+anæsthetising in ordinary talk--such unwieldy terms were naturally
+abandoned when there was the excuse that chloroform was universally
+considered the best substance of its class. Simpson made no attempt as
+Morton had done to patent his discovery under a fanciful name for his
+own pecuniary profit; but widely spread abroad every particle of
+knowledge concerning it that he possessed, so that every practitioner
+was forthwith enabled to avail himself thereof for the benefit of his
+patients.
+
+Partly owing to his own enthusiasm and his strong belief in the
+superiority of chloroform over ether, and partly owing to the
+confusion prevailing in general circles as to the history of
+anæsthesia, no small number of attacks were directed against Simpson
+personally by those who either were jealous of his achievements, or
+who considered that the part taken by themselves or their friends in
+the establishment of this new era in medical science had been slighted
+or overlooked. Simpson took all these as part of the fight into which
+he had entered. His nature was not sensitive to such personal
+attacks; he replied to them, cast them off, and went on his way
+unaffected. He handled some of these opponents somewhat severely when
+they accused him of encouraging the public belief in him as the
+discoverer of anæsthesia. It is clear to us to-day after anæsthesia
+has been on its trial for fifty years that Simpson magnified the
+superiority of chloroform over ether, and was led by that feeling to
+look on the history of ether as but a stage in the history of the
+greater chloroform. He regarded chloroform as the only anæsthetic; his
+utterances betrayed this feeling, and offence was naturally taken by
+the introducers and advocates of ether. His opinion of chloroform was
+shared by the leading European surgeons to such an extent in his day
+that shortly after his death Professor Gusserow, of Berlin, stated
+that with a few exceptions almost all over the earth nothing else was
+used to produce anæsthesia but chloroform.
+
+The real fight for anæsthesia was against those who found in the
+practice something which ran contrary to their beliefs or principles.
+There were first those who objected on purely _medical_ grounds;
+secondly, those who took exception to it from a _moral_ point of view;
+and thirdly, those who found their _religious_ convictions seriously
+offended by the new practice.
+
+The _medical_ opponents were, perhaps, the most powerful; certainly it
+was they who had first to be won over, for without the support of the
+profession the cause was in danger. It was urged first of all that the
+use of anæsthetics would increase the mortality, then very great, of
+surgical operations, and those who took their stand upon this ground
+were men who had at first denied the possibility of making operations
+painless, and had been driven to abandon that opinion only by a clear
+demonstration of the fact. To meet this form of opposition he
+instituted a laborious and extensive statistical investigation in
+order to compare the results obtained in hospitals where anæsthetics
+were used with those where the operations were performed on patients
+in the waking state. He took care that the reports dealt with the same
+operations under, as nearly as possible, similar conditions in each
+case. He obtained returns from close upon fifty hospitals in London,
+Edinburgh, Dublin, and various provincial towns. One of the most fatal
+operations in those days, and one dreaded by patient and surgeon
+alike, was amputation of the thigh. In 1845 Professor Syme said that
+the stern evidence of hospital statistics showed that the average
+frequency of death after that operation was not less than 60 to 70 per
+cent., or above one in every two operated upon. Simpson fearlessly
+collated statistics of this operation amongst the others, and proved
+that when performed under anæsthetics amputation of the thigh had its
+mortality reduced to 25 per cent. His figures were as follows:--
+
+TABLE OF THE MORTALITY OF AMPUTATIONS OF THE THIGH.
+
+    Reporter.                     Cases.  Deaths.  % of Deaths.
+
+  Not anæsthetised.
+    Parisian hospitals--Malgaigne    201    126      62 in 100
+    Edinburgh   "     --Peacock       43     21      49  "
+    General collection--Phillips     987    435      44  "
+    Glasgow hospitals --Lawrie       127     46      36  "
+    British     "     --Simpson      284    107      38  "
+
+  Cases on patients in an
+   anæsthetised state                145      37     25  "
+
+He pointed to the above table as a proof that far from increasing the
+mortality of this operation the introduction of anæsthetics had
+already led to a saving of from eleven to twenty lives out of every
+hundred cases. He acknowledged that the number of cases he had
+collected (145) was somewhat small from a statistical point of view;
+but he confidently asserted that future figures would show greater
+triumphs. The tables of other operations showed similar results, and
+he entered exhaustively into the subject in a paper published in 1848.
+The paper was entitled, "Does Anæsthesia increase or decrease the
+mortality attendant upon surgical operations?" According to his wont,
+he headed it with a quotation from Shakspeare:
+
+  "Why doest thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
+    ... Shylock must be merciful.
+  On what compulsion must I? Tell me that!"
+
+Victorious in this encounter, he turned to those who urged that
+anæsthetics were responsible for various kinds of ills such as a
+tendency to hæmorrhage, convulsions, paralysis, pneumonia, and various
+kinds of inflammatory mischief as well as mental derangement. He
+combated these contentions until the end of his career; and not only
+proved that the objections were visionary, but showed that for one of
+the alleged evils formerly often seen after operations, viz.,
+convulsions, chloroform, far from being a cause, was one of our most
+powerful remedies.
+
+But the professional opponents of anæsthesia were most emphatic in the
+denunciation of its use in midwifery. Pain in the process of
+parturition was, they said, "a desirable, salutary, and conservative
+manifestation of life-force": neither its violence nor its continuance
+was productive of injury to the constitution. Strong opposition on
+these grounds came from the Dublin School, and with characteristic
+boldness Simpson turned to the statistics of their own lying-in
+hospital to prove his contention that to abolish parturient pain was
+to diminish the peril of the process. Again the statistics stood him
+in good stead; he flourished them triumphantly before his opponents,
+and proceeded to deal with those who asserted that the use of
+anæsthetics was accompanied by danger to life. He pointed out that,
+although unquestionably there were some dangers connected therewith,
+they were insignificant compared with the dangers in both surgery and
+midwifery which their use averted. Pain itself was a danger; shock in
+surgery was responsible for many untimely deaths upon the operating
+table; by preventing these chloroform saved countless lives. His
+arguments were characterised by painstaking thoroughness and evidenced
+wide reading. In addressing Professor Meigs, of Philadelphia, he
+said:--
+
+"First, I do believe that if improperly and incautiously given, and in
+some rare idiosyncrasies, ether and chloroform may prove injurious or
+even fatal--just as opium, calomel, and every other powerful remedy
+and strong drug will occasionally do. Drinking cold water itself will
+sometimes produce death. 'It is well known,' says Dr. Taylor, in his
+excellent work on Medical Jurisprudence, 'that there are _many_ cases
+on record in which cold water, swallowed in large quantity and in an
+excited state of the system, has led to the destruction of life.'
+Should we therefore never allay our thirst with cold water? What would
+the disciples of Father Mathew say to this? But, secondly, you and
+others have very unnecessary and aggravated fears about the dangers of
+ether and chloroform, and in the course of experience you will find
+these fears to be, in a great measure, perfectly ideal and imaginary.
+But the same fears have, in the first instance, been conjured up
+against almost all other innovations in medicine and in the common
+luxuries of life. Cavendish, the secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, tells
+us in his life of that prelate, that when the cardinal was banished
+from London to York by his master--that regal Robespierre, Henry the
+Eighth--_many_ of the cardinal's servants refused to go such an
+enormous journey--'for they were loath to abandon their native
+country, their parents, wives, and children.' The journey which can
+_now_ be accomplished in six hours was considered then a perfect
+banishment.... In his Life of Lord Loughborough, John Lord Campbell
+tells us that when he (the biographer) first travelled from Edinburgh
+to London in the mail-coach the time had been reduced (from the former
+twelve or fourteen days) to three nights and two days; 'but,' he adds,
+'this new and swift travelling from the Scots to the English capital
+was wonderful, and I was gravely advised to stop a day at York as
+several passengers who had gone through without stopping had died of
+apoplexy from the rapidity of the motion' ('Lives of the Lord
+Chancellors'). Be assured that many of the cases of apoplexy, &c.,
+&c., alleged to arise from ether and chloroform, have as veritable an
+etiology as this apoplexy from rapid locomotion, and that a few years
+hence they will stand in the same light in which we now look back upon
+the apoplexy from travelling ten miles an hour. And as to the supposed
+great moral and physical evils and injuries arising from the use of
+ether and chloroform, they will by and by, I believe, sound much in
+the same way as the supposed great moral and physical evils and
+injuries arising from using hackney coaches, which were seriously
+described by Taylor, the water-poet, two or three centuries ago when
+these coaches were introduced. Taylor warned his fellow-creatures to
+avoid them, otherwise 'they would find their bodies tossed, tumbled,
+rumbled, and jumbled' without mercy. 'The coach,' says he, 'is a close
+hypocrite, for it hath a cover for knavery; they (the passengers) are
+carried back to back in it like people surprised by pirates, and
+moreover it maketh men imitate sea-crabs in being drawn sideways, and
+altogether it is a dangerous carriage for the commonwealth.' Then he
+proceeds to call them 'hell-carts,' &c., and vents upon them a great
+deal of other abuse very much of the same kind and character as that
+lavished against anæsthetics in our own day."
+
+Following out the same line of reasoning he brought to the minds of
+medical opponents how the introducers of such useful drugs as mercury,
+antimony, and cinchona bark had met with now long-forgotten but
+stubborn opposition; and he reminded surgeons of the stern obstinacy
+with which the introduction of the ligature of arteries had been long
+objected to and the barbarous method of arresting bleeding with
+red-hot irons had been preferred. But in the history of the discovery
+and introduction of vaccination by Jenner he found a strong parallel;
+and he wrote a pregnant article to prove that mere opinion and
+prejudgments were not sufficient to settle the question of the
+propriety or impropriety of anæsthetic agents, illustrating it from
+the story of vaccination. The result of vaccination had been to save
+during the half century since its introduction a number of lives in
+England alone equal to the whole existing population of Wales; and in
+Europe during the same period it had preserved a number of lives
+greater than the whole existing population of Great Britain. And yet
+Jenner, when he first announced his discovery, had encountered the
+most determined opposition on the part of many of his professional
+brethren, who ridiculed and bitterly denounced both him and his
+discovery; whilst ignorant laymen announced that smallpox was ordained
+by heaven and vaccination was a daring and profane violation of holy
+religion. He pointed out that these objections had been slowly and
+surely crushed out of existence by accumulated facts, and predicted
+that the ultimate decision concerning anæsthesia would come to be
+based, not upon impressions, opinions, and prejudices, but upon the
+evidence of "a sufficient body of accurate and well-ascertained
+facts." To these facts, as has been indicated, he subsequently
+successfully appealed.
+
+Those who objected to anæsthesia on _moral_ grounds directed their
+attacks chiefly against its use in midwifery. They not only condemned
+that application as iniquitous, but went the length of asserting that
+the birth of past myriads without it proved how unnecessary it was,
+and that Nature conducted the whole process of birth unaided in a
+greatly superior manner. The pains associated with parturition were
+actually beneficial, they said. Simpson answered this by showing that
+the proper use of anæsthetics shortened parturition, and by
+diminishing the amount of pain led to more rapid and more perfect
+recoveries. The leading exponent of the Dublin School of Midwifery at
+that time foolishly wrote that he did not think any one in Dublin had
+as yet used anæesthetics in midwifery; that the feeling was very
+strong against its use in ordinary cases, merely to avert the ordinary
+amount of pain, which the Almighty had seen fit--and most wisely, no
+doubt--to allot to natural labour; and in this feeling he (the writer)
+most heartily concurred. Simpson's private comment on this remarkable
+epistle at once showed his opinion of it, and ridiculed the objection
+out of existence. He skilfully parodied the letter thus:--"I do not
+believe that any one in Dublin has as yet used a carriage in
+locomotion; the feeling is very strong against its use in ordinary
+progression, merely to avert the ordinary amount of fatigue which the
+Almighty has seen fit--and most wisely, no doubt--to allot to natural
+walking; and in this feeling I heartily and entirely concur."
+
+He twitted the surgeons who opposed him with their sudden discovery,
+now that anæsthetics were introduced, that there was something really
+beneficial in the pain and agony caused by their dreaded knife. Such a
+contention contraverted his cherished principle that the function of
+the medical man was not only to prolong life, but also to alleviate
+human sufferings. He quoted authorities of all times to show that
+pain had been always abhorred by physicians and surgeons, commencing
+with a reference to Galen's aphorism--"_Dolor dolentibus inutile est_"
+("pain is useless to the pained"); citing Ambroise Paré, who said that
+pain ought to be assuaged because nothing so much dejected the powers
+of the patient; and, finally, reproducing the words of modern authors,
+who asserted that, far from being conducive to well-being, pain
+exhausted the principle of life, and in itself was frequently both
+dangerous and destructive. He brought forward a collection of cases
+where in former days patients had died on the operating-table, even
+before the surgeon had begun his work, so great was the influence of
+the mere fear of pain; and reminded those who attributed occasional
+deaths on the operating-table to the influence of the anæsthetic of
+the numerous cases in bygone days where death occurred whilst the
+surgeon was at work. He recalled also how the great surgeon of St.
+Thomas's Hospital, Cheselden, had abhorred the pain which he caused in
+the process of his work, and longed for some means for its prevention.
+"No one," said Cheselden, "ever endured more anxiety and sickness
+before an operation" than himself.
+
+Simpson did not forget to look at the subject from the patient's point
+of view, and reproduced the letter from an old patient, which has been
+already quoted (Chapter VI.).
+
+The soldier and sailor, brave unto heroism in facing the enemy, never
+fearing the death which stared them in the face in its most horrible
+form whilst answering the call of duty, would quail like children at
+the mere thought of submitting to the deliberate knife of the
+surgeon. Were quibbles about the efficacy of pain to stand in the way
+of the merciful prevention of such suffering by the process of
+anæsthetisation?
+
+Those who opposed him with this curious idea, that pain after all was
+beneficial, were some of them men of no mean standing in the
+profession. Gull, Bransby Cooper, and Nunn were amongst those whom
+he had to silence. After replying to their arguments _seriatim_ with
+all his polemic power, he referred them once more to the evidence
+of facts and of facts alone as set forth by his statistics. Had he
+lived but a twelvemonth longer than he did he would have been able
+to conjure up a picture of the incalculable amount of suffering
+prevented by the eighteen hundred pounds of chloroform which were
+forwarded to the rival armies from one firm of chemists alone during
+the Franco-Prussian war; happily for the wounded within and around
+Paris, there was then no longer any doubt as to the propriety of
+employing anæsthetics.
+
+The _religious_ objections to the use of anæsthetics could scarcely be
+met with statistics. Foolish as they now appear to us after the lapse
+of time, and with the practice they attempted to repel universally
+adopted, they were nevertheless urged in good faith by clergy and
+laity of various denominations. The same kind of bigotry had met the
+introduction of vaccination, and Simpson himself remembered how many
+people had opposed the emancipation of the negroes on the ground that
+they were the lineal descendants of Ham, of whom it was said "a
+servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." Sir Walter Scott
+reminds us, in "Old Mortality," of the spirit which met the
+introduction of fanners to separate the chaff from the corn, which
+displaced the ancient method of tossing the corn in the air upon broad
+shovels. Headrigg reproved Lady Bellenden for allowing the new process
+to be used on her farm, "thus impiously thwarting the will of Divine
+Providence by raising a wind for your leddyship's ain particular use
+by human art, instead of soliciting it by prayer or waiting patiently
+for whatever dispensation of wind Providence was pleased to send upon
+the sheeling hill."
+
+To-day in South Africa the same spirit is seen. Honest countryfolk of
+European descent are earnestly counselled by their spiritual advisers
+to submit patiently to the plague of locusts on the ground that it
+comes as a punishment from Providence. These worthy men stolidly
+witness their cornfields and their grass lands being eaten bare before
+their eyes in a few hours, whilst their more enlightened neighbours,
+brought up in another faith, resort with success to all sorts of
+artifices to ward off the destructive little invaders.
+
+It is pleasant to be able to record that Dr. Chalmers, one of the
+heroes of Scots religious history, not only countenanced chloroform
+by witnessing operations performed under it in the Royal Infirmary,
+but when requested to deal in a magazine article with the theological
+aspect of anæesthesia refused on the ground that the question had no
+theological aspect, and advised Simpson and his friends to take no
+heed of the "small theologians" who advocated such views. This was
+futile advice to give to one of Professor Simpson's controversial
+propensities; he entered with keen enjoyment into the fray with these
+"religious" opponents. His famous pamphlet, entitled, "Answer to the
+Religious Objections advanced against the employment of Anæesthetic
+Agents in Midwifery and Surgery," fought his enemies with their own
+weapons by appealing with consummate skill to Scripture for
+authority for the practice. The paper was headed with two scriptural
+verses:--"For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be
+refused if it be received with thanksgiving" (1 Timothy iv. 4).
+"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it
+is sin" (James iv. 17).
+
+The principal standpoint of the religious opponents was the primeval
+curse upon womanhood to be found in Genesis. Simpson swept the ground
+from under his opponents' feet by reference to and study of the
+original Hebrew text. The word translated--"sorrow" ("I will greatly
+multiply thy sorrow ... in sorrow shalt thou bring forth")--was the
+same as that rendered as "sorrow" in the curse applied to man ("in
+sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life"). Not only did
+the Hebrew word thus translated sorrow really mean labour, toil, or
+physical exertion; but in other parts of the Bible an entirely
+different Hebrew word was used to express the actual pain incident to
+parturition. The contention, then, that sorrow in the curse meant pain
+was valueless. Chloroform relieved the real pain not referred to in
+the curse, whereas it had no effect upon the sorrow or physical
+exertion.
+
+If, however, the curse was to be taken literally in its application to
+woman as these persons averred, and granting for the moment that
+sorrow did mean pain, their position was entirely illogical. If one
+part of the curse was to be interpreted literally, so must be the
+other parts, and this would have a serious effect of a revolutionary
+nature upon man and the human race all over the face of the earth.
+Literally speaking, the curse condemned the farmer who pulled up his
+thorns and thistles, as well as the man who used horses or oxen,
+water-power, or steam-traction to perform the work by which he earned
+his bread; for was he not thereby saving the sweat of his face?
+
+Pushed further, the same argument rendered these contentions more
+absurd and untenable. Man was condemned to die--"dust thou art
+and unto dust thou shalt return." What right had the physician or
+surgeon to use his skill to prolong life, at the same time that he
+conscientiously abstained from the use of anæsthetics on the
+ground that they obviated pain sent by the Deity? Nay, more; sin
+itself was the result of the Fall; was not the Church herself
+erroneously labouring to turn mankind from sin?
+
+In a truer and more serious religious spirit he reminded his foolish
+opponents of the Christian dispensation, and pointed out how the
+employment of anæsthesia was in strict consonance with the glorious
+spirit thereof.
+
+Some persons broadly stated that the new process was unnatural; even
+these he condescended to answer. "How unnatural," exclaimed an Irish
+lady, "for you doctors in Edinburgh to take away the pains of your
+patients." "How unnatural," said he, "it is for you to have swam over
+from Ireland to Scotland against wind and tide in a steam-boat."
+
+A son of De Quincey in his graduation thesis humorously supported
+Professor Simpson. He argued that the unmarried woman who opposed
+anæsthetics on the ground that her sex was condemned by the curse to
+suffer pains, broke the command herself "in four several ways,
+according to the following tabular statement":--
+
+"1. She has no conception.
+
+2. She brings forth no children.
+
+3. Her desire is not to her husband.
+
+4. The husband does not rule over her."
+
+De Quincey himself supported his son in a letter appended to the
+thesis thus:--"If pain when carried to the stage which we call agony
+or intense struggle amongst vital functions brings with it some danger
+to life, then it will follow that knowingly to reject a means of
+mitigating or wholly cancelling the danger now that such means has
+been discovered and tested, travels on the road towards suicide. It is
+even worse than an ordinary movement in that direction, because it
+makes God an accomplice, through the Scriptures, in this suicidal
+movement, nay, the primal instigator to it, by means of a supposed
+curse interdicting the use of any means whatever (though revealed by
+Himself) for annulling that curse."
+
+But the Bible furnished Simpson with the most powerful argument of all
+in Genesis ii. 21, where it is written: "And the Lord God caused a
+deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and he slept; and He took one of his
+ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof." He strengthened his
+position by explaining that the word rendered "deep sleep" might more
+correctly be translated "coma" or "lethargy." He had taken the full
+measure of his opponents when he answered them with this quotation; it
+was a reply characteristic of the man, and completely defeated these
+self-constituted theologians with their own weapons. They had attacked
+him as a man of science, and found that his knowledge of the
+Scriptures excelled their own. He did not fail to read these people a
+lesson, and point out the harm done to true religion by such conduct
+and arguments as theirs, reminding them that if God had willed pain to
+be irremovable no possible device of man could ever have removed it.
+
+Such was the great fight--the fight for anæsthesia--which Simpson
+fought and won. He was the one man who by his own individual effort
+established the practice of anæsthesia, while Morton has the honour of
+being the one man without whom anæsthesia might have remained unknown.
+Such was the opposition encountered, and such was the timidity of his
+professional brethren, that but for Simpson's courageous efforts it
+would have been the work of years to bring about what it was granted
+to him to accomplish in a brief period; if fear, ridicule, contempt,
+and bigotry had not perhaps sunk the new practice into oblivion. Of
+the hundreds who are daily mercifully brought under the influence of
+chloroform and ether, few are aware what they owe to Simpson, even if
+they know how great is the suffering which they are spared.
+
+Simpson felt that the victory was indeed complete when in April, 1853,
+he received a letter from Sir James Clark, physician in ordinary to
+Her Majesty, informing him that the Queen had been brought under the
+influence of chloroform, and had expressed herself as greatly pleased
+with the result. It was at the birth of the late Prince Leopold that
+Her Majesty set her subjects this judicious example.
+
+Much trouble to the cause was occasioned by enthusiasts who
+administered chloroform with more zeal than discretion, and
+without any study of the principles laid down by Simpson. As a result
+of imperfect trials, some persons went the length of saying that
+there were people whom it was impossible to anæsthetise at all, and
+others who could be only partially anæsthetised. Wrong methods of
+administration were used. Simpson patiently corrected these, and
+carefully instructed his students, so that the young graduates of
+Edinburgh University carried his teaching and practice into all
+parts of the world. Syme also took up the cause, and valuable work
+was done in London by Snow, and later by Clover. The teaching of
+Simpson and Syme led to such successful results that their methods
+are followed by the Edinburgh School to this day practically
+unaltered. So satisfactory an agent is chloroform in Edinburgh
+hands, that other anæsthetics are in that city but rarely called
+into requisition. All the world over it is the anæsthetic in which
+the general practitioner places his trust.
+
+Having seen what Simpson did for anæsthesia, we may briefly review
+what anæsthesia has done for humanity. That it has entirely abolished
+the pain attendant upon surgery is easily recognised by the profession
+and patients alike. The patient never begs for mercy nowadays; he
+dreads the anæsthetic more than the knife; he has no anxiety as to
+whether he will feel pain or not, but rather as to whether he will
+come round when the operation is over; happily after one experience he
+realises that his fears were unfounded, and, if need be, will submit
+cheerfully to a second administration.
+
+The horrors of the operating-room referred to in the preceding chapter
+were vanquished with the pain; the surgeon has no longer to steel
+himself for the task as formerly, to wear a stern aspect and adopt a
+harsh manner. The patient has no longer to be held down by assistants;
+instead of having to be dragged unwillingly to the operating-table--a
+daily occurrence sickening to the hearts of fellow-patients and
+students, while it served only to harden the surgeon and the
+experienced old nurse of those days--he will walk quietly to the room,
+or submit patiently to be carried there, and at a word from the
+surgeon prepare
+
+          "... to storm
+  The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform,
+  The drunken dark, the little death-in-life."
+
+The operation is no longer a race against time; order, method,
+cleanliness, and silence prevail, where there was formerly disorder,
+bustle, confusion, dirt, and long-drawn shrieks. Nothing illustrates
+better the progress of surgery than a picture of the operating-room in
+the first decade placed beside that of an operating theatre in one of
+our leading hospitals in this the last decade of the nineteenth
+century. In the quiet of the patient, in the painlessness of the
+operation, in the calm deliberation of the operator, and the
+methodical order of all around him, in the respectful silence that
+prevails in the room so soon as the patient is laid on the table, we
+see the direct results of the introduction of anæsthetics. But there
+are other great, if less direct, results, each making its presence
+known to the professional spectator. By anæsthesia successful
+operations previously unheard of and unthought of were made possible
+after the principle of antiseptic surgery had been established; by
+anæsthesia experimental research, which has led to numerous beneficent
+results in practical surgery and medicine, was made possible. Its
+introduction is an achievement of which the Anglo-Saxon race may well
+be proud. Wells, Morton, and Simpson are its heroes. The United States
+has by far the greater share of the honour of its discovery; but to
+Scotland is due the glory which comes from the victorious fight. No
+event in surgery up to 1847 had had such far-reaching effects. Simpson
+himself looked forward to the discovery of some agent, better than
+both chloroform and ether; and it is still possible that there may be
+an even greater future in store for anæsthesia than was ever dreamt of
+in his philosophy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOME LIFE--CONTROVERSIES
+
+  The foundations of his fame; Comparison with Boerhaave--Family
+  letters--Home amusements--Affection for children--And for
+  animals--Puck--Holidays--Wide area of practice--"The arrows of
+  malignancy"--Squabbles--Homoeopathy--Mesmerism--Refuses to leave
+  Edinburgh.
+
+
+Great as was Simpson's contemporary fame, the chief part of it had its
+origin in his indescribable personal power over his fellows, and in
+his inexhaustible energy. When to these was added the reputation won
+by the discovery of chloroform's anæsthetic properties, he stood not
+only as the most famous physician of his day, but also as a man marked
+out for posthumous fame. The personal characteristics of the man were
+speedily forgotten after his death, save by those who had been brought
+under their influence; the marked prominence given to Simpson and the
+"discovery of chloroform" in the numerous recent reviews of Queen
+Victoria's reign on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, indicates
+that it is by chloroform that Simpson will ever be remembered. His
+lasting reputation depends on this work, not upon the characteristics
+which made him famous in the judgment of his contemporaries. The only
+physician in comparatively modern times, whose reputation approached
+Simpson's in magnitude was Hermann Boerhaave (1668 to 1738), the Dutch
+physician, whose fame and influence during his own lifetime were
+immense. Boerhaave's leading characteristics greatly resembled
+Simpson's: he had an enormous capacity for acquiring information, and
+a wonderful facility for imparting instruction to others; his energy
+and industry were indefatigable, and his memory prodigious. He taught
+from separate chairs in Leyden the Theory of Medicine, the Practice of
+Medicine, Botany, Chemistry, and Clinical Medicine, and at the same
+time carried on his large practice. Patients of both sexes flocked to
+him from all quarters of the globe, and he is said to have accumulated
+from his practice a fortune of £200,000 in five and thirty years.
+Although his treatment and method were, according to our modern
+knowledge, unscientific, his success in practice was as great as
+Simpson's; it sprang from the same cause; a wonderful magnetic
+personal influence, which commanded confidence and faith, so that he
+succeeded with the same possibly quite simple means which were
+fruitless in the hands of others. In his day all Europe rang with
+Boerhaave's name. To-day he is practically unknown. His books are
+antiquated, and if known, are neglected by modern physicians. He
+achieved nothing of lasting benefit to humanity. His fate, at least so
+far as the public is concerned, would undoubtedly have been Simpson's,
+in spite of his obstetric and gynæcological work, had it not been for
+the discovery of chloroform.
+
+The increased fame and greatly increased professional income which
+followed the successful struggle for anæsthesia did not affect
+Simpson's homely characteristics. He found time in the midst of it all
+to enjoy the pleasures of home in the society of those he loved best,
+and of intimate friends. He took a keen delight in quite the smallest
+enjoyments of the home circle. A characteristic letter was written to
+his wife in the summer of 1849; she had gone with the children to the
+Isle of Man; he told her the great and small events of his daily
+life:--
+
+"Delighted to hear from you that all were so well. Everything goes on
+nicely here. I have been looking out for a headache (but keep
+excellently well), for I have been working very busily, and scarcely
+with enough of sleep. Yesterday _beat_ (as Clark writes it) any day I
+ever yet saw in the house. Did not get out till half-past four, and
+the drawing-room actually filled beyond the number of chairs and
+seats! Have had a capital sleep, and got up to look at the ducks; but
+none laying this morning, so I write instead. To-day I have a fancy to
+run out to Bathgate, and I think I will.... Yesterday dined with
+Miller, and Williamson, the Duke of Buccleuch's huntsman, enlightened
+us about dogs. Miller and I go to Hamilton Palace on Saturday.... My
+ducks won't lay any more eggs, at which I feel very chagrined.... Two
+salmon came as presents last week. I gave one to Mrs. Bennet. We are
+beginning a new batch of examinations at the college. _Such_ a sleep
+as I had yesterday morning! I came home by the last Glasgow train,
+_very_ tired. Tom came to waken me at eight, but I snored so that he
+didn't. He called me at half-past nine. I don't think I had stirred
+from the moment I lay down. This morning I have been reading in bed
+since six. I did not rise till now (half-past seven), because there
+was no duck laying."
+
+In another letter written on the same occasion he says:--
+
+"... Tell Davie I expect a letter from him. Say to Walter that
+yesterday Carlo jumped into the carriage after me and saw with me
+several patients. He usually mounted a chair at the side of each bed
+and looked in. But Mrs. S. gave him too much encouragement. He leaped
+into bed altogether and tramped upon a blister! which was very
+painful."
+
+It was his custom to keep open house at breakfast and luncheon time;
+but the evening meal was, as a rule, reserved so that he might see and
+enjoy his own family and intimates. He lived exceedingly plainly
+himself; he did not smoke; his drink was water: but he delighted in
+setting a goodly repast before his guests. He loved a romp with his
+children, and spared an occasional hour from the afternoon for that
+enjoyment. The same energy entered into his play that was seen in his
+work. A craze ran through fashionable circles in the fifties for
+_tableaux vivants_, and was taken up by the Simpson household. He
+entered with spirit into the new amusement, perhaps more keenly
+because he saw an opportunity of combining in such representations
+instruction with amusement. Historical personages and scenes were
+represented, as well as illustrations of poetry and fiction. With his
+infective enthusiasm he pressed poets and painters, grave and gay,
+into service, and there is a record of one highly successful
+entertainment at 52, Queen Street, in 1854, to which young and old
+alike were invited. On this occasion most of the scenes represented
+serious events in Scots history, but Simpson himself seems to have
+supplied a little comedy. Sandwiched between a scene of "Flora
+Macdonald watching Prince Charlie" and one of "Rebecca and Eleazar at
+the Well" came that of "The Babes in the Wood." Simpson and a
+professional colleague disported themselves as the Babes, and appeared
+sucking oranges and dressed as children--short dresses, pinafores,
+frilled drawers, white socks, and children's shoes. They wandered
+about a while, and then lay weeping down to die to an accompaniment of
+roars of laughter and to the great delight of the juveniles. It is
+but a small incident to chronicle, but it shows in his home life the
+great physician who was beloved by thousands. His deep sympathies made
+him delight in the society of children. As years increased, and with
+them work became overwhelming and worries and troubles persistent, he
+appreciated more and more the refreshment of a frolic with his
+children. He echoed Longfellow's pure words:--
+
+  "Come to me, oh ye children,
+    For I hear you at your play,
+  And the questions that perplexed me
+    Have vanished quite away.
+
+  . . . . . . . . . .
+
+  For what are all our contrivings,
+    And the wisdom of our books,
+  When compared with your caresses
+    And the gladness of your looks."
+
+His affectionate disposition and kindly manner gained the devotion of
+his many child patients; and his own family bereavements made him a
+sympathetic physician and friend to many a sorrowing mother. There was
+no cant or affectation in his sympathy; it grew out of his large
+heart.
+
+Animals also he was fond of and gentle to, as we know from the history
+of the dogs who successively reigned in the household, so charmingly
+given to us by his daughter. One episode in the life of Puck, a black
+and tan terrier more intelligent than "breedy," deserves repetition.
+The dog had accompanied the Professor and some of his children into
+the country one afternoon on an expedition to dig for antiquarian
+relics. "After tea Puck, seeing every one carrying something to the
+station, demanded the honour of relieving his master of a _Lancet_,
+and went off with his small burden looking very important.... At the
+station the dog was missing. All got into their places but Puck. 'I
+will follow in the next train,' said the Professor; 'Puck is too dear
+a little friend to lose....' All he found of Puck was a muddy
+_Lancet_, and the last that had been seen of the old dog was that he
+was pushing his way through a crowd of idle colliers, where it was
+supposed his energies had been so engrossed in guarding the _Lancet_
+that he had lost sight of his party.... His master stayed there until
+next morning, and some remembered afterwards how Puck's loss gave them
+another evening's talk with one they loved, though he broke in on the
+reminiscences with 'I wonder where little Puck is,' or 'Is that his
+bark?' No Puck came to demand entrance, and hope of his return was
+given up after three days passing without news of him. His master was
+thinking of the sorrowful letter he would have to write to Puck's
+companions when late one night, as he paced wearily up and down the
+room, he thought he heard a faint bark. There had been a great deal of
+listening of late for the little dog's bark; but it seemed vain to
+think of Puck's retracing his steps through an unknown country for so
+many miles. Still the Professor opened the door and called. Up the
+area steps something did limp into the hall. That it was Puck seemed
+doubtful at first, for he was quick and bright, and this animal was a
+lame ball of mud hardly able to crawl. The bright eyes, however, were
+Puck's; and he confirmed his identity by exerting his remaining
+energies to give one leap gratefully to kiss the friendly face that
+bent over him.... His truant play-fellows received a long letter from
+their father telling them of Puck's adventure and imagining Puck's
+feelings and trials through his long wanderings.... That letter always
+recalls Puck and his never-resting master bending over his desk,
+despite press of business, to send the news to Puck's companions."
+
+Simpson looked no further than his own nursery and circle of close
+friends for the refreshment and recreation which nature demanded in
+the course of his busy daily life. But holidays were necessary
+sometimes. He exhibited all the aversion of an enthusiastically
+busy man to leaving his work, but would yield sometimes to the
+solicitations of friends and would more readily leave his patients for
+a time if a prospect was held out of some interesting archæological
+research to be indulged in. In 1850 he suffered from an abscess,
+caused by blood-poisoning contracted during professional work. At
+the request of his friends Professor Syme was called in, somewhat
+to the chagrin of Simpson's old friend and colleague, Miller. It is
+interesting to note that in spite of the recent controversy on
+anæsthetics, Montgomery of Dublin, who had keenly opposed him, was
+amongst the first to write a sympathetic note on hearing of his
+illness; although dissenting from some of Simpson's professional
+utterances, Montgomery was influenced by the Professor's personality
+to respect him as a man and a worker.
+
+After this illness Simpson took a rapid run round the Continent,
+visiting those cities where anything professional was to be picked up.
+As he expressed it himself he "scampered" round the Universities,
+Museums, and Hospitals, seeing and hearing all that was to be seen and
+heard. He stowed away the newly acquired knowledge in the recesses of
+his mighty brain, and hastened on to the next place of interest before
+his companions had gained their breath sufficiently to regard with
+intelligent interest the objects he had already left behind. In Paris,
+on the occasion of one of his flying visits into a hospital, he was
+present at an operation, unknown to the surgeon, in which chloroform
+was used not only as a preventive of pain, but also for its remedial
+effect; after the operation the surgeon addressed his students upon
+the subject of chloroform, and Simpson had the pleasure of listening
+to a hearty eulogy of it. When, at the end, he handed in his card, the
+operator's delight was genuine and effusive, and the students
+enthusiastically appreciated the somewhat dramatic scene. On such
+occasions when he had to submit to the embraces of delighted foreign
+scientists, the exuberant manner in which they kissed him was not to
+his liking; even the remote strain of French blood in his own veins
+did not help him to enjoy the Continental mode of salutation. All over
+Europe his name was honoured and revered. It is said that when in
+later years an Edinburgh citizen was presented at the Court of Denmark
+the King remarked, "You come from Edinburgh? Ah! Sir Simpson was of
+Edinburgh!"
+
+The last trip to the Continent, indeed his last real holiday, was
+taken in 1868, when he ran over to Rome. So public was the life he
+led, such matters of interest to his fellow-countrymen were his
+comings and goings, that the _Scotsman_ newspaper chronicled his
+doings, relating the sights and places of interest which he visited,
+and noting that his professional services were taken advantage of by
+many Roman citizens during the few days that he was there; and that if
+time had permitted a public reception would have been given to him. In
+all his foreign trips his object was to learn, not to teach; he
+followed Sir Isaac Newton's advice to Ashton, and let his discourse be
+more in queries than in assertions or disputings. He took care neither
+to seem much wiser nor much more ignorant than his company.
+
+Sometimes feeling the need of rest himself he would take one or
+perhaps three days for a rapid run to the Lakes, or would spend
+another in the country unearthing some antiquarian object. It was
+always a pleasure to him to visit Bathgate, where his uncle and
+friend Alexander had latterly resigned the baker's business and taken
+up the _rôle_ of banker. One of his favourite resorts was a small
+house called Viewbank which he had taken, situated on the shores of
+the Firth of Forth. Here he was close to the fishing village of
+Newhaven; the fisher folks--the men and the picturesquely attired
+"fish-wives"--a sturdy and original set of people, were a great
+interest to him. They knew him well both as an occasional visitor and
+as the good physician.
+
+One of his letters written in 1856 gives an indication of the wide
+area over which his services were requisitioned and rendered.
+
+  "_Sunday._
+
+  "I write this at Viewbank, which is very pretty this afternoon,
+  but where I have not been for a week or more. This year I have not
+  yet had one single holiday, and scarcely expect one now. I have
+  had many long runs during the past few months. I have been often
+  up in England, professionally, during the summer; once as far as
+  Brighton seeing a consumptive case; once at Scarboro' where my
+  wife went with me; once or twice in London where I saw the Queen;
+  once at Ambleside. I long and weary for a _real_ jaunt without a
+  sick patient lying at the end of it. And I had a great fancy to
+  run from Manchester to Douglas and send all the patients far
+  enough; I have been too hard worked to write, but I _must_ write
+  one or two papers now. Queen Street has been a little hotel
+  during the summer--always some sick lady or another sleeping in
+  it, sometimes several at night."
+
+Even on these professional journeys he found time to examine objects
+of interest in the neighbourhood; or if he was unable to leave the
+immediate proximity of his patient, he brought pen and paper to the
+bedside and worked while he waited; thus he economised time as he
+advised his students always to do. It is doubtful if any one less
+great than Simpson would have ever been allowed to labour thus by a
+sufferer's bedside; indeed even he was not always permitted to do so.
+It is recorded that, at least, one lady rose hastily and seized his
+pen so that he was obliged to desist.
+
+The striking form with which Nature had endowed him, became more
+remarkable when affected by years, work, and domestic afflictions.
+Though of medium height his presence, even beside typically large-built
+and large-boned fellow-countrymen, was never insignificant. His
+features, overhung by his massive forehead, surrounded by the long and
+thick hair, spoke his character. Firm, concentrated mouth and piercing
+eyes, when his mind was fixed on a scientific or practical object. A
+soft, womanly tenderness about the lips, and a genial, sympathetic
+emotion in his deep-set eyes when aroused by an object of pity or
+pleasure. His hand was "broad and powerful, but the fingers were
+pointed and specially sensitive of touch." To see him was to see one of
+the sights of the modern Athens. His features are familiar to us
+to-day as one of the ring of brilliant, intellectual faces forming a
+frame to the picture of Queen Victoria in this the year of her Diamond
+Jubilee--a year of triumphant retrospection, unprecedented in the
+history of nations.
+
+It was impossible that a man holding Simpson's position, engaged in
+his work, and possessed of distinct fighting characteristics, should
+not make enemies. He could say, as Jenner said before him, "As for
+fame, what is it? A gilded butt for ever pierced by the arrows of
+malignancy. The name of John Hunter stamps this observation with the
+signature of truth."
+
+The arrows of malignancy did not hurt Simpson. He was very little, if
+at all, affected by them; but he paid, perhaps, more attention to them
+than we might have expected him to pay; certainly more than they
+deserved. His love of the fray led him oftentimes to answer what had
+better have been left unnoticed, and dragged him into prolonged,
+sometimes bitter, and, it is to be regretted, often unworthy,
+controversies. There was so much valuable work to be done, and his
+efforts were always so fruitful in result that we grudge the time
+spent in these squabbles; there arises an instinctive feeling that had
+he devoted the energy wasted in these contests to furthering some
+single branch of science, he would have made distinct advances
+therein. There was nothing superficial about his work; whatever the
+object it was thoroughly entered into; his writings convey to one a
+sense of the power he had of seeing all round and through a question,
+and of weighing and judging evidence. There was likewise no scamping
+in his mode of treating his opponents in these squabbles; he used his
+weapons fearlessly and administered many a trouncing to weak
+opponents.
+
+It was a time of upheaval in things medical. The microscope and
+stethoscope had been introduced into the science and practice of the
+healing art. Scientific experiment and research were beginning to lay
+the foundations of rational medicine and surgery. Edinburgh was in the
+front rank of modern progress, as she has ever been. Men like Simpson,
+Syme, Miller, Alison, and Christison, were not likely to lag behind.
+But, unfortunately, it was equally unlikely that such great minds
+could all think alike in matters concerning the principles of the
+science and art which they taught and practised. Thus it happened that
+the Edinburgh School became notorious for its internal quarrels, and
+in these Simpson was, as a rule, to be found busy.
+
+Quite apart from these professional differences were the disputes
+arising from attacks made upon Simpson by professional brethren
+and laymen, who accused him of wrong treatment or neglect of
+patients. His fame endowed him with almost superhuman powers in the
+minds of patients and their friends. When all other means had failed
+Simpson was hastened to as a last but sure resource; bitter the
+disappointment, bitter was the grief, and also sometimes bitter the
+things said of him when the anxious friends of a sufferer found
+that even Simpson's powers of healing were limited. These attacks were
+some of the "arrows of malignancy," which naturally fell about the
+over-busy man. He thought it necessary to stop, pick up these arrows,
+and challenge the assailants; we may regret that he stooped so often
+to this action, but we feel that it sprang as much from the love of
+truth and justice as from the dictates of a disposition inclined
+towards quarrel.
+
+It is impossible to pass over the great controversy which raged in
+Edinburgh about 1850 on the merits of homoeopathy, in which Simpson,
+of course, took a leading part. About the beginning of the century the
+practice of medicine by the apothecaries, as the general practitioners
+were then called, consisted in the most unscientific, nay, haphazard
+administration of drugs in large quantities and combinations. It was
+an age of drugging doctors, and the custom had become so thoroughly
+established that it is doubtful whether any less completely opposite
+system than that introduced by Hahnemann would have convinced the
+public that after all so many drugs were not required, nor such large
+quantities of them. Homoeopathic practice was founded on facts
+improperly interpreted, and laid down for general use a procedure
+that was applicable in only a limited number of cases. As Dr. Lauder
+Brunton has recently pointed out, it is in many instances only a
+method of faith-cure, and as such has its value. The success which its
+practitioners certainly obtained in many cases where the ordinary
+wholesale drugging of the day had proved futile, at once made men
+pause ere allowing their bodies to be made receptacles for the
+complicated preparations of the physician. In Edinburgh at this time
+the influence of homoeopathy had been felt. Alison, a physician of
+great renown, was to the end a pronounced polypharmacist, and was said
+scarcely ever to leave a patient without a new bottle or prescription.
+Graham, another university professor, was also a thorough-going old
+school therapeutist. On the other hand, Syme treated all medicine
+except rhubarb and soda with disdain; and Henderson, the professor of
+Pathology, and also a practising physician, after professing to
+consider no medicine of very much value, became a pronounced sceptic,
+and finally horrified his colleagues by making trials of homoeopathy,
+and gradually becoming enamoured of it until he confessed himself a
+full follower of Hahnemann's doctrines. Christison was leading the
+school which urged that the action of medicines should be studied
+experimentally if their administration was to be founded on scientific
+grounds. The behaviour of Henderson, who so greatly owed his position
+as professor to Simpson, stirred the wrath of the latter. He examined
+and condemned the irrational system of Hahnemann, and threw himself
+into an attitude of strong opposition. Syme and Christison ably
+seconded him in strong public action. Henderson was obliged to resign
+his chair owing to "loss of health." Homoeopathy was thoroughly
+crushed in Edinburgh. The contest between the old system of drugging
+with large complicated doses of powerful remedies, and the new one of
+giving on principle infinitesimal doses of the same medicines, served
+a good purpose. It gave an opportunity for establishing rational
+therapeutics, a science which is making daily progress, and in the
+presence of which neither the old system nor homoeopathy can stand.
+
+About this same period mesmerism was again coming to the front, this
+time cloaked as a science termed electro-biology. Simpson acknowledged
+that there was a great deal in mesmerism demanding scientific
+investigation; but with his reasoning powers he could not realise the
+existence of the mystically-termed higher phenomena of animal
+magnetism, _e.g._, lucidity, transference of the senses, and, above
+all, clairvoyance. It happened that a professional mesmerist gave a
+performance in Edinburgh; learning that the "professor's" daughter was
+stated to be able to read anything written on paper, or to divine any
+object enclosed in a sealed box while under her father's mesmeric
+power, Simpson attended the performance. He took with him a
+specially-prepared test--a sealed box with certain unknown contents;
+this he presented at a suitable opportunity. Against their own wishes,
+but on the insistence of the audience, the performers made an attempt
+by their methods to detect the nature of the contents of this
+test-box. They pronounced it to be money; on opening it millet seed
+was found, and a piece of paper, on which was written, "humbug."
+
+An accusation, couched in bitter terms, that Simpson was really a
+supporter of mesmerism as it was then known, was published in one of
+the leading professional journals in London. He indignantly repudiated
+the suggestion and proposed to settle the matter finally by a simple
+expedient. He offered to place five sealed boxes each containing a
+line from Shakspeare written by himself on paper, in the hands of the
+editor of the journal who had permitted the attack to appear in his
+columns. To any clairvoyant who read these lines according to the
+professed method, and to the satisfaction of a committee of eminent
+medical men, he promised the sum of five hundred pounds. The offer,
+however, was not accepted.
+
+The brilliant attainments of many of its teachers at this period not
+only placed the Edinburgh school at the head of the British schools of
+medicine, but also led to tempting offers being made to individual
+professors by rival schools anxious to secure their services.
+
+London was a much more lucrative field for practice than the Scots
+metropolis, and several of the most eminent Edinburgh men had from
+time to time yielded to the temptation to migrate southwards. Indeed,
+London as a medical school owes a great deal to the Scotsmen whom she
+imported. Liston had left for London in 1834, and Syme followed, for a
+brief period, on Liston's death. In 1848 a strong effort was made to
+secure Simpson as a lecturer on midwifery at St. Bartholomew's
+Hospital; without any hesitation he decided to remain in the city
+where he had fought his way to fame, and where he enjoyed popularity,
+and a practice sufficiently lucrative to satisfy the most ambitious
+man. Every patriotic Scot applauded the decision.
+
+During these years of fame and prosperity Simpson concerned himself in
+schemes for the improvement of the surroundings of the working
+classes, and helped with speech and purse those who worked among the
+poor. He strongly supported the establishment of improved dwellings
+for workpeople and gave much attention to the subject of Cottage
+Hospitals. He did not neglect the poor amongst whom he had laboured in
+his early days. He loved old Edinburgh, and the poor inhabitants of it
+were near his heart. "The Professor" was known in many a "wynd" and
+"stair," where his services were rendered willingly and without
+reward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ARCHÆOLOGY--PRACTICE
+
+  His versatility--The Lycium of the Muses--The Catstane--Was the
+  Roman Army provided with medical officers?--Weems--His lack of
+  business method--Fees and no fees--Generosity often imposed
+  upon--His unusual method of conducting private practice--The
+  ten-pound note--Simpson and the hotel proprietors.
+
+
+Professor Simpson's versatility was remarkable. He turned from one
+subject to another and displayed a mastery over each; it was not
+merely the knowledge of principles which astonished but the intimate
+familiarity with details. He was able to discuss almost any subject in
+literature, science, politics, or theology with its leading exponent
+on equal terms. He had the power of patient listening as well as the
+gift of speech; more than that he had the ability to charm speech from
+others, of making each man reveal his inmost thoughts, betray his most
+cherished theories, or narrate his most stirring experiences; the most
+reticent man would not realise until he had left Simpson's presence,
+that in a brief interview, perhaps the first, he had told his greatest
+adventures, or laid bare his wildest aspirations before this student
+of mankind who was summarising his life and character as he spoke.
+Simpson built up his knowledge not so much from books as by the
+exercise of his highly developed faculty of observation aided by his
+memory. He enjoyed the study of his fellowmen and extracted all that
+was worth knowing from those with whom he came into contact. He never
+undertook work without a definite object in view, and rarely abandoned
+his task before that object was accomplished. Quite small researches
+would lead to considerable and unexpected labour. He preserved his
+scientific method, his desire to appeal only to the evidence of
+facts--not to other men's fancies--through his archæological work as
+well as in more professional lines of study. He laboured long and
+carefully over such an object as the study of old skulls dug up in
+antiquarian excursions; setting before himself the object of finding
+out by the condition and wear of the teeth what kind of food had been
+consumed by the owners, probably primeval inhabitants of some
+district. He impressed his methods upon those who worked for him or
+with him. We find him writing to his nephew, who was about to visit
+Egypt, telling him when there to gather information as to the
+suitability of the country for invalids, and directing him how to
+employ his leisure in furthering this object. He was to study German
+on the voyage thither, and to take with him as models Clarke's book on
+Climate and Mitchell's on Algiers, and any French or German books on
+the subject he might hear of. He would require to collect (1) The
+average daily temperature; (2) The hygrometric and barometric states
+daily; (3) The temperature of the Nile; (4) The temperature of any
+mineral springs; (5) The general character of the geology; (6) The
+general character of the botany of the country. He asked him to
+inquire specially as to the effect of the climate on consumption, and
+pointed out that Pliny described Egypt seventeen centuries ago as the
+best climate for phthisical patients. For amusement he was to take
+some good general book on Egypt and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The
+serious study of a succession of inquirers was to be the young man's
+holiday amusement!
+
+Simpson's most notable contributions to archæology were made when his
+time was most occupied professionally. The researches on Leprosy were
+first enlarged and improved. In 1852, when in the British Museum, his
+eye was attracted by a small leaden vase bearing a Greek inscription
+signifying the _Lycium of the Muses_. By a painstaking inquiry he
+established that this lycium was the _Lykion indikon_ of Dioscorides,
+drug used by ancient Greeks as an application to the eyes in various
+kinds of ophthalmia. It was obtained from India, and is still used for
+these purposes in that country. He discovered that there were three
+other examples of this ancient receptable for the valued eye-medicine
+in modern museums.
+
+He had correspondents in different parts of Scotland engaged in making
+researches into antiquities, which he encouraged and directed. Among
+such were inquiries into the whereabouts of a church said to possess
+holy earth brought from Rome; and a hunt for ancient cupping-vessels.
+The work on the Catstane of Kirkliston was elaborate, and a perfect
+example of his method. Probably this stone, a massive unhewn block of
+greenstone-trap, had been a familiar object to him in his youth, for
+it lay alone in a field close to the Linlithgow road. In his monograph
+he endeavoured to show by close reasoning, with profuse references to
+forgotten authorities and ancient history, that the stone was the tomb
+of one Vetta, the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa. His argument ran
+as follows: The surname Vetta, which figured on the inscription carved
+upon the stone, was the name of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa,
+as given by the oldest genealogists, who described him as the son of
+Victa. The inscription ran thus: VETTA F(ilius) VICTI. Vetta was an
+uncommon Saxon name, and no other Vetta, son of Victa, was known in
+history. Two generations before Hengist and Horsa arrived in England a
+Saxon host was leagued with the Picts, Scots, and Attacots in fighting
+a Roman army, and these Saxons were probably commanded by an ancestor
+of Hengist and Horsa. The battlefield was situated between the two
+Roman walls, and consequently included the tract where the stone is
+now placed. The palæographic characters of the inscription indicated
+that it was carved about the end of the fourth century. Latin (with a
+very few exceptions in Greek) was the only language known to have been
+used at that time by Romanised Britons and foreign conquerors for the
+purpose of inscriptions. The occasional erection of monuments to Saxon
+leaders is proved by the fact mentioned by Bede that in his time, the
+eighth century, there stood in Kent a monument commemorating the death
+of Horsa. In 1659 a writer had described this tomb of Horsa as having
+been destroyed by "storms and tempests under the conduct of time."
+
+In 1861 Simpson was president of the Society of Antiquaries of
+Scotland, and delivered an address on the past and present work of
+archæology which greatly stimulated antiquarian study in his country.
+Amongst the honours which his antiquarian achievements brought upon
+him was that of being appointed Professor of Antiquities to the Royal
+Academy of Scotland; he was also elected a member of the Archæological
+Societies of Athens, Nassau, and Copenhagen.
+
+He made researches into the subjects of lake dwellings, primeval
+pottery, and burial urns. One of his most valuable writings was upon
+the subject, "Was the Roman Army provided with Medical Officers?" He
+answered the question in the affirmative after a laborious hunt
+amongst votive and mortuary tablets; no Roman historians had left
+clear indications of the existence of any army medical department. He
+found that several tablets were preserved bearing inscriptions
+referring to army surgeons, which suggested that although they were
+all known as _medicus_ there were degrees of rank amongst them,
+notably the _medicus legionis_ and the _medicus cohortis_. There is a
+well-preserved tablet in the Newcastle Museum found in that
+neighbourhood, commemorating a surgeon of the first Tungrian cohort,
+and one in Dresden, referring to a _medicus duplicatorius_, a term
+which indicates that the surgeon had been fortunate enough by his
+attainments to merit, and, we hope, receive double fees for his
+services.
+
+All his antiquarian study was looked upon by Simpson himself as no
+more than a relaxation. Fatigued by days and nights of anxious
+consecutive professional work, he would suddenly dash off for a day
+into some part of the country where he knew there was a likely "find,"
+leaving patients and students to the care of his assistants. Here he
+would press into service and infect with his spirit all sorts of local
+worthies from the squire or laird down to the labourer, who woke up at
+his stimulation to find that what had been of no concern to them and
+their fathers before them--perhaps objects of vituperation or
+superstitious dread--were objects of keen delight and interest, and
+actually valuable to this astonishing man. Once on a professional
+visit to Fifeshire he quite casually discovered some remarkable though
+rough carvings in caves, representing various animals and curious
+emblems, and he was able to show that they presented features hitherto
+unnoticed. Fifeshire was famous for its underground dwellings, or, as
+they are locally called, "weems"--a term which gave origin to the
+title of the Earldom of Wemyss. After such an excursion he would
+return to Queen Street full of boyish spirits, eager to narrate his
+discoveries to interested friends, and refreshed ready to resume the
+daily round of work. Archæology was his hobby--the hobby on which he
+rode away for refreshment and relief from the monotony of his life's
+work; not only did the hobby constantly restore his flagging energies,
+but as it is given to few men to do, he put new life into his hobby
+whenever he bestrode it.
+
+In the conduct of his practice he was somewhat negligent. He was one
+of the old school in these matters; he trusted his head rather than
+paper, and his head had had such a careful self-imposed training since
+childhood that it was a good servant. But where the brain has such
+enormous duties to perform, those which appear to it unimportant must
+of necessity be comparatively neglected.
+
+Had he been more careful of pounds, shillings, and pence, he would
+have been more attentive to the details of practice. To Simpson,
+provided he had sufficient money for all his wants--and his wants
+were wide, for they included those of many others--pecuniary and
+business matters were of secondary consideration. In his student days
+he had lived carefully, accounting, as has been seen, for every
+trivial expenditure to those to whom he was indebted. But now he was
+free from the harassing necessity of exercising rigid economy, he cast
+aside the drudgery of business methods and disdained commercial
+considerations. He certainly received some very large fees, but the
+curious mixture of human beings who crowded his waiting-rooms were
+treated all alike whether they paid princely fees or no fee at all;
+lots were drawn daily for precedence, and they entered his presence
+according as they drew. His valet seems to have attained considerable
+skill in estimating the probable remunerative value of a roomful of
+waiting patients, and would grumble at night if on emptying the
+professor's pockets, as was his duty, the result fell short of his
+calculated anticipations. The man did not approve of the master's
+habit of giving gratuitous service. There were many who were never
+asked for a fee, and many others whose proffered guineas were refused.
+Simpson would not ask for money from those to whom he thought it was a
+struggle to pay him; the magnitude of his profit-yielding practice
+rendered this form of charity possible for him; from the really poor
+he always refused remuneration. His house was filled with all sorts
+of presents from patients, grateful for benefit conferred, grateful
+for generosity and consideration. He was also a free giver, and
+besides supporting orthodox charities made many gifts of goodly sums
+to persons who appeared to him to be in want, or who succeeded in
+impressing on him their need for help. He was imposed upon often
+enough; not seldom by pseudo-scientists full of some great discovery
+which a little more capital might enable them to complete. Once he
+corresponded with an enthusiast of this description who confessed that
+he had been breakfasting on a waistcoat, dining on a shirt, and
+supping on a pair of tough old leather boots, with the object of
+finding a solid substance, which combined with lead or tin would form
+gold--nothing more or less than the time-honoured philosopher's stone!
+To such a man Simpson gave freely not only once.
+
+To young students entering upon professional life with no other
+capital than their newly acquired qualifications to practice, he was
+ever generous. The Scots Universities sent forth many such youths,
+sturdy and independent, and with feelings that would be easily wounded
+by any attempt to patronise. But his gentleness, and the sympathy born
+of his own early experiences and shining in his eyes, made help from
+him something to be proud of.
+
+It could never be urged against Simpson that he was avaricious. Just
+as when honours were showered upon him he accepted them with less
+thought of the personal honour than of the appreciation of his
+friends and the public, and rejoiced that they were pleased; so he
+rejoiced in the acquisition of ample means chiefly because of the
+pleasure he might derive therefrom by helping others.
+
+His method of seeing patients was boldly haphazard; we learn with
+astonishment that he kept no list of his visits to be made, and
+started a day's round with only his prodigious memory to guide him as
+to where he should go. Such a method must have had the result that
+only cases of interest or urgency were seen. No doubt the able staff
+of assistants attended to the others, but these comprised not only
+sufferers from trivial complaints but those afflicted with imaginary
+ills who had come to see Simpson, not his assistant. Possibly they had
+already suffered many things of many physicians and were none the
+better. Such persons blamed Simpson with some reason. In the case of
+neurotic persons only was his method not reprehensible; continued
+attendance might have undone the benefit of the one application, if we
+may so term it, of his strong personality, which sometimes was all
+that was required, so superstitious was the reverence for his powers.
+A precise system of registration of engagements and visits ought
+certainly to have been adopted. We can sympathise with those who felt
+aggrieved that they could not obtain more attention from the great
+man, but it must be remembered that by his own method he saw a great
+number of difficult and dangerous cases, and was able to originate out
+of his wide and unprecedented experience, modes of treatment which are
+to-day valued highly and successfully made use of by his professional
+successors. He never wittingly left a fellow-creature's life in
+danger, but would hasten at all hours to cases of real urgency.
+
+As is usual where large numbers are striving after the same object
+some were highly careless in their communications with him. Fees were
+sent to him with a request for a receipt, but no address was given.
+Engagements were asked for by persons who neglected to say at what
+hotel they were staying; and others worried him for letters on quite
+trivial subjects. On one occasion, it is authentically related, a
+ten-pound note was forwarded to him by a man who might more reasonably
+have paid one hundred pounds. The note was somewhat carelessly not
+acknowledged, and the sender kept writing letters demanding an answer
+in increasing severity of tone. But he was left to rage in vain. A few
+nights later Simpson's sleep was disturbed by a rattling window; in
+the dark he rose and groped for a piece of paper wherewith to stuff
+the chink and stop the irritating noise. His only comment next morning
+when his wife, having removed the paper and discovered its nature came
+to him with it, was, "Oh! it's _that_ ten pounds!"
+
+There was a great want of method in all his arrangements, and Dr. Duns
+confesses to having had considerable difficulty in arranging
+Simpson's letters and papers, so carelessly were they kept.
+
+The leading hotels in the city benefited by Simpson's reputation.
+Patients and pilgrims filled their rooms long before tourists began to
+crowd Scotland as they do to-day. When Simpson was elected to the
+Chair of Midwifery loud complaints were uttered by the hotel
+proprietors. His predecessor, Professor Hamilton, had been a man of
+such wide reputation that they derived much profit from the patients
+sent in from the surrounding country to be attended by him. How could
+a young man like Simpson equal this? And yet when he died there was
+more than one hotel proprietor who could attribute no small measure of
+his own success to the patients and visitors who crowded not only from
+the country districts of Scotland but from the most remote parts of
+the British Empire, as well as from the great cities of Europe and
+America, to gain help or speech from or perhaps only to see this same
+Simpson. And his fame had reached the high point it ever after
+maintained when he was but a young man--before he was forty years of
+age. It was estimated that no less than eighty thousand pounds per
+annum was lost to the hotel, lodging, and boarding-house keepers of
+Edinburgh when he died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PERSONAL--PROFESSORIAL--PROFESSIONAL
+
+  His genius--Fertility of resource--Personal influence--Work in
+  obstetrics and gynæcology and surgery--His lecturing and
+  teaching--The healing of wounds--Acupressure--Hospitalism--Proposal
+  to stamp out infectious diseases.
+
+
+Professor A. R. Simpson has said that his uncle Sir James Simpson's
+genius showed itself in his power of seeing things, in his power of
+adapting means to ends, and in his power of making others see what he
+had seen and do what he had done. We have seen these characteristics
+displayed in his work upon anæsthesia; it is literally true that he
+left no stone unturned to gain his end and to make others look upon
+anæsthesia in the same light as he regarded it. He declared all the
+while that if he found the opposition to the administration of
+chloroform in midwifery practice too powerful to conquer alone, he
+would finally overcome it by bringing about such a state of public
+opinion on the subject as would compel the profession to adopt his
+methods.
+
+Whether we regard Simpson as a physician or as a surgeon, as a
+gynæcologist or as an accoucheur, we find that his success was always
+due to the same causes. He possessed no secret remedies such as an
+ignorant and imaginative section of the public often credit to
+successful medical men. He performed no operations with which other
+surgeons were not equally familiar and equally capable of performing;
+indeed he frequently sent his surgical cases to operators in whose
+hands he considered they would be more skilfully treated than in his.
+In obstetrics and gynæcology his skill arose not only from his
+unrivalled experience, but also from his power of rapid diagnosis, and
+his promptness and boldness in treatment.
+
+His readiness in resource was unfailing. On one occasion, it is
+related, during an operation the bottle of chloroform was knocked over
+and its contents were spilled upon the carpet before the surgeon had
+completed his work; whilst his colleagues were wondering what was to
+be done or how a further supply of the anæsthetic could be obtained
+with sufficient speed, Simpson was on his knees hacking out with his
+knife the portion of carpet on which the chloroform had just fallen;
+and by means of this extemporised inhaler the operation proceeded
+uninterrupted to the end.
+
+He carried his distinguishing energy and thoroughness into every
+branch of his work; even in extempore speeches made at meetings of
+professional societies, he placed facts before his listeners in so
+convincing and lucid a manner out of the extensive variety of his
+knowledge, and aided by his great memory, that if he did not in
+reality gain the point he argued in favour of he generally appeared to
+do so. On such occasions too his imperturbable temper was a valuable
+weapon.
+
+There is no doubt that the genial professor availed himself fully of
+the unbounded confidence placed in him by his patients. Those of us
+who did not know him cannot appreciate what we have already said, that
+the charm of his personality was one of the greatest factors of his
+success in practice, and of his social success; there is the risk of
+the appearance of exaggeration in any description of this personal
+influence. The sympathy of his heart, a real sympathy, not a thin
+professional veneer, was made manifest by deed as well as word. It
+aroused in his patient, quite unconsciously to both, a feeling that
+this man, above all other men, understood his complaint; that he, the
+sufferer was the chief, if not the only object of his thought and
+care. It was said over and over again of him that his words and look
+did more good than all his physic, so able a wielder was he of that
+healing power which reaches the body through the mind. Those who knew
+him not, but falling sick hastened to Edinburgh to be healed by him,
+were oftentimes cured simply because they felt beforehand that he
+would cure them. They followed unconsciously the ancient command of
+the Talmud, where it says, "Honour your physician before you have
+need of him," and went to him full of respect and fired by faith. Wise
+men have striven through all ages to take advantage of this influence
+of the mind over the body, and the necessity of possessing a healthy
+mind if the body is also to be healthy. A striking proof of the
+antiquity of the thought has been recently furnished in a fashion that
+would have delighted Simpson. On a papyrus, dated A.D. 200, brought to
+light by Egyptian explorers, it is written that Christ said: "A
+prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician
+work cures upon them that know him."
+
+The advances which Simpson made in the science and practice of both
+midwifery and gynæcology were due to the magnitude of his experience
+and the readiness of his genius to profit by experience. His one
+thought being the relief of suffering and the prolongation of life, he
+approached the bedside as a man with less high aspirations would fail
+to do. He considered only the patient's interest, and gave his genius
+free play. He took midwifery and gynæcology by storm, and urged them
+on to great developments; he believed in observing, helping, or
+imitating nature rather than acting, as his predecessors had done,
+upon preconceived ideas which oftener than not ran contrary to
+nature's commands. He avoided meddlesomeness, and stepped in only as
+the ally of nature. He took numerous hints from bygone practitioners
+and writers, and developed them. To-day we are profiting by his
+teaching, and the instruments which he devised or perfected.
+
+To mention all his suggestions and all his contributions to the arts
+which he specially practised would here be obviously impossible as
+well as out of place; but to medical readers the mention of one
+instrument associated with his name, and known as _the sound_, will
+give a small indication of how much we are in his debt. The principle
+of this instrument had been known long before he took it in hand, but
+it was left for him to introduce it into practice, perfect it, and
+preach its value in diagnosis and treatment. So thorough was his work,
+so farseeing his science, that our knowledge of its utility has
+scarcely been added to since he first drew attention to it in 1843.
+
+Towards operative work his attitude was characteristically conscientious.
+We are told that he habitually put the following question to himself when
+contemplating a serious operation: "Am I conscientiously entitled to
+inflict deliberately upon my fellow-creature with my own hands the
+imminent and immediate chance of death for the problematic and
+prospective chance of his future improved health and prolonged life?"
+The fact that he habitually thus questioned himself is an evidence of the
+state of surgery at that time. Operations were undertaken only as a last
+resource to save life; the surgeon knew full well that he placed his
+patient in further peril merely by cutting through the skin, in a manner
+which has now happily become a thing of the past.
+
+His work was so pre-eminently practical that he never stopped to
+collect together his experiences into a scientific treatise. Although
+he revivified midwifery, and was one of the original founders of
+gynæcology, he left to aftercomers the labour of studying what he had
+done, and drawing the conclusions on which to strengthen the fabric of
+the science. His pamphlets, papers, and reports are very numerous. It
+would be wrong to say that modern thought has approved all that he
+wrote; but however much time and increased knowledge may have modified
+his teaching, they have not detracted from the value of his
+researches, discoveries, and suggestions, or from the stimulating
+influence of his work upon contemporary practice and thought.
+
+As a lecturer and teacher Simpson succeeded as in the other branches
+of his work. His brilliant exposition of his subjects and his careful
+practical manner of teaching his young listeners doubled the fame
+which had begun with his predecessor, Professor Hamilton, and has ever
+since belonged to the Edinburgh school of obstetricians. But here
+again his personal attractiveness and power gained for him the greater
+part of his success. In the words of the _Lancet_, written when
+reviewing a posthumous collection of some of his writings, his
+lectures used to brighten the gloomy days of the Edinburgh winter; in
+perusing the publication under review, Edinburgh men would "almost
+think they saw the big head and face of the great obstetrician, as
+they used to see him beaming with satisfaction or twinkling with
+genial humour as he told a good story, or related a happy case,
+illustrative of his own bold and original practice." Both as a
+lecturer and as a bedside teacher he captured his students by the
+charm of his diction, the wide range of his knowledge, and as
+Professor Gusserow has pointed out in his masterly memoir, by his
+peculiar talent of having his knowledge at his fingers' ends, and that
+often in very remote details.
+
+Year by year he never failed to obtain the affection of his students;
+scarcely a man that had been taught by him but would proudly boast
+that he was his friend as well as his teacher. He treated his large
+class in a confiding spirit--not as the superior person delivering _ex
+cathedrâ_ utterances, but as the friend rejoicing in his function of
+admitting those around him into the knowledge in which he seemed to
+revel. He had a happy method of getting on good terms with his
+audience before proceeding to the serious business of the lecture.
+When his health began to fail he was sometimes unwillingly laid aside,
+and the lectures were delivered by a substitute. On one occasion he
+re-appeared pale, weak, and lame, after such an enforced holiday, and
+was greeted enthusiastically by a crowded class. He told them that his
+servant had said to him that a rumour was abroad that he was in
+Morningside Asylum. He had asked what answer he had made, and heard
+that he had replied that so far from being wrong in his mind his
+master was writing a book in bed. While he did not say that this
+answer was strictly correct, he was happy to assure them, his pupils,
+that he was quite right in his mind, although a friend had hinted that
+morning that he was rather weak in his _understanding_!
+
+Old fellow-students meeting each other in after life as staid
+practitioners take pleasure in recalling the idiosyncrasies and
+peculiarities of their teachers; it is probable that no professor has
+ever been talked over with the appreciation which breathes through the
+reminiscences of Simpson conjured up by those whom he taught.
+
+Simpson left his mark in other departments besides those of the
+subject of his professorial chair and of anæsthesia. About ten
+years after the introduction of chloroform he turned his attention
+to the process of wound-healing--the repair of necessary wounds
+inflicted by surgeons in the course of their work--and although he
+was promptly told to go back to his midwifery, he worked persistently
+at the subject. In those days the subject was the most burning one in
+surgery and the methods employed to bring about successful results
+varied in different schools. The object of all methods was the
+same, viz., to obtain a healthy, clean, and sightly result after
+an operation; to leave the part which had been of necessity cut in a
+condition as nearly as possible approaching that in which it had
+been found, without the incidence of any of the too frequent grave
+complications. Surgeons did not recognise at first the power of
+nature to effect for them what they strove after; they thought to
+attain their object by compelling the tissues to heal as they
+desired by complicated applications, and many were the layers of
+ointments and masses of dressings heaped on wounds for this
+purpose. For a long time all efforts were directed to the discovery
+of some specific substance, the application of which would give the
+necessary impulse towards healing in the desired manner. Before
+Simpson's day it had been generally recognised that the cause--but
+its nature was quite undreamt of--of the trouble lay in the air
+surrounding the wound, and more dressings were piled on to keep
+out the air. But at the same time bleeding was arrested by tying the
+cut arteries with ligatures--chiefly silken--and these were left
+with long ends hanging out of the wound to work their way out by a
+process of ulceration, or irritation of the tissues until liberty was
+obtained. This process was practically incompatible with the ideal
+form of healing, known as healing by _first intention_, _i.e._,
+union without appreciable loss of substance or the formation of
+_pus_ or matter. So-called "surgical fever," secondary hæmorrhage,
+and blood-poisoning were the frequent fatal results of operation
+wounds treated in this manner. Simpson and others thought to prevent
+these alarming diseases by devising other means of closing the
+arteries; thinking that if some method or material were used,
+which nature resented less, the wound would more readily close by
+first intention. In 1858 Simpson stated that he had for some time
+past been experimenting with substitutes for the ordinary silk and
+thread ligatures, and in the course of his experiments had made use
+of iron, silver, and platinum wires. In his usual way he hunted up
+old authorities, and found a record of both silver and gold threads
+having been experimentally used by bygone practitioners. He seems to
+have been pleased with his results, stating that he found the
+tissues much more tolerant of these metallic ligatures than they were
+of the ordinary organic ones; that only "adhesive inflammation," not
+ulcerative suppurative inflammation, was excited. This success,
+however, was probably due to the superior cleanliness of the metal,
+but this he did not recognise; had he done so he might have been led
+to strive after surgical cleanliness, and have partly anticipated the
+great work done subsequently by others. He went off, however, on a
+different line, and searched for some readier method of using
+metallic means of closing the blood vessels, being stimulated by
+the desire to abolish ligatures altogether. Thus he was led, after
+ten years' careful research, to the introduction of a method entirely
+original--that of _Acupressure_. This consisted in the introduction
+of a fine needle through the tissues across the course of the
+artery, so that while the needle pressed upon one side of the artery
+the resisting tissues of the body exerted counter-pressure on the
+opposite side. He claimed for his method the merits of simplicity,
+elegance, and cleanliness, and urged that not only did the tissues
+tolerate the needle as they did not tolerate silk or hemp, but that
+unlike the ligature the needle could be withdrawn as soon as
+nature had closed the blood vessel by the process of coagulation of
+the blood within it set up by the pressure; thus the prolonged
+irritating presence of a body within the wound which delayed
+healing until it had ulcerated its way out was rendered unnecessary,
+and a better and more rapid result was attained. He verified his
+theoretical considerations by experiments on animals and in one or
+two operations on the human subject, and in 1859 read a communication
+on the subject to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
+
+The paper was written under great pressure of work, indeed he stated
+that at that time he was hardly ever able to write except when himself
+"confined"; it was hastily prepared to take the place of that of
+another Fellow which had failed to be forthcoming a few days before
+the appointed meeting. It was composed at a country house where he had
+to sleep for two or three nights watching a case of diphtheria. It was
+headed as usual by a Shakspearian quotation, this time briefly in
+Justice Shallow's words, thus:--"Tut, a pin!" On the evening of its
+delivery an abstract of the paper was forwarded to the leading
+surgeons in England, Europe, and America, and diverse were the
+opinions expressed.
+
+In Scotland the new method met with the greatest favour and the
+strongest opposition at one and the same time. Throughout Europe and
+America it was everywhere received with applause and support.
+Excellent results were obtained when the method was properly applied,
+but technical considerations, particularly the difficulty of using it
+upon blood vessels far removed from the surface, rendered it
+unsuitable for universal application.
+
+Professor Syme met the innovation with vehement opposition;
+possibly he resented this intrusion of the gynæcologist into the
+regions of general surgery. He took into his class-room one pamphlet
+on the subject by Simpson, which had especially aroused his wrath; he
+stormed at the author before his students for "his vulgar insolence,"
+and then, in a dramatic scene, expressed the violence of his contempt
+by savagely tearing the pamphlet into pieces and casting it away.
+In a subsequent controversy between these two old opponents, who
+had been temporarily united by Simpson's conduct in consulting Syme
+professionally, by their joint action against homoeopathy, and by
+Simpson's defence of Syme when publicly attacked by an English
+surgeon, the feud was renewed.
+
+Simpson persisted for years in collecting reports of operations in
+which acupressure was employed, and published them from time to time
+in the _British Medical Journal_ and elsewhere. In 1864 his work
+on the subject took the form of a volume containing 580 quarto pages.
+His friends endeavoured to rank acupressure with chloroform as one
+of the blessings to humanity made manifest by him. He himself
+recognised that he had failed to gain for acupressure a place in
+practice such as he had gained for chloroform, but he looked forward
+to a time, perhaps a quarter of a century distant, when his method
+would be beginning to be thought about. In this he was mistaken for,
+on the contrary, acupressure was beginning to be forgotten long before
+twenty-five years had elapsed. Another worker on more strictly
+scientific lines had by that time made healing by first intention,
+without complications, the rule instead of the exception, and
+conferred a benefit on humanity as great if not greater than that of
+anæsthesia. In 1867, while Simpson was still alive, Mr. (now Lord)
+Lister (then a hospital surgeon in Glasgow, and subsequently Syme's
+successor in Edinburgh) enunciated the new principle of "antiseptic
+surgery," which recognised the living infective micro-organisms of
+the air as the cause of the trouble in wounds. He directed that as
+these invisible organisms (known only by means of the microscope)
+were present everywhere in the air, found their way into all sorts of
+wounds, and set up the decomposition which led to disastrous
+results, they were to be destroyed or excluded from wounds; and he
+suggested effective means of accomplishing this end. He further
+abolished the long ligatures which irritated by their presence, and
+by the organisms they conveyed into the wound when imperfectly
+cleansed as they usually were; and substituted non-irritating
+ligatures which nature herself was able to remove by the process of
+absorption. The recognition of this antiseptic principle effected a
+much needed revolution in surgery, and in this revolution acupressure
+was practically annihilated. Simpson did not live long enough to
+see the complete establishment of the Listerian principle; at
+first he vigorously opposed what he considered to be an attempt to
+retain the old-fashioned ligatures in preference to his new
+acupressure; but with his penetrative eye he must have foreseen
+that should the new practice prevail and short absorbable ligatures
+be made possible, acupressure would be completely superseded.
+
+In the estimation of the writer of the obituary notice of Professor
+Simpson in the _British Medical Journal_, the greatest of all his
+works was that undertaken in the subject of Hospitalism. As early as
+1847 he had been horrified to read in a report of the work done in the
+Edinburgh Infirmary, that out of eighteen cases of primary amputation
+performed during a period of four years only two survived. He faced
+this fact with the courage of the reformer, and sought far and near
+for other facts to support the theory which he gradually evolved, that
+this melancholy failure of surgeons to save their patients' lives was
+due not so much to the operation or the operator as to the
+environment of the patient. In later years he himself often shrank, on
+account of unfortunate experiences, from performing capital operations
+which he had formerly unhesitatingly undertaken. The unhealthiness of
+hospitals had long been recognised; and was especially observed at
+times when they were overcrowded, as happened during war time. When
+the public had thoroughly grasped the utility of anæsthetics, and
+recognised that operations could be performed painlessly, there were
+fewer refusals to submit to the knife; there was a rush to the
+hospitals, and the surgical wards throughout the length and breadth of
+the land became crowded with men and women actually longing for
+operation. Amongst these all the dreaded sequelæ of surgical
+interference, which no power seemed able to check, ravaged with
+alarming severity.
+
+It is to Simpson's credit that he perceived how the introduction of
+anæsthesia had taxed the hospitals and bewildered the operators, who
+sought diligently but unsuccessfully in every direction for some means
+of reducing hospital mortality. He was one of the first to set to work
+with method to investigate this question of Hospitalism.
+
+It was towards the end of his career, when the old Edinburgh Infirmary
+stood condemned, and various proposals for rebuilding it on a new site
+and improved plan were under discussion, that his voice was most
+loudly heard. For many years he had thought and taught that the great
+mortality after operations in hospitals was due to the impure state of
+the air therein, derived from the congregation of a large number of
+sick persons under one roof. He picturesquely stated that the man laid
+on a hospital operating table was exposed to more chances of death
+than the English soldier was on the field of Waterloo. His original
+suggestion was that hospitals might be changed from being crowded
+palaces, with a layer of sick on each floor, into villages or
+cottages, with one, or at most two, patients in each room; the
+building to be of iron, so that it could be periodically taken down
+and reconstructed, and presumably thoroughly renovated. This drastic
+proposal brings nowadays a smile to the lips, for we see now how he
+was groping in the dark; but the magnitude of it is but the shadow of
+the evil it was designed to cure. The change was so great as to be
+impracticable in the eyes of most men; he, on the other hand,
+contended that it was to be of incalculable benefit to humanity, and,
+therefore, no difficulty, however great, should be allowed to stand in
+the way. He did not understand that the evils arose not from the air
+itself but from what was in the air, known to us now as the
+micro-organisms. His remedy was a proposal to run away from the evils
+without receiving any guarantee that they could not and would not
+successfully pursue. Had Lister not arisen, Simpson's proposals might
+have possibly prevailed, for he laboured with all his persistent
+energy.
+
+The general belief of the profession--but it was no more than a
+belief--was that operations performed in country practice were not so
+frightfully fatal as those performed in town hospitals. This was
+Simpson's opinion, and he determined to test its truth by appeal to
+facts. He drew up a circular with a schedule for the insertion of
+results in a statistical form, and sent it far and wide amongst
+country practitioners. He awaited the result with anxious expectation;
+the circular asked for a plain statement of facts only, and for all he
+knew the facts might be against his theory; but they were not. From
+all over England and Scotland, particularly from mining districts,
+where severe operations after accidents were common, the filled-up
+schedules flowed in, to the number of 374. These were collected,
+carefully classified and summarised. The operations selected were
+amputations, and the result briefly was this:--
+
+  Total number of cases   2,098 }     Mortality,
+    "     "       deaths    226 }     10.8 per cent.
+
+The relative mortality of the different amputations was also shown:--
+
+  669 Thigh cases; deaths, 123; mortality, 18.3 per cent.
+  618 Leg     "  ;   "      82;     "      13.2    "
+  433 Arm     "  ;   "      19;     "       4.3    "
+  378 Forearm "  ;   "       2;     "       0.5    "
+
+The table on the next page compared the results of operations for
+injury with those performed for disease.
+
+FOR INJURY.
+
+          Cases.  Deaths.  Mortality.
+                           per cent.
+  Thigh      313    80       25.5
+  Leg        409    57       13.4
+  Arm        344    14        4.0
+  Forearm    313     2        0.6
+
+FOR DISEASE.
+
+          Cases.  Deaths.  Mortality.
+                           per cent.
+  Thigh      356    43       12.0
+  Leg        209    25       12.0
+  Arm         89     5        5.6
+  Forearm     60     0        --
+
+These statistics were accompanied by an exhaustive detailed
+examination and explanation; every possible point of attack was
+considered and protected. "I doubt not," he said, "that the
+segregation of the sick from the sick--every diseased man being a
+focus of more or less danger to the diseased around him--is a
+principle of no small moment and value." He attributed the comparative
+brilliancy of these statistical results to the _isolation_ of the
+patients only; he endeavoured to show that the operations were often
+performed amidst dirty and squalid surroundings, on dirty and squalid
+persons. He did not attribute sufficient importance to the fact urged
+by many of his correspondents, who supported his general contentions
+almost to a man out of their own experience, that where fresh air,
+ventilation, and cleanliness prevailed, the results were always the
+most satisfactory.
+
+The next step was to take hospital statistics of similar operations,
+and the general result appears in the table on page 183.
+
+This testimony to the truth of Simpson's opinion was more pronounced
+than even he himself had anticipated. "Shall this pitiless and
+deliberate sacrifice of human life to conditions which are more or
+less preventable be continued, or arrested? Do not these terrible
+figures plead eloquently and clamantly for a revision and reform of
+our existing hospital system?" This was his cry until at length
+breath failed him. The opposition was not strong, but the support
+was weak. Although there was much criticism, his conclusions were
+scarcely called in question at all; trifling holes were picked in
+his statistics, but his contentions were universally acknowledged
+to be correct; a few reformers only, persuaded as he was of the
+evils of hospitalism and working at the subject, lent him their
+advocacy. But he alone stood unperturbed at the extent of the evils
+and the magnitude of the change which he proposed in order to
+uproot them; death laid him low as he stood, but not before he had
+modified his proposals by suggesting that existing hospitals might be
+reconstructed, and new hospitals built on the now almost universally
+adopted pavilion system on which the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was
+one of the first to be built.
+
+  Column Headings--
+  C: Cases.
+  D: Deaths.
+   _______________________________________________________________________
+  |                       |                                               |
+  |      HOSPITAL.        |                  FOR INJURY.                  |
+  |_______________________|_______________________________________________|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  |                       |  Thigh.   |    Leg.   |    Arm.   |  Forearm. |
+  |                       |___________|___________|___________|___________|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  |                       | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Edinburgh Infirmary   | 134 |  48 |  28 |   9 |   7 |   3 |  19 |   7 |
+  | Glasgow   "           | 100 |  60 |  93 |  50 | 101 |  38 |  66 |   9 |
+  | Nine London Hospitals | 320 | 123 | 173 |  53 |  48 |  13 |  37 |   7 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Total                 | 631 | 239 | 283 |  89 |  78 |  22 |  75 |  15 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  | Mortality per cent.   |   64.4    |   54.8    |   40.1    |   14.8    |
+  |_______________________|___________|___________|___________|___________|
+
+   _______________________________________________________________________
+  |                       |                                               |
+  |      HOSPITAL.        |                 FOR DISEASE.                  |
+  |_______________________|_______________________________________________|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  |                       |  Thigh.   |    Leg.   |    Arm.   |  Forearm. |
+  |                       |___________|___________|___________|___________|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  |                       | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Edinburgh Infirmary   |  65 |  48 |  58 |  29 |  21 |  12 |  39 |   5 |
+  | Glasgow   "           | 177 |  68 |  82 |  27 |  23 |   6 |  19 |   1 |
+  | Nine London Hospitals | 139 |  88 | 179 | 102 |  97 |  33 |  64 |  11 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Total                 | 304 | 196 | 330 | 181 | 219 |  88 |  169|  25 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  | Mortality per cent.   |   37.8    |   31.4    |    28.2   |     2.0   |
+  |_______________________|___________|___________|___________|___________|
+
+  The total number of cases  2,089 } mortality 41 per cent.
+  The total number of deaths   855 }
+  Placed side by side the Town (hospital only) and Country (private
+        practice only) figures compared as follows:--
+    _Hospital_ cases 2,089; deaths 855; mortality 41 per cent. or 1 in 2.4
+    _Country_    "   2,098;   "    226;    "      10.8     "      1 in 9.2
+
+The steady advance of aseptic surgery has slowly but surely brought
+about the results which Simpson strove to attain by a radical measure.
+The enemy which had baffled surgeons for centuries was revealed by
+Lister. He sent surgeons smiling into the operating-room practically
+certain of success instead of dreading the terrible onslaught upon
+their own handiwork of the formerly unseen and unknown destroyer. The
+death rate of operations is being daily brought nearer and nearer to
+vanishing point. In his review of the progress of wound treatment
+during the Victorian Era published in the Diamond Jubilee number of
+_The Practitioner_, Mr. Watson Cheyne says the mortality of major
+operations does not now exceed in hospitals more than three or four
+per cent., and this is made up practically entirely by cases admitted
+almost moribund and operated on _in extremis_ with faint hope of
+survival. The field of surgery, too, has been vastly enlarged, and the
+term "major operation" includes not merely operations of necessity,
+undertaken through ages past as the only possible means of saving
+life, but also operations which have become possible only in recent
+years--some of them performed merely to make the patient "more
+comfortable," or even only "more beautiful." And this glorious result
+is due, as Mr. Cheyne truly says, to the immortal genius of Lister.
+
+In 1867 Simpson propounded in the _Medical Times and Gazette_ a
+proposal for stamping out smallpox and other infectious diseases such
+as scarlet fever and measles. In spite of vaccination, which, however,
+was imperfectly carried out, smallpox alone carried off five thousand
+lives annually in Great Britain. A serious outbreak of rinderpest in
+the British Islands amongst cattle had recently been arrested and
+exterminated by the slaughter of all affected animals. The disease
+spread as smallpox did by contagion, and Simpson fell to wondering why
+smallpox could not also be exterminated. His paper was a noteworthy
+contribution to the then infant science of Public Health, and his
+proposal, which was, however, universally regarded as impracticable,
+sprang from his courageous enthusiasm as did that concerning
+hospitals. He suggested that the place of the pole-axe in the
+extermination of rinderpest might in the arrest of smallpox be taken
+by complete isolation, and he laid down simple but rigid rules for its
+enforcement. An attempt was made to utilise these a few years after
+when an epidemic of fatal violence broke out in Edinburgh. He was in
+no way an anti-vaccinationist, but his isolation measures were too
+strong for the people in those days. We are not surprised that he
+boldly proposed this measure, for he related glaring instances of
+neglect of the simplest precautions. Beggars held up infants with
+faces encrusted with active smallpox into the very faces of passers-by
+in the streets of Edinburgh; and on one occasion a woman was found in
+Glasgow serving out sweetmeats to the children of a school with her
+hands and face covered by the disease. He cried aloud for legislation
+to prevent such gross abuses, which he did not hesitate to stigmatise
+as little short of criminal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FURTHER REFORMS--HONOURS
+
+  Professional and University Reform--Medical women--Honours--The
+  Imperial Academy of Medicine of France--Baronetcy--Domestic
+  bereavement--The University Principalship--Freedom of the City of
+  Edinburgh--Bigelow of Boston--Views on education--Graduation
+  addresses.
+
+
+Professor Simpson took a warm interest in medical politics, and made
+himself heard as a member of the Senatus of the University. That body
+was not renowned for any spirit of harmony prevailing in its midst; it
+included the medical professors many of whom were in professional
+opposition to each other and were actuated by conflicting interests.
+The rivalry prevailing amongst the leaders of the profession in the
+Scots capital was amusingly shown in one of Sir James's letters, where
+he related how Professor Miller had just given a capital address to
+the young graduates and recommended them to marry chiefly because Mr.
+Syme had advised the reverse two years before. "At least," he said,
+"so Mr. Syme whispered to me, and so, indeed, did Miller himself
+state to Dr. Laycock!"
+
+On the principles of Medical Reform and University Reform the
+professors were, however, practically unanimous, but their interests
+came into conflict with those of the extra-academical school. The
+two opposing bodies worked hard to gain their own ends when a
+Parliamentary Committee was appointed in 1852 to inquire into
+medical reform. The modern Athens became once more disturbed by
+wordy warfare. The general ends aimed at by the reformers were the
+obtaining of a proper standing for qualified practitioners; some
+satisfactory means of enabling the public to distinguish between
+regular and irregular, quack, practitioners; and to define the amount
+of general and professional knowledge necessary for degrees and
+qualifications. It was also desired to remove the absurd anomaly
+whereby, although Scots medical education was then ahead of English,
+Scots graduates had no legal standing in England. The Medical Act
+which was passed in 1858 carried out many of the best suggestions
+made before the Committee, and effected desirable improvements both
+in the status of practitioners and in medical education; but it was
+inadequate, as time has shown, and the question of reform still
+burns. Simpson took an active interest in the proceedings before the
+Committee, and made several dashes up to London to further the
+projects which he had at heart. The annual meeting of the British
+Medical Association was held in Edinburgh in July, 1858, at the
+moment when the fate of the Bill hung in the balance. As the journal
+of the Association said at the time the fruit of a quarter of a
+century's growth was plucked in the midst of the rejoicings. Sir
+Robert Christison publicly stated that owing to Simpson's energetic
+efforts certain far-reaching and objectionable clauses, which had
+been allowed to creep into the Bill, were expunged at the last
+moment. Simpson went up to London by the night train, employed the
+following day in effecting his purpose, and returned the next night;
+this was when the journey took nearly twice as many hours as now.
+
+The Universities (Scotland) Act was also passed in 1858; by it the
+complete control of the University, and with it the patronage of many
+of the Chairs, was lost to its original founders, the Town Council,
+who had so carefully and successfully guided it through nearly three
+centuries. The Council did not part from their charge without a
+struggle; in urging their cause they proudly pointed to the fact that
+they had appointed Simpson to the Chair of Midwifery against the
+opposition of the medical faculty. To have elected him, they thought,
+under such circumstances displayed their discernment, vindicated their
+existence, and pleaded for the perpetuation of their elective office.
+
+When the question of the admission of women to the study of medicine
+came up in Edinburgh and divided the ancient city once more into two
+hostile camps, Simpson's sympathies appear to have gone with the sex
+to which he was already a benefactor. He recognised that there was a
+place, if a small one, within the ranks of the profession for women;
+and when the question came to the vote he cast his in their favour.
+The proposal, however, was rejected, and has only quite recently
+become law in the University.
+
+Numerous honours were heaped upon him during the last five-and-twenty
+years of his life. In 1847 he filled the office of President of the
+Edinburgh College of Physicians, and in 1852 held the corresponding
+post in the Medico-Chirurgical Society. In the following year the
+Imperial Academy of Medicine of France--a body which lacks an analogue
+in this country--conferred upon him the title of Foreign Associate.
+This was a jealously guarded honour awarded only to the most highly
+distinguished men of the day, and it was conferred upon Simpson in an
+altogether unprecedented manner which doubled its value. According to
+custom a commission of members prepared a list of renowned men whom
+they advised the Academy to elect; in the list no British name
+appeared although Owen, Faraday, and Bright were entered as
+"reserves." On the day of election the members accepted all the
+candidates named in the original list until the last was reached. When
+the president asked for the vote for this individual a sensational
+and truly Gallic scene was enacted. Almost to a man the members rose,
+and loud and long proclaimed Simpson's name. Excited speeches were
+made, and amidst great enthusiasm he was elected to the one remaining
+vacancy by an overwhelming majority. It had remained for Simpson to
+prove, as the President courteously pointed out at the time, that
+there existed a greater honour than that of being elected by the
+Academy--viz., that of being chosen in _spite_ of the will of the
+Academy itself.
+
+This was by no means the only honour awarded to him by France. In 1856
+the French Academy of Sciences voted him the Monthyon Prize of two
+thousand francs for "the most important benefits done to humanity."
+Other foreign societies added their compliments, and he was elected
+Foreign Associate of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, of the
+Parisian Surgical and Biological Societies, and of the Medical
+Societies of Norway, Stockholm, Copenhagen, New York, Massachusetts,
+Leipsic, and other places.
+
+In 1866 his own country made an acknowledgment of his eminent
+attainments when the Queen offered him a baronetcy on the advice of
+Lord John Russell. Twice before he had refused a title, but this
+time he wrote to his brother that he feared he _must_ accept
+although it appeared so absurd to take a title. This honour was the
+first of its kind ever conferred upon a doctor, or even upon a
+professor, in Scotland. It was entirely unsought, and scarcely
+welcomed by its recipient for its own sake; he regarded it not merely
+as a personal honour but also as a tardy recognition of the services
+of the Edinburgh school in the cause of medicine. He enjoyed the
+congratulations which showered upon him, and felt glad when the
+citizens flocked to Queen Street to express their feelings, much to
+Lady Simpson's delight. The medical papers unanimously approved of
+the honour, the _Lancet_ remarking that apart from his connection with
+chloroform, Simpson was distinguished as an obstetric practitioner, as
+a physiologist, as an operator, and as a pathologist of great
+research and originality.
+
+Domestic bereavement quenched the rejoicings over the baronetcy, and
+condolences displaced congratulations. He fell ill for a time himself,
+and in a condition of unusual mental depression spoke of the baronetcy
+as appearing even more of a bauble in sickness than in health. In less
+than a fortnight after the offer of the title his eldest son David
+died after a short illness. He had been educated for the medical
+profession, and was a youth of considerable promise and of an earnest
+temperament; his death fell as a severe blow, and Simpson even
+contemplated abandoning the baronetcy which had not yet been formally
+conferred. The words of his friends, however, and the thought that his
+dead son had particularly insisted on its acceptance, persuaded him.
+
+A coat of arms had to be drafted for the new Baronet, and this was a
+pleasant interest for one of his tastes. The family history was
+searchingly entered into, and the arms of his father's family were
+differenced on the most correct lines with those of the Jervays from
+whom his mother had sprung. In the matter of a crest he was able to be
+boldly original, and adopted the rod of Æsculapius over the motto
+_Victo dolore_, and thus handed down to his family the memory of his
+great victory over pain. In June of the same year, 1866, the
+University of Oxford conferred upon him one of the few honours which
+reached him from England in awarding him the honorary degree of Doctor
+of Civil Law. The University of Dublin made him an honorary Doctor of
+Medicine, and he was created an honorary Fellow of the King's and
+Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland.
+
+By the death of the veteran Sir David Brewster, in February, 1868, the
+office of Principal of Edinburgh University fell vacant. This post is
+a survival from the earliest days. The College out of which the
+University grew was established in 1583 by the Town Council under a
+charter granted by James VI. Only one regent or tutor was necessary at
+first to teach the "bairns," as the students were termed in the
+contract entered into between Rollock, the first regent, and the city
+fathers. Rollock was promised that as the college increased "in policy
+and learning" he should be advanced to the highest post created. By
+his own efforts the number of students increased so greatly that
+within the first few years several other regents were appointed, and
+the Council, remembering their promise, dignified him with the title
+of Principal or First Master in 1586. This office was held during the
+succeeding two centuries by a series of more or less worthy men,
+prominent among whom were Leighton, afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow,
+and William Carstares, better known as a statesman and for his
+connection with the Rye House Plot in 1684. During Carstares's tenure
+the tutors were turned into professors, and the college became more
+strictly speaking a university, although from the first it had assumed
+without any right by charter the function of degree-granting. Although
+the utility of the post quite vanished when the college became a
+university, and the principal had no place in the constitution of a
+university, nevertheless the principalship was not abolished. The
+Universities Act of 1858 recognised the office, but only as that of an
+ornamental head, acting as president of the assembly of professors
+constituting the Senatus Academicus. The salary is a thousand pounds a
+year with an official residence, not within the precincts or the
+University. The former head master of the college, known by and
+knowing every student, became a sinecurist of whose existence it is no
+exaggeration to say many of the students are, through no fault of
+their own, unaware. Brewster had been a distinguished occupant of the
+post--distinguished not as a principal, for he received the
+appointment only at the age of seventy-eight, but as a scientist. To
+the public he was best known as the author of the "Life of Sir Isaac
+Newton," and as the inventor of the kaleidoscope. It is said that
+Brewster never spoke as much as five lines at the meetings of the
+Senatus Academicus without having previously written them down; and it
+is probable that this lack of spontaneous utterance from the Chairman
+gave the tone to the assembly. The rival professors doubtless nursed
+their animosities for some less dignified meeting-place, differing
+there only on the most correct academic lines.
+
+It is not surprising that Simpson at first refused to be a candidate
+for the vacant post. He would undoubtedly have made an unrivalled
+figure-head for his _Alma Mater_; he was the leading figure in
+Scotland already and "did the hospitalities" of Edinburgh to
+distinguished visitors of all classes. But he would probably have been
+obliged to resign his professorship and have thus been cut off from
+his sphere of greatest usefulness; and although he would have grasped
+with ease the details of university affairs it is open to question
+whether he would have suitably filled the post of president over men
+to many of whom he was in professional opposition. The most that the
+suggestion that he should be a candidate conveyed was a well-meant
+compliment, but it would have been a greater compliment on his part if
+he had really ended his life as the ornamental head of the University
+he had already done so much to adorn. He would certainly have turned
+his position to good account, and perhaps might have earned the
+gratitude of all succeeding students by improving their position in
+the University and bettering their relationship with their teachers--a
+much needed reform at that time. But he was a man for more active
+occupation, and it was more fitting that he should persevere to the
+end in the work of his life. Simpson expressed his opinion that the
+most suitable man for the post was the one already named by Brewster
+and desired by a majority of the Senatus; but that man, Professor
+Christison, then over seventy years of age, generously said that Sir
+Alexander Grant, an active candidate, would better fill the post. A
+strong section of Edinburgh folks persisted in pushing Simpson, and in
+deference to their wishes he consented to enter the lists. It cannot
+be said that he displayed any of the eager energy which had marked his
+candidature for the midwifery chair; but his friends made up for his
+comparative apathy. They were met by a strong opposition, not
+instigated by his rivals for the post, but offered by insignificant
+persons who cherished ill-will against him and spread untrue
+statements with the object of damaging his character. Greatly owing to
+the reports spread in this manner he was not elected. Sir Alexander
+Grant became the new Principal. The fact that he could not gain the
+post was communicated to him in a letter which reached him one morning
+before prayers. He conducted the worship as usual after reading the
+letter, and when the family had afterwards all assembled at the
+breakfast table he intimated the fact to them and dismissed the
+subject from his mind with the quiet remark, "I have lost the
+Principalship."
+
+An interesting episode pertaining to this period was narrated by the
+Free Church minister of Newhaven. "The election," he wrote to Dr.
+Duns, "took place on a Monday, and it was on the Sabbath preceding,
+between sermons, that one of my people, a fisherman, called on me
+stating that his wife was apparently dying, but that she and all her
+friends were longing most intensely for a consultation with Sir James.
+I did not know well what to do, for I knew that his mind was likely to
+be very much harassed, and I shrank from adding to his troubles. But
+in the urgency of the case I wrote him a note simply stating that one
+of the best women in the town was at the point of death and longed for
+his help, leaving the matter without another word to himself. The
+result was that he came down immediately, spent three hours beside his
+patient, performed, I am told, miracles of skill, and did not leave
+her till the crisis was over. She would, I am assured, have died that
+evening, but she was one of the sincerest mourners at his funeral, and
+she still lives to bless his memory. After all was over he went into a
+friend's house and threw himself down on a sofa in a state of utter
+exhaustion. This was the way in which, without hope of fee or reward,
+and while others were waiting for him able to give him both, Sir James
+spent the evening preceding the election. Some will say it was no
+great matter after all. Why, for that part of it, neither was the cup
+of cold water which the dying Sir Philip Sidney passed from his own
+lips to those of a wounded soldier in greater agony than himself. But
+the incident is recalled whenever his name is mentioned as adding to
+the glory of the knight _sans peur et sans reproche_, and the incident
+I have mentioned in the Newhaven fisherman's house surely gives to Sir
+James a place beside him in the glorious order of chivalrous
+generosity."
+
+Among the last of the honours offered to Simpson was the Freedom of
+the City of Edinburgh; a fitting tribute from the City in which and
+for which he had so nobly and untiringly laboured. It was proposed to
+present him with the burgess-ticket at the same time that it was
+publicly presented to another hero in a different sphere, Lord Napier
+of Magdala; but by his own desire the ceremony was postponed so far as
+he was concerned in order that full honour might be paid to Lord
+Napier. At the eventual presentation the Lord Provost made a short
+speech recapitulating the achievements for which they desired to
+honour him, and referring to his reputation as being great on the
+banks of the Thames and the Seine, as well as on the shores of the
+Firth of Forth; he likewise expressed the pride of his fellow-citizens
+that Sir James had remained amongst them and had not been drawn away
+like other men of genius before him by the attractions of the greater
+metropolis of the south. Simpson's reply took the form of an impromptu
+review of his career from the time he first entered the City as a
+wonderstruck boy. "I came," he proudly said, "to settle down and fight
+amongst you a hard and up-hill battle of life for bread and name and
+fame, and the fact that I stand here before you this day so far
+testifies that in the arduous struggle I have--won."
+
+The accounts of the speeches delivered on this occasion which reached
+America raised the indignation of Dr. Bigelow, of Boston. Reference
+had been made to chloroform in a manner which appeared to slight
+Morton's work in introducing ether as an anæsthetic before chloroform
+was heard of. In Bigelow's estimation Simpson posed as a hero at the
+expense of Morton. Simpson had certainly been far from liberal in his
+allusions to Morton and others in his article upon Anæsthesia in the
+_Encyclopædia Britannica_, and had written almost entirely about his
+own discovery. A controversy was excited, and on his deathbed Simpson
+wrote a letter to Bigelow to prove that he had duly considered the
+priority and the value of Morton's and Wells's work. In his concluding
+sentences he expressed regret at having taken up so much of his own
+and his correspondent's time in such a petty discussion, but blamed
+his illness which prevented him from writing with the force and
+brevity required. "With many of our profession in America," he said,
+"I have the honour of being personally acquainted, and regard their
+friendship so very highly that I shall not regret this attempt--my
+last, perhaps--at professional writing as altogether useless on my
+part if it tend to fix my name and memory duly in their love and
+esteem."
+
+The widespread national expression of the sense of loss and of
+sympathy which reached Edinburgh from the United States after Sir
+James's death testified to the regard in which he was held from one
+end to the other of that country. In Boston itself the Gynæcological
+Society, of which he had been the first honorary member, convened a
+special memorial meeting, which was solemn and impressive. He had not
+been mistaken in presuming with his last breath that he held the
+regard of his American _confrères_.
+
+On the subject of education Simpson held what were considered advanced
+opinions, but which had already been expressed by Mr. Lowe. A few
+years before his death he delivered a lecture on Modern and Ancient
+Languages at Granton, in which he lamented the common neglect of
+modern languages in the education of the day. He had personally felt
+the want of a mastery over French and German, both in the course of
+his studies and during his travels; nor did he feel the want
+compensated for by his ability to write and talk in Latin. He
+strongly advocated the paying of more attention to the modern and
+less to the dead languages, and he urged that natural science should
+take its place in the ordinary curriculum of the great public schools.
+These views were used as an argument against his fitness for the post
+of Principal of the ancient University.
+
+On three separate occasions it fell to Simpson's lot to deliver the
+annual address to the newly-fledged graduates, which is the duty of
+the professors of the medical faculty in rotation. This ceremony
+remains deeply impressed in the memory of Edinburgh men, simple and
+dull as it undoubtedly is. The homily delivered by the orator of the
+day contains excellent counsels appropriate to the occasion, but
+the young man eager to rise and confidently try his wings pays
+little attention to the words of wisdom; unless it be to feel wonder
+that just as he is about to leave them, probably for ever, his _Alma
+Mater_ and her priests have discovered an affectionate regard for
+him and his welfare. A few years later the struggling young
+practitioner may perhaps turn to the copy of this graduation address,
+forwarded to him by post with the author's compliments, and find
+in such an one as Simpson delivered much to strengthen and encourage
+him. In 1842 and 1855 he delivered addresses from which quotations
+have already been made; and in the third one, spoken in 1868, he
+made a forecast of the future of medical science, predicting _inter
+alia_ that by concentration of electric or other lights we should yet
+be enabled to make many parts of the body sufficiently diaphanous for
+inspection by the practised eye of the physician. It was his habit
+to commit such lectures to memory and to deliver them without notes.
+He was a ready public speaker on any subject in which he was
+interested; speeches made on the spur of the moment teemed with
+pleasantly-put facts and apt anecdotes from the vast storehouse of
+his memory. A speech from Sir James was one of the treats in which
+Edinburgh folks delighted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+FAILING HEALTH--DEATH
+
+  Poetical instincts--Religious views--Religious and emotional
+  influences in his life--Doubts--Revivalism--Health--Overwork
+  tells--Bed--Gradual failure--Death on May 6, 1870--Grave offered
+  in Westminster Abbey--Buried at Warriston--Obituary notices--Bust
+  in the Abbey--His greatness.
+
+
+The emotional part of Sir James Simpson's nature found some small
+expression in versifying both, as we have seen, in early years and in
+later days. We know that he was a close student of Shakspeare, but
+Miss Simpson states that her father probably never entered a theatre,
+so that he can never have seen a representation. He was familiar with
+modern poets, especially with Burns. It is related that he once tested
+a lady friend's insight into the vernacular by quoting from memory for
+explanation the following lines from the national bard:--
+
+  "Baudrons sit by the ingle-neuk,
+    An' wi' her loof her face she's washin',
+  Willie's wife it nae sae trig,
+    She dichts her grunzie wi' a hooschen."
+
+His own verses were neither better nor worse than those written by
+other men whose abilities have led them to excel in more practical
+pursuits. In youth they celebrated student life, or were, as usual,
+dedicated to Celia's eyebrows; in mature life they were of a more
+serious, and latterly of a strong religious description. At all times
+he delighted in writing little doggerel verses to his children or
+friends; valueless as such efforts are, they served a useful purpose;
+their composition was a recreation and pleasant relief to his
+over-taxed brain, while it was an amusement to him to watch their
+effect upon the recipients, and perhaps to receive a reply clothed
+also in the garb of rhyme.
+
+Sir James's example so influenced the people amongst whom he lived
+that it is impossible to omit reference to his attitude throughout
+life towards religion and an account of what is one of the most
+interesting phases in his history. Up to Christmas, 1861, he had
+been, in the eyes of the religious public, an ordinary citizen; as
+regular in church-going as his professional engagements permitted;
+thoroughly interested in Church affairs, and a strong supporter of
+his own Church; possessing to the full the national characteristic
+of intimate acquaintance with the letter of the Old and New
+Testaments; and something of a theologian as well, as his answer to
+the religious objections to anæsthesia showed. At that period, to
+the delight of many, and the genuine astonishment of others among
+his fellow-citizens, he became a leading spirit in the strong
+Evangelical movement which was then spreading through the country,
+"Simpson is converted," cried the enthusiastic revivalist. "Simpson
+is converted now," laughed those who had opposed every action of
+his. "If Professor Simpson is converted, it is time some of the rest
+of us were seeing if we do not need to be converted," wisely
+answered one of his friends. In the ordinary sense of the word Simpson
+was not converted. Had he passed away without developing this
+latter-day Evangelical enthusiasm, all sects would still have
+united in thankfulness that such a man had lived. Why this religious
+revival during the sixties affected him as it did becomes evident
+in looking at the religious, moral, and emotional influences which
+affected him throughout his career.
+
+The simple-minded, devout mother, strong in faith and strong in works,
+who passed out of his life when he was but nine years old, left a
+vivid impression on the boy's mind. In after years he would call up
+the picture of the good woman retiring from the shop and the worries
+and troubles of daily life into which she had so vigorously thrown
+herself and so bravely faced even with failing health, into the quiet
+little room behind, to kneel down in prayer; and would describe how at
+other times she went about her work chanting to herself one of the old
+Scots metrical psalms:
+
+  "Jehovah hear thee in the day, when trouble He did send
+  And let the name of Jacob's God thee from all ill defend.
+  Let Him remember all thy gifts, accept thy sacrifice,
+  Grant thee thine heart's wish and fulfil thy thoughts and counsel
+        wise."
+
+He used to relate one memory of her, touching in its simplicity: how
+one day he entered the house with a big hole in his stocking which she
+perceived and drew him on to her knee to darn. As she pulled the
+repaired garment on she said, "My Jamie, when your mother's away, you
+will mind that she was a grand darner." He remembered the words as if
+they had been spoken but yesterday, and subsequently offered to a lady
+who had established a girls' Industrial School in his native village a
+prize for the best darning.
+
+The simple faith which beat in the life of the Bathgate baker's
+household was ingrained into James Simpson; he went forth into the
+world full of it, and full of the determination that by his fruits he
+should be known.
+
+The tender, loving care for his welfare of his sisters and brothers,
+particularly of Sandy, who never faltered in his inspired belief in
+James's great future, kept alive in Simpson something of his mother's
+affectionate nature, and kindled the sympathies and emotions which
+bulked so large in his character. His goodness was displayed in his
+kindly treatment of the poor, who formed at first the whole and
+afterwards no small part of his patients. When name and fame and bread
+were his, he did not turn his back on the poor, but as we have seen,
+ever placed his skill at their disposal for no reward, as readily as
+he yielded it to the greatest in the land. As in his daily practice,
+so in his greatest professional efforts, the revelation of chloroform,
+the fight for anæsthesia, the introduction of acupressure, the crusade
+against hospitalism, one thought breathed through his work--that he
+might do something to better the condition of suffering humanity. He
+never attempted to keep discoveries in his own hands, to profit by the
+monopoly, but scattered wide the knowledge which had come to him that
+it might benefit mankind and grow stronger and wider in the hands of
+other workers.
+
+In his domestic life he was a tender, loving, and companionable
+husband and father, a charming host, and a warm-hearted friend. "In
+this Edinburgh of ours," says a recent writer, "there are familiar
+faces whose expression changes greatly at the mention of his name;
+there are men whose speech from formal and precise turns headlong and
+extravagant, as if it came from a new and inspired vocabulary." In
+Scotland his personal influence was immense. As was afterwards written
+of him, "Great in his art, and peerless in resource, yet greater was
+he in his own great soul;" such a man stood in no need of the violent
+revolution in mode of life implied in conversion. A gradual process of
+development led to his feeling that although to labour was to pray,
+there was a need for more attention to the spiritual, even in his
+self-sacrificing life.
+
+There is evidence that during a brief period of his career Simpson
+became affected by speculative doubts; indeed it would have been
+surprising if his mind had not been affected by some of the new
+schools of thought which sprang up in the footsteps of Charles Darwin,
+and appeared for a time to threaten a mortal antagonism to all that
+was dear to orthodox Christians. But these did not influence him long;
+true to his character he examined every new thought and finding it
+wanting remained firm in his old and tried faith, and ranged himself
+on the side of those who perceived nothing seriously incompatible
+between religion and modern science.
+
+In his bearing, when the angel of sorrow afflicted his household with
+no unsparing hand, we find him always a religious-minded man. The
+first trial was the loss of the eldest child, his daughter Maggie,
+in 1844. Another daughter, Mary, was lost in early infancy. In
+1848 his friend of boyhood and student days, Professor John Reid, was
+smitten with a painful malady and died after a prolonged period of
+suffering during which, knowing that the shadow of death was hanging
+over him, he devoted himself in retirement to religious thoughts.
+Experiences such as these made Simpson pause and question himself.
+Brimful of life and vigour, however much he came in contact with
+death in his professional rounds, the sight of it in his own inner
+circle powerfully stirred his emotional nature. His friend the Rev.
+Dr. Duns noticed in him after these sad events a gradually
+increasing earnestness in his spiritual life, and a closer inquiry
+into the meanings of the Scriptures. He sought out the company, and
+placed himself under the influence of those among his patients whom he
+knew to possess fervid religious temperaments. The last mental
+stumbling-block was the question of prayer; he had seriously
+doubted in examining the question intellectually that human prayer
+could influence the purpose of the Deity. It is difficult, if not
+presumptuous, to inquire into the process whereby, under the
+guidance of spiritually minded friends, his doubts were satisfied.
+
+          "... One indeed I knew
+  In many a subtle question versed."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "He fought his doubts and gathered strength,
+    He would not make his judgment blind,
+    He faced the spectres of the mind,
+  And laid them--thus he came at length"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "To find a stronger faith his own."
+
+The simple earnest faith of his fathers in which he had commenced
+life, ran all through his mature years and prompted his strong
+purposeful energies. After the combat with the only seriously
+perplexing doubt he re-embraced his faith with the simplicity of a
+child and the strength of a giant. For one accustomed to apply to
+every subject taken in hand the rigid process of careful scientific
+investigation, it required no small effort to lay aside his usual
+methods and suffer himself to be led wholly by faith.
+
+It was impossible for Simpson to enter into any movement without
+taking a prominent part in it. That Christmas Day on which all doubts
+left him was followed by days of extraordinarily zealous work, such as
+would have been expected of him after he had convinced himself that he
+had a mission to spread abroad this, the latest, and, in his opinion,
+the greatest, of his discoveries. He plunged at once into the midst of
+Evangelical societies, missions, and prayer-meetings, amongst the
+upper and lower classes of Edinburgh, and made excursions into the
+mining districts of his native county to deliver addresses. He
+interested himself in the education of theological students, and in
+foreign missions, and added to his literary work the writing of
+religious addresses, tracts and hymns. His example had a powerful
+influence in Edinburgh. It is said that he frequently addressed on a
+Sunday evening Evangelical assemblies of two thousand persons. The
+news of his so-called conversion was gleefully spread by well-meaning
+folks, who had given credence to statements published by his enemies,
+and imagined that here was a bad if a great man turned aside from the
+broad to the narrow path. This enthusiastic revival movement died down
+in time, and Simpson returned to his ordinary everyday life.
+
+More sorrow soon fell to his lot. In 1862 his fifth child, James, who
+had always been an invalid, was taken from him at the age of fifteen.
+In 1866 the sad death of Dr. David Simpson, the eldest son, which has
+already been referred to, was followed in about a month's time by that
+of the eldest surviving daughter, Jessie, at the age of seventeen. The
+death of James, a sweet-natured child, stimulated him in the revival
+work. Pious friends had surrounded the little sufferer and led him to
+add his innocent influence in exciting his father's religious
+emotions.
+
+There is reason to believe that Simpson perceived much insincerity in
+the revival movement, and attempted to dissociate himself from active
+participation in it, on account of finding it impossible to work in
+harmony with some who, though loud in profession, flagrantly failed in
+practice.
+
+The subject of Simpson's health has been little referred to in these
+pages, because throughout his life he paid little attention to it. The
+chief remedy for the feeling of indisposition was change of work. He
+found it impossible to be idle, and sought as recreation occupations
+such as archæological research, or a scamper round foreign hospitals,
+which to most people would have savoured more of labour. The part of
+his body which was most worked, his nervous system, was naturally the
+one which most often troubled him with disorder; like other great men
+of high mental development he suffered from time to time with severe
+attacks of megrim, which necessitated a few hours of rest. The
+blood-poisoning, for which he availed himself of Professor Syme's
+services, was soon recovered from with prompt treatment ending in a
+foreign tour; but after it little illnesses became more frequent, and
+he was perforce occasionally confined to the house. During these times
+he busied himself, for the sake of occupation and to distract his
+attention from his sufferings, in professional reading or the
+preparation of literary papers. Rheumatic troubles became frequent,
+and soon after his eldest son's death he had to run over to the Isle
+of Man to free himself from a severe attack of sciatica.
+
+Long, weary nights spent at the bedside of patients or in tiresome
+railway journeys, and exposure to all varieties of weather, had a
+serious effect upon him. Travelling was slow, according to modern
+ideas, and long waits at wayside stations in winter-time helped to
+play havoc with his constitution. He was well known to the railway
+officials in Scotland. The figure of the great Edinburgh professor was
+familiar at many a station, striding up and down the platform with the
+stationmaster, chaffing the porter, or cheerily chatting to the driver
+and stoker leaning out of the engine. After his death many of these
+men would proudly produce little mementoes of their services to him,
+which he never forgot to send.
+
+The little rest house, Viewbank, on the Forth, had to be more
+frequently sought refuge in, if only to get away from the harassing
+night-bell and secure a full night's sleep. In the last year or two of
+his existence he found the work of his practice and chair hard to
+carry on, not because of any defined illness, but on account of the
+loss of that buoyant elasticity of constitution which had enabled him
+to bear without apparent effort or injury the fatigue which would have
+been sufficient to prostrate more than one ordinary man. He had early
+trained himself to do with a minimum of sleep; to snatch what he could
+and when he could, if it were only on a sofa, a bare board, or in one
+of the comfortless railway carriages of the day. He took full
+advantage during his career of the modern facilities for travelling
+which he had seen introduced and developed. Many a night was spent in
+the train, going to or returning from a far-distant patient, or after
+a combined professional and archæological excursion; the next morning
+would find him busy in his usual routine. On the day after receiving
+the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1866, he started for Devizes, which
+was reached the same evening; here he had a hasty meal and drove on to
+Avebury to see the standing stones there. He returned at midnight, and
+at five o'clock next morning set off for Stonehenge, a place he had
+long desired to see, thoroughly examined the remarkable remains, and
+on his return took train to Bath, where he found time to examine more
+antiquities. At midnight a telegram reached him calling him
+professionally to Northumberland. He snatched a few hours' sleep, and
+taking the four a.m. train to London set out for Northumberland, where
+he saw his patient, and then proceeded to Edinburgh. This is no
+solitary instance of his journeyings, but an example of many.
+
+When the year 1870 had been entered upon, he awoke to the fact that
+his flesh was too weak for his eager spirit; despite this, he held on
+his course, and worked without ceasing, never refusing an urgent call,
+although he now suffered from angina pectoris. On February 12th he
+hastened to London to give evidence in a notorious divorce case. He
+arrived only to find that the trial had been postponed for four days.
+He returned to Edinburgh on the 14th, spent the next day in
+professional visits in the country, and arrived again in London in
+time to appear in the witness-box on the 16th, although chilled to the
+bone by the coldness of the long journey. On the following day he
+stopped at York on his way home, dined with Lord Houghton, and
+visited, at 11 p.m., his friend Dr. Williams, in Micklegate. During
+the remainder of the journey from York to Edinburgh he suffered
+severely, and "was glad to rest for awhile upon the floor of the
+railway carriage."
+
+A few days after this last run to London he was summoned to see a
+patient in Perth, but was this time so fatigued by the effort, that
+after his return on February 25th he was obliged to take to bed. The
+news sped to all quarters of the globe that Simpson was gravely ill,
+for nothing but grave illness could compel that vigorous man to
+completely lay down his work.
+
+His symptoms improved at first under appropriate treatment
+sufficiently to allow him to be placed on a bed in the drawing-room;
+and he even once more took up his favourite archæology, revising some
+of his work in that subject. Patients also were not to be denied; many
+were seen and prescribed for in his sick room, some even being carried
+up to his presence. But the fatal disease regained ascendancy, and the
+fact became apparent to all, not excepting himself, that the last
+chapter of the closely written book of his life had been entered upon.
+Towards the end of March, by his own request, his eldest surviving son
+was telegraphed for to be near him, and he wrote a touching letter to
+his youngest son, then a student in Geneva, encouraging him in his
+studies, asking him to look for cup-markings cut in the curious islet
+rock in Lake Geneva, and ending with an expression of his feeling of
+impending death, for which he felt perfectly and happily prepared. In
+these last days he loved to have his nearest and dearest around him;
+Lady Simpson and others read to him, and his daughter tells us how she
+daily prepared her school lessons in the sick room with his help; to
+the last he interested himself in the work of his relations and
+friends. He answered the attack of Bigelow, of Boston, conscious that
+it was his last effort on behalf of chloroform, and wrote to all his
+old opponents asking their forgiveness if at any time words of his had
+wounded their feelings. He might well have spared himself the
+regrets--such as they were--which troubled him. "I would have liked
+to have completed hospitalism," he said, "but I hope some good man
+will take it up." On another occasion he asked, "How old am I?
+Fifty-nine? Well, I have done some work. I wish I had been busier."
+
+He expressed a desire that his nephew should succeed him in the Chair
+of Midwifery--he would, he thought, help to perpetuate his treatment.
+
+There was much communing with himself on his future, and all his
+sayings on the subject breathed the simple faith first inculcated in
+him in the Bathgate cottage. His great sufferings, sometimes allayed
+by opiates and his own chloroform, were bravely borne, but the days
+dragged sadly on. On the evening of May 5th Sandy took his place at
+his side, and the last conscious moments of the great physician were
+spent with his head in the arms of him who had helped and guided him
+through the difficult days of his career. At sunset on May 6th he
+passed peacefully away.
+
+The extent of the feeling evoked by the tidings of his death was
+represented in Mr. Gladstone's remark that it was a grievous loss to
+the nation and was truly a national concern. There was a universally
+expressed opinion that he merited without a shadow of doubt the rare
+national honour of public interment in Westminster Abbey. A committee
+was formed out of the leading medical men in London to carry out this
+suggestion. Their task was light, for the Dean acceded to the request
+at once. Much as his family and the Scots people valued this tribute
+to his greatness, they decided otherwise. Scotland has no counterpart
+of Westminster in which to lay to rest those whom she feels to have
+been her greatest; but Edinburgh felt that she could not part with him
+who in life had been her possession and her pride. He had long ago
+chosen a piece of ground in the Warriston cemetery, and Lady Simpson
+decided, to the gratification of his fellow-citizens, that he should
+be buried there beside the five children who had preceded him. His
+resting place was well chosen; it nestled into the side of the
+beautiful city, and from it could be viewed some of the chief objects
+of the scene he knew so well--on the south the stately rock crowned
+with the ancient castle, and the towering flats of the old town
+stretching away to Arthur's Seat; on the north the long stretch of the
+Firth of Forth and in the distance on the one hand the Ochills; on the
+other the Bass Rock.
+
+The funeral was one of the most remarkable ever witnessed in Scotland.
+It took place on May 13th in the presence of a crowd estimated to
+consist of thirty thousand persons. The hearse was followed by a
+representative procession comprising close upon two thousand persons.
+His own relatives assembled at 52, Queen Street, the general public
+and the Town Council in the Free Church of St. Luke, and the
+representatives of the University, the Colleges of Physicians and
+Surgeons, and the Royal Society and many other public bodies, in the
+Hall of the College of Physicians. At each of these meeting-places
+religious services were held. The whole city ceased to labour that
+afternoon in order to pay the last tribute to its dearly loved
+professor. The poor mourned in the crowd as deeply and genuinely as
+those with whom he had been closely associated in life mourned as they
+followed his remains in the procession. Every mourner grieved from a
+sense of personal loss, so deeply had his influence sunk down into the
+hearts of the people.
+
+The companion of his troubles and his triumphs, who had bravely joined
+him to help him to the fame he strove after, was soon laid beside him.
+Lady Simpson died on June 17th of the same year.
+
+But two notes were struck in the countless obituary notices and
+letters of condolence which appeared from far and near--those of
+appreciation of his great nature, and sorrow for the terrible loss
+sustained by science and humanity. The Queen caused the Duke of Argyle
+to express to the family her own personal sorrow at the loss of "so
+great and good a man." A largely attended meeting was held in
+Washington to express the feeling of his own profession in the United
+States, at which Dr. Storer moved, "that in Dr. Simpson, American
+physicians recognise not merely an eminent and learned Scots
+practitioner, but a philanthropist whose love encircled the world; a
+discoverer who sought and found for suffering humanity in its sorest
+need a foretaste of the peace of heaven, and a devoted disciple of the
+only true physician, our Saviour Jesus Christ."
+
+The following original verses from the pen of a well-known scholar in
+the profession, were given prominence in the columns of the
+_Lancet_:--
+
+PROMETHEUS.
+
+(Our lamented Sir James Simpson was the subject of angina pectoris.)
+
+          1
+
+  "Alas! alas! pain, pain, ever forever!"
+  So groaned upon his rock that Titan good
+  Who by his brave and loving hardihood
+  Was to weak man of priceless boons the giver,
+  Which e'en the supreme tyrant could not sever
+  From us, once given; we own him in our food
+  And in our blazing hearth's beatitude;
+  Yet still his cry was "Pain, ever forever!"
+
+  Shall we a later, harder doom rehearse?
+  One came whose art men's dread of are repressed:
+  Mangled and writhing limb he lulled to rest,
+  And stingless left the old Semitic curse;
+  Him, too, for these blest gifts did Zeus amerce?
+  He, too, had vultures tearing at his breast.
+
+          2
+
+  Hush, Pagan plaints! our Titan is unbound;
+  The cruel beak and talons scared away;
+  As once upon his mother's lap he lay
+  So rests his head august on holy ground;
+  Spells stronger than his own his pangs have found;
+  He hears no clamour of polemic fray,
+  Nor reeks he what unthankful men may say;
+  Nothing can vex him in that peace profound.
+
+  And where his loving soul, his genius bold?
+  In slumber? or already sent abroad
+  On angels' wings and works, as some men hold?
+  Or waiting Evolution's change, unawed?
+  All is a mystery, as Saint Paul has told,
+  Saying, "Your life is hid with Christ in God."
+
+In a peaceful corner of the St. Andrew Chapel in Westminster Abbey,
+alongside memorials of Sir Humphry Davy and a few other scientists of
+note, stands a speaking image in marble--perhaps the most expressive
+representation that exists--of this wonderful man,
+
+          "To whose genius and benevolence
+          The world owes the blessings derived
+          From the use of chloroform for
+          The relief of suffering.
+          LAUS DEO."
+
+Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, when writing to the medical journals in
+support of the proposal to secure Simpson's burial in Westminster
+Abbey, foretold that his reputation would ripen with years, that
+jealousies would be forgotten, and antagonism would be buried.
+Twenty-seven years have elapsed since then, and few remain with whom
+he came in conflict; those who do remain exchanged, along with others
+of his opponents, friendly words of reconciliation in the end, and
+took the hand which he held out from his deathbed. As a man, Simpson
+had his faults; but they were exaggerated in his lifetime by some,
+just as his capabilities and achievements were magnified by those who
+worshipped him as inspired. He was full of sympathy for mankind,
+benevolent and honest to a fault, and forbearing to his enemies. He
+rushed eagerly into the combat and oftentimes wounded sorely, and
+perhaps unnecessarily. His genius was essentially a reforming genius,
+and impelled him to fight for his ends, for genius is always the
+"master of man." We can forgive him if sometimes it caused him to
+fight too vigorously, where the heart of a man of mere talent might
+have failed and lost. His social charms were excelled only by his
+marvellous energy, his prodigious memory, and his keenness of insight;
+but he was regrettably inattentive to the details of ordinary everyday
+life and practice.
+
+He approached the study of medicine when the darkness of the Middle
+Ages was still upon it, and was one of the first to point out that
+although many diseases appeared incurable, they were nevertheless
+preventable. Although no brilliant operator himself, he so transformed
+the surgical theatre by his revelation of the power of chloroform, and
+by his powerful advocacy of the use of anæsthetics, that pain was shut
+out and vast scientific possibilities opened up; many of which have
+been brilliantly realised by subsequent workers. He devoted himself
+specially to the despised obstetric art, fighting for what he
+recognised as the most lowly and neglected branch of his profession,
+ranging his powerful forces on the side of the weak, and left it the
+most nearly perfect of medical sciences.
+
+He was enthusiastic in his belief in progress, and in the power of
+steady, honest work to effect great ends. With the exception of the
+time of that temporary burst into revivalism in 1861, his motto
+throughout life might very well have been _laborare est orare_. He was
+no believer in speculations, but curiously enough kept for recreation
+only the subject of archæology, in which he entered into many
+intricate speculative studies. In his professional work he avoided
+speculation, and never adopted a theory which was not built upon firm
+fact.
+
+If we are asked for what we are most to honour Simpson, we answer, not
+so much for the discoveries he made, not for the instruments he
+invented, not for his exposure of numerous evils, not for the
+introduction of reforms, not for any particular contribution to
+science, literature, or archæology; but rather for the inspiring life
+of the man looked at both in outline and in detail. He was guided by
+high ideals, and a joyous unhesitating belief that all good things
+were possible--that right must prevail. He was stimulated by a genius
+which, as has been pointed out, gave him the energy to fight for his
+ends with herculean strength. The fact that chloroform was by his
+efforts alone accepted as _the_ anæsthetic, and ether, which from the
+first was generally thought to be safer in ordinary hands, was
+deliberately put on one side practically all over the world, testified
+to his forcible and convincing method, and to his power of making
+others see as he saw. As a man of science alone, as a philanthropist
+alone, as a worker alone, as a reformer alone, he was great. But
+although to the popular mind he is known chiefly because of his
+introduction of chloroform, medical history will record him as greater
+because of his reforming genius, and will point to the fight for
+anæsthesia, and his crusade against hospitalism as the best of all
+that he accomplished or initiated. And he who, while making allowances
+for the weaknesses of human nature which were Simpson's, studies the
+life which was brought all too soon to a close, will recognise the
+great spirit which breathed through all his life.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+I.
+
+The following is a list of Sir James Simpson's contributions to
+_Archæology_. His professional writings, in the form of contributions
+to the medical journals, or of papers read to various societies or
+meetings, number close upon two hundred.
+
+1. "Antiquarian Notices of Leprosy and Leper Hospitals in Scotland and
+England." (Three papers read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society,
+March 3, 1841.) _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, October,
+1841, and January and April, 1842.
+
+2. "Notice of Roman Practitioner's Medicine Stamp found near Tranent."
+Royal Society of Edinburgh; Dec. 16, 1850.
+
+3. "Ancient Roman Medical Stamps." _Edinburgh Journal of Medical
+Science_, Jan., March, April, 1851.
+
+4. "Was the Roman Army provided with any Medical Officers?" Edinburgh,
+1851, private circulation.
+
+5. "Notes on some Ancient Greek Medical Vases for containing Lykion;
+and on the modern use of the same in India." Edinburgh, 1856.
+
+6. "Notice of the appearance of Syphilis in Scotland in the last years
+of the fifteenth century." 1860.
+
+7. "Note on a Pictish Inscription in the Churchyard of St. Vigeans."
+Royal Society, April 6, 1863.
+
+8. "Notes on some Scottish Magical Charm-Stones or Curing Stones."
+_Proceedings of Antiquarian Society of Scotland_, vol iv., 1868.
+
+9. "An Account of two Barrows at Spottiswoode, Berwickshire, opened by
+the Lady John Scott." _Proceedings of Antiquarian Society of
+Scotland_, vol iv., 1868.
+
+10. "Did John de Vigo describe Acupressure in the Sixteenth Century?"
+_British Medical Journal_, Aug. 24, 1867; _Medical Times and Gazette_,
+1867, vol. ii., p. 187.
+
+11. "Account of some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in
+Fife." 1867.
+
+12. "Notices of some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves."
+_Proceedings of the Royal Society_; Edinburgh, 1867.
+
+13. "Cup-cuttings and Ring-cuttings on the Calder Stones, near
+Liverpool." 1866. _Transactions of the Historical Society of
+Lancashire and Cheshire._
+
+14. "Archæology--its past and its future work." Annual Address to the
+Society of Antiquarians of Scotland, January 28, 1861.
+
+15. "The Cat Stane, Edinburghshire." _Proceedings of the Society of
+Antiquaries, Scotland_, 1861.
+
+16. "Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, &c., upon Stones and Rocks
+in Scotland, England, and other countries." 1867.
+
+17. "Is the Pyramid at Gizeh a Meteorological Monument?" _Proceedings
+of the Royal Society_; Edinburgh, 1868.
+
+18. "Pyramidal Structures in Egypt and elsewhere." _Proceedings of the
+Royal Society_; Edinburgh, 1868.
+
+19. "Cell at Inchcolm."
+
+The above list is founded on that given by Professor Gusscrow in his
+"Zur Erinnerung an Sir James Y. Simpson." Berlin, 1871.
+
+
+II.
+
+On _post mortem_ examination the following observations on Sir James
+Simpson's head were made:--
+
+  Skull--circumference round by occipital protuberance and below
+        frontal eminences, 22-1/2 inches.
+        --from ear to ear, 13 inches.
+        --from occipital protuberance to point between superciliary
+        ridges, 13 inches.
+  Brain--weight of entire brain (cerebrum and cerebellum) was 54
+        ounces; the cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata weighed
+        5-1/4 ounces.
+
+The convolutions of the cerebrum were remarkable for their number,
+depth, and intricate foldings. This was noticed more particularly in
+the anterior lobes and the islands of Reil.
+
+Extract from _British Medical Journal_, May 14, 1870.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  A
+
+  Academy of Sciences (France), 194
+  Acupressure, 173
+  Adam Street, Simpson's lodgings in, 20, 30
+  Addresses, Graduation, 74-77, 200
+  Alcohol as an anæsthetic, 93
+  Alison, Professor, 56, 59, 73, 148
+  America, United States of, and anæsthesia, 83, 96, 199
+  Anæsthesia, 88, 178
+    opposition to:
+      (1) medical, 113
+      (2) moral, 120
+      (3) religious, 123.
+    Discovery of, 88
+    results of, 130
+  Antiquarians, Scots Society of, 8, 71, 156
+  Appendix, 223
+  Archæological works, Simpson's, 223
+  Archæology, 4, 8, 152, 223
+  Argyle, Duke of, 217
+  Arts, curriculum of, 14, 19, 20
+  Aytoun, 27
+
+
+  B
+
+  Baden, Princess Marie of, 69
+  Ballingall, Professor, 60
+  Baronetcy, Simpson's, 190
+  Bathgate, 4, 7, 8, 34, 142
+  Bell, Sir Charles, 60, 61
+  Bennet, 42
+  Bigelow, Dr., of Boston, 198, 214
+  Blantyre, Lord, 80
+  Boerhaave, 134
+  Boston, U.S.A., 97, 98, 199
+  Braid, Dr., 95
+  Brewster, Sir David, 27, 192
+  British Medical Association, 188
+  _British Medical Journal_, 176, 177, 188, 225
+  Bruce, Robert, 72
+  Brunton, Dr. Lauder, 148
+  Burke and Hare, 23
+  Bursary won by Simpson, 20
+
+
+  C
+
+  Carstares, William, 192
+  Catstane, the, of Kirkliston, 8, 155
+  Chalmers, Dr., 27, 125
+  Cheselden, 122
+  Cheyne, Mr. Watson, 184
+  Children, Simpson's, 85, 207
+  Chirurgeons, incorporation of, 58
+  Chloric ether, 99
+  Chloroform, 215, 221, 219
+    discovery of, 105
+    composition described by Dumas, 106
+    Flouren's experiments, 106
+    discovery of properties, 106
+    used in obstetrics, 108
+    Simpson's opinion of, 111
+    administration, teaching of, 130
+  Christison, Professor, 56, 59, 84, 148, 188, 195
+  Clark, Sir James, 129
+  Clover, 130
+  Cockburn, Lord, 23, 27
+  College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 53, 58, 189
+  Cooley, Mr., 97
+  Cooper, Bransby, 123
+  Crest, Simpson's, 192
+  Cullen, 2, 27, 41
+
+
+  D
+
+  Davy, Sir Humphry, 95, 96, 219
+  Dawson, Dr., 69
+  De Quincey, 127, 128
+  Disruption, the, 85
+  Doctor of Medicine, degree of, 38
+  Dumas, 106
+  Dunbar, Professor, 18
+  Duncan, Dr. Matthews, 105
+  Duns, Dr., 34, 162, 196, 207
+  Du Potet, 94
+
+
+  E
+
+  Edinburgh, 17, 27, 197
+  _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, 52, 72
+  Education, Simpson on, 199
+  Elliotson, Dr. John, 94, 95
+  _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 198
+  Erskine House, Simpson's visit to, 80
+  Esdaile, Dr., 95
+  Ether, 99, 104, 112
+  Evangelical work, Simpson's, 209
+  Extra-mural Medical School, Edinburgh, 26, 31
+
+
+  F
+
+  Faraday, 96
+  Fohman, Professor, 45
+  Forbes, Edward, 41
+  Foreign tour, Simpson's, 43-46
+  Free Church, 85
+  Freedom of Edinburgh city, 197
+  Funeral, Simpson's, 216
+
+
+  G
+
+  Gairdner, Dr., 37
+  Girdwood, Dr., 37
+  Gladstone, Mr., 215
+  Goodsir, Professor, 42
+  Graduation addresses, 74-77, 200
+  Graham, Professor R., 59, 148
+  Grant, Sir Alexander, 195
+  Gregory, Dr., 32, 33
+  Grindlay, Miss Jessie, 46, 55, 57
+  Grindlay, Mr., 46, 61, 68
+  Gusserow, Professor, 113, 170, 225
+  Gynæcological Society of Boston, 199
+  Gynæcology, 86
+
+
+  H
+
+  Hahnemann, 147
+  Hamilton, Duchess of, 69
+  Hamilton, Professor James, 32, 40, 56, 59, 69, 163,
+        169
+  Hamilton, Sir William, 27
+  Health, Simpson's, 210
+  Henderson, Professor, 148
+  Home, Professor James, 59
+  Homoeopathy, 74, 147
+  Hope, Thomas, 56, 59
+  Hospitalism, 177-184
+  Hospitality, Simpson's, 81-83
+  Hotels, the Edinburgh, and Simpson, 163
+  Houghton, Lord, 213
+  Hutchinson, Mr. Jonathan, 219
+  Hypnotism, 94, 149
+
+
+  I
+
+  Imperial Academy of Medicine (France), 189
+  Indian hemp, 92
+  Infirmary, Royal, of Edinburgh, 31, 109, 177, 178, 187
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jackson, Dr., of Boston, U.S.A., 96
+  James VI., 192
+  Jameson, Professor R., 59
+  Jeffery, Lord, 27
+  Jenner, 119, 145
+
+
+  K
+
+  Keiller, Dr., 30
+  Keith, Dr. George, 105
+  Kennedy, Dr. Evory, 61, 63
+  Knox, Robert, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28
+
+
+  L
+
+  _Lancet_, the, 95, 169, 191, 218
+  Laughing-gas, _vide_ nitrous oxide
+  Laycock, Professor, 186
+  Leighton, Archbishop, 193
+  Leprosy and leper-houses, 70
+  Lippi, 45
+  Lister, Lord, 176, 179, 184, 188
+  Liston, Professor, 26, 31, 91, 95, 104, 151
+  Lizars, John, 26
+  London, Simpson's journeys to, 80, 187, 213
+  Long, Dr., of Athens, U.S.A., 96
+  Lycium, the, of the Muses, 154
+
+
+  M
+
+  MacArthur, Mr., 20, 21, 22, 26, 39
+  Macintosh, Dr., 55
+  Maclagan, Sir Douglas, 43
+  Maclaren, Mr. Duncan, 61
+  _Maga_, the university, 41
+  Mandrake, 93
+  Master of Arts, the degree of, 19
+  Medical faculty, the, 57, 59, 60, 187
+  Medical Reform Act, the, 187
+  Medical student, the Edinburgh, 33
+  _Medical Times and Gazette_, the, 184
+  Medicine, condition of, at Simpson's birth, 1-3
+  Medico-Chirurgical Society, the Edinburgh, 189
+  Meigs, Professor, 117
+  Melbourne, Lord, 28, 73
+  Mesmerism, 94, 149
+  Midwifery, 3, 32, 39, 40, 53, 86, 104
+  Midwifery Chair, 55-65, 188, 215
+  Midwifery class, Simpson's, 67
+  Miller, Professor, 106, 109, 186
+  Moncrieff, Lord, 27
+  Monro (Primus), 57
+  Monro (Secundus), 56
+  Monro (Tertius), 23, 59
+  Montgomery, Dr., 140
+  Monthyon Prize, the, 190
+  Morton, W. T. G., 97, 98, 129, 132, 198
+
+
+  N
+
+  Napier, Lord, of Magdala, 197
+  _Nepenthe_, 93
+  Newhaven, 143, 196
+  Nitrous oxide gas, 97
+  North, Christopher, 18
+  Nunn, Mr., 123
+
+
+  O
+
+  Oineromathic, the Society, 42
+  Oxford, D.C.L., degree of, 192, 212
+
+
+  P
+
+  Paré, Ambroise, 90
+  Pathology, 39, 53, 55, 73, 74
+  Petroleum, 84
+  Physician-Accoucheur to the Queen, Simpson appointed, 86
+  Pillans, Professor, 18
+  _Post mortem_, 225
+  _Practitioner_, the, 184
+  Principalship, the, of Edinburgh University, 192
+  "Prometheus," 218
+  "Puck," 138
+
+
+  Q
+
+  Queen Street, No. 52, 78, 81, 105, 137
+  Queen, the, 17, 86, 129, 190
+
+
+  R
+
+  Reform, medical, 187
+  Reform, university, 187
+  Regents, the, of Edinburgh University, 192
+  Reid, Professor John, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 39,
+        41, 42, 55, 207
+  Religious views, Simpson's, 203
+  Rinderpest, epidemic of, 185
+  Rollock, the Regent, 192
+  Roman army, the, 156
+  Royal Medical Society, 41, 52, 53
+  Royal Physical Society, 41
+  Russell, Lord John, 27, 190
+
+
+  S
+
+  _Scots Observer_, the, 82
+  _Scotsman_, the, 61, 142
+  Scott, Sir Walter, 27, 124
+  Senatus Academicus, the, of Edinburgh University, 29, 186,
+        194.
+  Simpson, Alexander, 10, 37, 40, 61, 205, 215
+  Simpson, David, 5
+  Simpson, David (secundus), 37
+  Simpson, David (tertius), 191, 210
+  Simpson, Lady, 191, 216, 217
+  Simpson, Mary, 10
+  Simpson, Miss E. B., 138, 202, 214
+  Simpson, Mrs., 5, 6, 204
+  Simpson, Professor A. R., 51, 86, 164, 219
+  Smallpox, 184
+  Snow, Dr., 130
+  Snowball riot, the, 42
+  Sound, the, 168
+  Squabbles, Simpson's, 78
+  Stafford House, Simpson's visit to, 80
+  St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 151
+  Stevenson, R. L., 80
+  Storer, Dr., 217
+  Student, the Edinburgh medical, 33
+  Superstitions, 4, 5, 12
+  Surgery at Simpson's birth, 3
+    before anæsthesia, 88-91
+    after anæsthesia, 131
+  Sutherland, the Duchess of, 80, 86
+  Syme, Professor, 26, 31, 60, 61, 73, 114, 175, 130,
+        140, 148, 151, 186
+
+
+  T
+
+  Thatcher, Dr., 37, 63
+  Thesis, Simpson's, for M.D. degree, 39
+  Thomson, Professor, 39, 60, 72
+  Town council of Edinburgh, the, 28, 58, 60, 63, 65, 73,
+        188, 192
+  Traill, Professor, 60
+
+
+  U
+
+  Universities (Scots) Act, 188, 193
+  University of Edinburgh, 14, 18, 26, 28, 31, 130
+
+
+  V
+
+  Verses, Simpson's, 33, 202
+  Viewbank, 143, 211
+
+
+  W
+
+  Waldie, Mr., 105
+  Wallace, Professor, 18
+  Warren, Dr. J. Collins, 102
+  Warriston cemetery, 216
+  Weavers, the, of Bathgate, 8, 9
+  Wells, Horace, 97, 132, 198
+  Wesley, John, 71
+  Westminster Abbey, 215, 219
+  Williams, Dr., of York, 213
+  Wilson, George, 42
+  Wilson, Professor John, 18, 27
+  Women, medical, 188
+  Wound-healing, 176
+
+
+  Y
+
+  York, Simpson's visit to, 213
+  Young, Professor Thomas, 59
+
+
+
+
+The Gresham Press, UNWIN BROTHERS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+THE CENTURY DICTIONARY
+
+  _Six volumes bound in cloth, gilt lettered, sprinkled edges, per
+        vol._ =£2 2s.=
+  _Do. in half morocco, marbled edges, per vol._ =£2 16s.=
+  _24 Parts, strongly bound in cloth, per part_, =10s. 6d.=
+  BOOKCASE _for holding the Dictionary, price_ =£3 3s.=
+  Size of each volume 13 in. × 9-1/2 In. × 2-1/4 In.
+
+_PRESS NOTICES._
+
+"The exceptional merits of the 'Century Dictionary' are beyond
+dispute."--_Times._
+
+"One of the most notable monuments of the philological industry of the
+age."--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+"It is a work of great ability, fine scholarship, and patient research
+in many widely different departments of learning."--_Standard._
+
+"As we turn the leaves of this splendid work, we feel acutely the
+inadequacy of any description apart from actual handling of the
+volumes."--_Daily Chronicle._
+
+"It is fuller, more complete, with fewer faults than any rival."--_Pall
+Mall Gazette._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE CYCLOPÆDIA OF NAMES
+
+  _Cloth, =£2 2s.= net.; half morocco, =£2 15s.= net._
+  Size--13 in. × 9-1/2 × 2-1/4 in.
+
+_PRESS NOTICES._
+
+"A book of ready reference for proper names of every conceivable
+kind."--_Daily News._
+
+"The 'Cyclopædia of Names' deserves to rank with important works of
+reference, for though its facts on any given subject are of course,
+elementary, they can be quickly found, and, on the whole, they are
+admirably chosen."--_Standard._
+
+"A most handsome and solid volume.... It will be found exceedingly
+useful.... It is beautifully printed."--_Daily Chronicle._
+
+"A most valuable compilation, and one which will be valued for the
+great mass of information which it contains."--_Glasgow Herald._
+
+"Every library of reference; no matter how richly stocked, will be the
+richer for having it ... may be consulted freely without the
+inconveniences of human haulage."--_Scotsman._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN
+
+EDITED BY H. F. WILSON
+
+_A Set of 10 Volumes, each with Photogravure Frontispiece, and Map,
+large crown 8vo., cloth, =5s.= each_.
+
+The completion of the Sixtieth year of the Queen's reign will be the
+occasion of much retrospect and review, in the course of which the
+great men who, under the auspices of Her Majesty and her predecessors,
+have helped to make the British Empire what it is to-day, will
+naturally be brought to mind. Hence the idea of the present series.
+These biographies, concise but full, popular but authoritative, have
+been designed with the view of giving in each case an adequate picture
+of the builder in relation to his work.
+
+The series will be under the general editorship of Mr. H. F. Wilson,
+formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and now private
+secretary to the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain at the Colonial Office.
+Each volume will be placed in competent hands, and will contain the
+best portrait obtainable of its subject, and a map showing his special
+contribution to the Imperial edifice. The first to appear will be a
+Life of Sir Waiter Ralegh, by Major Hume, the learned author of "The
+Year after the Armada." Others in contemplation will deal with the
+Cabots, the quarter-centenary of whose sailing from Bristol has
+recently been celebrated in that city, as well as in Canada and
+Newfoundland; is Sir Thomas Maitland, the "King Tom" of the
+Mediterranean; Rajah Brooke, Sir Stamford Raffles, Lord Clive, Edward
+Gibbon Wakefield, Zachary Macaulay, &c., &c.
+
+The Series has taken for its motto the Miltonic prayer:--
+
+  "Thou Who of Thy free grace didst build up this Brittannick
+  Empire to a glorious and enviable height. With all her
+  Daughter Islands about her, stay us in this felicitie."
+
+  1. =SIR WALTER RALEGH.= BY MARTIN A. S. HUME, Author of "The
+        Courtships of Queen Elizabeth," &c.
+  2. =SIR THOMAS MAITLAND=; the Mastery of the Mediterranean. By
+        WALTER FREWEN LORD.
+  3. =JOHN CABOT AND HIS SONS=; the Discovery of North America. By C.
+        RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A.
+  4. =LORD CLIVE=; the Foundation of British Rule in India. By Sir A.
+        J. ARBUTHNOT, K.C.S.I., C.I.E.
+  5. =EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD=; the Colonisation of South Australia
+        and New Zealand. By R. GARNETT, C.B., LL.D.
+  6. =RAJAH BROOKE=; the Englishman as Ruler of an Eastern State. By
+        SIR SPENSER ST. JOHN, G.C.M.G
+  7. =ADMIRAL PHILIP=; the Founding of New South Wales. By LOUIS BECKE
+        and WALTER JEFFERY.
+  8. =SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES=; England in the Far East. By the Editor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE STORY OF THE NATIONS
+
+A SERIES OF POPULAR HISTORIES.
+
+_Each Volume is furnished with Map, Illustrations, and Index. Large
+Crown 8vo., fancy cloth, gold lettered, or Library Edition, dark
+cloth, burnished red top, =5s.= each.--Or may be had in half Persian,
+cloth sides, gilt tops; Price on Application._
+
+  1. =Rome.= By ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A.
+  2. =The Jews.= By Professor J. K. HOSMER.
+  3. =Germany.= By the Rev. S. BARING-GOULD.
+  4. =Carthage.= By Professor ALFRED J. CHURCH.
+  5. =Alexander's Empire.= By Prof. J. P. MAHAFFY.
+  6. =The Moors in Spain.= By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
+  7. =Ancient Egypt.= By Prof. GEORGE RAWLINSON.
+  8. =Hungary.= By Prof. ARMINIUS VAMBERY.
+  9. =The Saracens.= By ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A.
+  10. =Ireland.= By the Hon. EMILY LAWLESS.
+  11. =Chaldea.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  12. =The Goths.= By HENRY BRADLEY.
+  13. =Assyria.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  14. =Turkey.= By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
+  15. =Holland.= By Professor J. E. THOROLD ROGERS.
+  16. =Mediæval France.= By GUSTAVE MASSON.
+  17. =Persia.= By S. G. W. BENJAMIN.
+  18. =Phoenicia.= By Prof. GEORGE RAWLINSON.
+  19. =Media.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  20. =The Hansa Towns.= By HELEN ZIMMERN.
+  21. =Early Britain.= By Professor ALFRED J. CHURCH.
+  22. =The Barbary Corsairs.= By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
+  23. =Russia.= By W. R. MORFILL.
+  24. =The Jews under the Roman Empire.= By W. D. MORRISON.
+  25. =Scotland.= By JOHN MACKINTOSH, LL.D.
+  26. =Switzerland.= By R. STEAD and LINA HUG.
+  27. =Mexico.= By SUSAN HALE.
+  28. =Portugal.= By H. MORSE STEPHENS.
+  29. =The Normans.= By SARAH ORNE JEWETT.
+  30. =The Byzantine Empire.= By C. W. C. OMAN, M.A.
+  31. =Sicily: Phoenician, Greek and Roman.= By the late E. A.
+        FREEMAN.
+  31. =The Tuscan and Genoa Republics.= By BELLA DUFFY.
+  33. =Poland.= By W. R. MORFILL.
+  34. =Parthia.= By Prof. GEORGE RAWLINSON.
+  35. =The Australian Commonwealth.= By GREVILLE TREGARTHEN.
+  36. =Spain.= By H. E. WATTS.
+  37. =Japan.= By DAVID MURRAY, Ph.D.
+  38. =South Africa.= By GEORGE M. THEAL.
+  39. =Venice.= By the Hon. ALETHEA WIEL.
+  40. =The Crusades=: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. By T. A. ARCHER
+        and CHARLES L. KINGSFORD.
+  41. =Vedic India.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  42. =The West Indies and the Spanish Main.= By JAMES RODWAY, F.L.S.
+  43. =Bohemia.= By C. E. MAURICE.
+  44. =The Balkans.= By W. MILLEM.
+  45. =Canada.= By Dr. BOURINOT.
+  46. =British India.= By R. W. FRAZER, LL.B.
+  47. =Modern France.= By ANDRÉ LE BON.
+  48. =The Franks.= By LEWIS SERGEANT, B.A.
+
+"Such a universal history as the series will present us with in
+its completion will be a possession such as no country but our
+own can boast of.... Its success on the whole has been very
+remarkable."--_Daily Chronicle._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MERMAID SERIES
+
+The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists. Literal Reproductions of the Old
+Text.
+
+_Post 8vo., each Volume containing about 500 pages, and an etched
+Frontispiece, cloth, =3s. 6d.= each_.
+
+  1. =The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe.= Edited by HAVELOCK
+        ELLIS, and containing a General Introduction to the Series by
+        JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
+  2. =The Best Plays of Thomas Otway.= Introduction by the Hon. RODEN
+        NOEL.
+  3. =The Best Plays of John Ford.=--Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS.
+  4 and 5. =The Best Plays of Thomas Massinger.= Essay and Notes by
+        ARTHUR SYMONS.
+  6. =The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood.= Edited by A. W. VERITY.
+        Introduction by J. A. SYMONDS.
+  7. =The Complete Plays of William Wycherley.= Edited by W. C. WARD.
+  8. =Nero=, and other Plays. Edited by H. P. HORNE, ARTHUR SYMONS, A.
+        W. VERITY, and H. ELLIS.
+  9 and 10. =The Best Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher.= Introduction by
+        J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
+  11. =The Complete Plays of Congreve.= Edited by ALEX. C. EWALD.
+  12. =The Best Plays of Webster and Tourneur.= Introduction by JOHN
+        ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
+  13 and 14. =The Best Plays of Thomas Middleton.= Introduction by
+        ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.
+  15. =The Best Plays of James Shirley.= Introduction by EDMUND
+        GOSSE.
+  16. =The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker.= Notes by ERNEST RHYS.
+  17, 19, and 20. =The Best Plays of Ben Jonson.= Vol. I. edited, with
+        Introduction and Notes, by BRINSLEY NICHOLSON and C. H.
+        HERFORD.
+  18. =The Complete Plays of Richard Steele.= Edited, with Introduction
+        and Notes, by G. A. AITKEN.
+  21. =The Best Plays of George Chapman.= Edited by WILLIAM LYON
+        PHELPS, Instructor of English Literature at Yale College.
+  22. =The Select Plays of Sir John Vanbrugh.= Edited, with an
+        Introduction and Notes, by A. E. H. SWAEN.
+
+_PRESS OPINIONS._
+
+"Even the professed scholar with a good library at his command will
+find some texts here not otherwise easily accessible; while the
+humbler student of slender resources, who knows the bitterness of not
+being able to possess himself of the treasure stored in expensive
+folios or quartos long out of print, will assuredly rise up and thank
+Mr. Unwin."--_St. James's Gazette._
+
+"Resumed under good auspices."--_Saturday Review._
+
+"The issue is as good as it could be."--_British Weekly._
+
+"At once scholarly and interesting."--_Leeds Mercury._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SIX-SHILLING NOVELS
+
+_In uniform green cloth, large crown 8vo., gilt tops,_ =6s.=
+
+  =Effie Hetherington.= By ROBERT BUCHANAN, Second Edition.
+  =An Outcast of the Islands.= By JOSEPH CONRAD. Second Edition.
+  =Almayer's Folly.= By JOSEPH CONRAD. Second Edition.
+  =The Ebbing of the Tide.= By LOUIS BECKE. Second Edition.
+  =A First Fleet Family.= By LOUIS BECKE and WALTER JEFFERY.
+  =Paddy's Woman=, and Other Stories. By HUMPHREY JAMES.
+  =Clara Hopgood.= By MARK RUTHERFORD. Second Edition.
+  =The Tales of John Oliver Hobbes.= Portrait of the Author. Second
+        Edition.
+  =The Stickit Minister.= By S. R. CROCKETT. Eleventh Edition.
+  =The Lilac Sunbonnet.= By S. R. CROCKETT. Sixth Edition.
+  =The Raiders.= By S. R. CROCKETT. Eighth Edition.
+  =The Grey Man.= By S. R. CROCKETT.
+  =In a Man's Mind.= By J. R WATSON.
+  =A Daughter of the Fen.= By J. T. BEALBY. Second Edition.
+  =The Herb-Moon.= By JOHN OLIVER HOBBES. Third Edition.
+  =Nancy Noon.= By BENJAMIN SWIFT, Second Edition. With New Preface.
+  =Mr. Magnus.= By F. REGINALD STATHAM. Second Edition.
+  =Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland.= By OLIVE SCHREINER.
+        Frontispiece.
+  =Pacific Tales.= By LOUIS BECKE. With Frontispiece Portrait of the
+        Author. Second Edition.
+  =Mrs. Keith's Crime.= By Mrs. W. K. CLIFFORD. Sixth Edition. With
+        Portrait of Mrs. Keith by the Hon. JOHN COLLIER, and a New
+        Preface by the Author.
+  =Hugh Wynne.= By Dr. S. WEIR MITCHELL. With Frontispiece Illustration.
+  =The Tormentor.= By BENJAMIN SWIFT, Author of "Nancy Noon."
+  =Prisoners of Conscience.= By AMELIA E. BARR, Author of "Jan
+        Vedder's Wife." With 12 Illustrations.
+  =The Gods, some Mortals and Lord Wickenham.= New Edition. By JOHN
+        OLIVER HOBBES.
+  =The Outlaws of the Marches.= By Lord ERNEST HAMILTON. Fully
+        illustrated.
+  =The School for Saints:= Part of the History of the Right Honourable
+        Robert Orange, M.P. By JOHN OLIVER HOBBES, Author of "Sinner's
+        Comedy," "Some Emotions and a Moral," "The Herb Moon," &c.
+  =The People of Clopton.= By GEORGE BARTRAM.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WORKS BY MARTIN A. S. HUME
+
+F.R.H.S., Editor of the "Calendar of Spanish State Papers of
+Elizabeth" (Public Record Office).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE COURTSHIPS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
+
+With Portraits
+
+_Fourth Edition. Demy 8vo., cloth_, =12s.=
+
+"It is undeniably an important addition to the history of the
+Elizabethan period, and it will rank as the foremost authority on the
+most interesting aspect of the character of the Tudor Queen."--_Pall
+Mall Gazette._
+
+"A clear and very interesting account. An excellent book."--_Times._
+
+"A connected and consistent, though assuredly a most extraordinary,
+story.... A fascinating picture."--_Standard._
+
+"A delightful book."--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE YEAR AFTER THE ARMADA
+
+AND OTHER HISTORICAL STUDIES
+
+_Second Edition. Illustrated. Demy 8vo., cloth gilt,_ =12s.=
+
+"A most valuable and conscientiously written historical
+work."--_Spectator._
+
+"The whole book is extremely interesting, and at once instructive and
+amusing."--_Speaker._
+
+"Deserves a wide circulation, and we trust that a proper reward will
+follow close upon its merits."--_Literary World._
+
+"Major Hume has thrown the most curious and valuable light on the
+Armada period. Full of delightful sketches of men and things."--W. L.
+COURTNEY in _The Daily Telegraph_.
+
+"A work which adds many a fresh page to English, and one may say to
+European history.... From first to last the volume is excellent
+reading, while the entertaining style in which the matter is presented
+and the undeniable authority of the writer ... render the book of
+special interest and permanent value."--_The Morning Post._
+
+"Quite as good as a novel--and a good dead better, too. The book is so
+bright and vivid that readers with the common dislike of history may
+venture on its pages unafraid."--ANDREW LANG in _Cosmopolis_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SIR WALTER RALEGH
+
+Being Vol. I. of the series entitled "Builders of Greater Britain,"
+each vol. with photogravure frontispiece and map.
+
+_Large crown 8vo., cloth, =5s.= each_.
+
+"There is not a dull page in it, and, with his skilful telling of
+it, the story of Raleigh's life and of his times reads like a
+romance."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber Notes
+
+Archaic and variable spelling is preserved, including 'receptable'.
+
+Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.
+
+Greek transliterations are surrounded by ~tildes~.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+(1811-1870), by Henry Laing Gordon
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+<title>Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform (1811-1870), by H. Laing Gordon, a Project Gutenberg eBook</title>
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+(1811-1870), by Henry Laing Gordon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform (1811-1870)
+       Masters of Medicine
+
+Author: Henry Laing Gordon
+
+Editor: Ernest Hart
+
+Release Date: October 24, 2010 [EBook #34128]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHLOROFORM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<div class='figtag'>
+<a name='linki_1' id='linki_1'></a>
+</div>
+<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='Book cover' title='' width='325' height='354' />
+<br />
+</div>
+<div class='center'>
+<h1 class='smcap'>Sir James Young Simpson<br />
+and<br />
+Chloroform<br />
+<br />
+<span class='smaller'>(1811-1870)</span></h1>
+<p class='larger bolder'><span class='smcaplc'>BY</span><br />
+<span class='smcap'>H. Laing Gordon</span></p>
+<p class='padtop smaller'><i>LONDON</i><br />
+T. FISHER UNWIN<br />
+PATERNOSTER SQUARE<br />
+<span class='smcaplc'>MDCCCXCVII</span></p>
+<p class='padtop smaller'><i>Copyright by T. Fisher Unwin, 1897, for Great Britain<br />
+and Longmans Green &amp; Co. for the<br />
+United States of America</i></p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<p class='larger'><b><i>MASTERS OF MEDICINE</i></b></p>
+<p><b>EDITED BY
+ERNEST HART, D.C.L</b></p>
+<div class='poem centered w20 padtop'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;HOMINES AD DEOS NULLA IN RE&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+<p>PROPIUS ACCEDUNT QUAM</p>
+<p>SALUTEM HOMINIBUS DANDO.&#8221;</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ralign'>CICERO.</p>
+</div></div>
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<div class='figtag'>
+<a name='linki_2' id='linki_2'></a>
+</div>
+<img src='images/masters_logo.jpg' alt='Masters of Medicine logo' title='' width='382' height='370' />
+<br />
+</div>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr class='bolder'><td align="center">Title.</td><td align="center">Author.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>John Hunter</span></td><td align="left"><i>Stephen Paget</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>William Harvey</span></td><td align="left"><i>D&#8217;arcy Power</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>Sir James Simpson</span></td><td align="left"><i>H. Laing Gordon</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>Edward Jenner</span></td><td align="left"><i>Ernest Hart</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>Hermann Von Helmholtz</span></td><td align="left"><i>John G. McKendrick</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>William Stokes</span></td><td align="left"><i>Sir William Stokes</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>Claude Bernard</span></td><td align="left"><i>Michael Foster</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>Sir Benjamin Brodie</span></td><td align="left"><i>Timothy Holmes</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>Thomas Sydenham</span></td><td align="left"><i>J. F. Payne</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span class='smcap'>Vesalius</span></td><td align="left"><i>C. Louis Taylor</i></td></tr>
+</table>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<div class='figtag'>
+<a name='linki_3' id='linki_3'></a>
+</div>
+<img src='images/frontis.jpg' alt='' title='J. Simpson' width='394' height='557' />
+<br />
+</div>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<p class='padtop smcap'>To<br />
+PROFESSOR ALEXANDER RUSSELL SIMPSON</p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div class='poem centered w20'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Him by the hand dear Nature took,</p>
+<p>Dearest Nature, strong and kind.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ralign'><span class='smcap'>Ralph Waldo Emerson.</span></p>
+</div></div>
+<div class='poem centered w20 padtop'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ralign'><i>Id.</i></p>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<a name='PREFACE' id='PREFACE'></a>
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+</div>
+<p>I have endeavoured to condense the vast amount
+of matter which has been written concerning this
+Master of Medicine and his work into the form of
+a readable narrative, and to represent him in his
+social and intellectual environment in accordance
+with the object of this Series. The selections from
+his own writings illustrate as far as possible his
+versatility and many-sided character. I have chosen
+for quotation out of the numerous sketches and
+memoirs of him those written from undoubted
+knowledge of the man.</p>
+<p>I am indebted especially to Professor A. R. Simpson
+for kind advice, to Mr. Cuthbertson of the Edinburgh
+University Library for useful help, to Mr. C. Louis
+Taylor for valuable criticism, and to my wife for
+assistance in research and compilation. I have also
+to thank those friends who from time to time have
+favoured me with personal reminiscences of Sir James.</p>
+<p>The following are the chief works, in addition to
+Simpson&#8217;s own writings, from which my information has
+been drawn:&mdash;(1) &#8220;The Jubilee of Anæsthetic Midwifery&#8221;;
+(2) &#8220;Keiller and Credé&#8221;; (3) &#8220;History
+of the Chair of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh,&#8221;
+being addresses by Professor A. R. Simpson;
+(4) Miss Eve B. Simpson&#8217;s &#8220;Sir James Simpson&#8221;;
+and her (5) &#8220;Dogs of other Days;&#8221; (6) &#8220;Twenty
+Years and their Lesson; a Retrospect and Review&#8221;
+(<i>Scots Observer</i>, 1891); (7) Dr. Duns&#8217;s &#8220;Memoir
+of Sir J. Y. Simpson&#8221;; (8) Professor Gusserow&#8217;s
+&#8220;Zur Erinnerung an Sir J. Y. Simpson&#8221;; (9) Mr.
+Cuthbertson&#8217;s &#8220;Student&#8217;s Pilgrimage&#8221;; (10) &#8220;The
+Story of Edinburgh University,&#8221; by Sir A. Grant;
+(11) &#8220;The Life of Sir Robert Christison&#8221;; (12)
+&#8220;The Life of Robert Knox&#8221;; and numerous back
+numbers of the <i>Century Magazine</i>, the <i>Lancet</i>, the
+<i>British Medical Journal</i>, the <i>Medical Times and
+Gazette</i>, the <i>Edinburgh Medical Journal</i>, &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+<p><span class='smcap'>Forest Hill</span>, <i>October, 1897</i>.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<a name='CONTENTS' id='CONTENTS'></a>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'><p class="smaller">CHAP.</p></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'><p class="smaller ralign">PAGE</p></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>I.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Birth and Childhood. (1811-1825)</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_I_BIRTH_AND_CHILDHOOD_18111825'>1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>II.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Student Days. (1825-1830)</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_II_STUDENT_DAYS_18251830'>17</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>III</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Further Studies. (1830-1835)</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_III_FURTHER_STUDIES_18301835'>36</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>IV.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Early Practice and Professorship.</span> (1835-1840)</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_IV_EARLY_PRACTICE_AND_PROFESSORSHIP_18351840'>52</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>V.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Professor and Physician.</span> (1840-1847)</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_V_PROFESSOR_AND_PHYSICIAN_18401847'>66</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>VI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Discovery of Anæsthetics.</span> (1844-1847)</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VI_THE_DISCOVERY_OF_ANSTHETICS_18441847'>88</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>VII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Fight for Anæsthesia. 1847 onwards</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VII_THE_FIGHT_FOR_ANSTHESIA_1847_ONWARDS'>111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>VIII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Home Life&mdash;Controversies</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VIII_HOME_LIFECONTROVERSIES'>133</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>IX.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Archæology&mdash;Practice</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_IX_ARCHOLOGYPRACTICE'>152</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>X.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Personal&mdash;Professorial&mdash;Professional</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_X_PERSONALPROFESSORIALPROFESSIONAL'>164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>XI.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Further Reforms&mdash;Honours</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XI_FURTHER_REFORMSHONOURS'>186</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' class='chalgn'>XII.</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Failing Health&mdash;Death</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XII_FAILING_HEALTHDEATH'>202</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td />
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Appendix</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#APPENDIX'>223</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td />
+  <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Index</span></td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#INDEX'>227</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span></div>
+<p class='center muchlarger'>SIR JAMES SIMPSON</p>
+<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'>
+<a name='CHAPTER_I_BIRTH_AND_CHILDHOOD_18111825' id='CHAPTER_I_BIRTH_AND_CHILDHOOD_18111825'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER I
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>Birth and Childhood. 1811-1825</span></span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>The state of the healing art at Simpson&#8217;s birth&mdash;Birthplace&mdash;Family
+superstitions&mdash;His father&#8217;s bakery&mdash;His mother&#8217;s Huguenot descent&mdash;Commencement
+of schooldays&mdash;Natural and antiquarian features
+of Bathgate district&mdash;The village hand-loom weavers as antiquarians
+and naturalists&mdash;His interest in Nature and craving for knowledge&mdash;Brothers&#8217;
+and sister&#8217;s care for him&mdash;Size of his head&mdash;Village
+doctor&#8217;s record of his birth&mdash;Schooldays cease at age of
+fourteen&mdash;Influence of his environment in developing his character.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>James Young Simpson, who will ever be
+remembered as the discoverer of the pain-annulling
+power of chloroform, was born in the year
+1811, at a period when there was room for a hero in
+the practice of the healing art in the British Islands.</p>
+<p>It is true that in the seventeenth century Harvey
+had laid bare the great fact of the circulation of the
+blood and the practical Thomas Sydenham had
+swept aside the highly empirical systems and theories
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span>
+of medicine which had successively supplanted each
+other since Hippocrates first taught, and urged men to
+found their knowledge upon what they actually saw&mdash;on
+observation and experiment; and that in the
+eighteenth century men like Cheyne, Heberden,
+Cullen, and the wonderful Jenner had appreciably
+assisted in developing medicine at the same time
+that Hunter was raising surgery nearer to the level
+of a science. But even while Simpson was growing
+out of childhood all the powers of such professional
+giants as Bright, Addison, Abernethy, Astley
+Cooper, and Charles Bell, were insufficient to dispel
+the massive cloud of mystery and superstition which
+enveloped the practice of both medicine and surgery
+in this country and obscured whatever there was of
+truth in the teaching of these men.</p>
+<p>In the first decade or two of this century the medical
+profession had not yet entirely abandoned the use of
+the golden-headed cane, nor had what Oliver Wendell
+Holmes calls the solemn farce of overdrugging yet
+ceased. &#8220;Humours,&#8221; &#8220;impostumes,&#8221; &#8220;iliac passions,&#8221;
+and such like were still spoken of&mdash;terms now heard
+only amongst country-folks in remote districts and
+that rarely, or encountered in curious old medical publications.
+Messes and abominations, prepared by the
+apothecaries according to more or less secret recipes
+handed down through the Middle Ages, were swallowed
+in good faith; blood-letting was still a panacea; and
+such remedies as that of holding a live puppy to the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span>
+body for the relief of colic still had their professional
+advocates, but happily a decreasing number; whilst
+those pains</p>
+<div class='poem w20'><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='center'>&#8220;... In the hour,</p>
+<p>When the veil of the body we feel</p>
+<p>Rent round us&mdash;while torments reveal</p>
+<p>The motherhood&#8217;s advent in power&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>&mdash;pains which Simpson was the first truly to relieve by
+his application of anæsthetics, were gravely said to be
+alleviated by the swallowing of a concoction of white
+onions and oil. Surgery was no doubt ahead of
+medicine; but the early surgical records of this century
+have little more than a curious interest to modern
+practitioners. Operations entirely unknown to our
+professional forefathers less than a century ago are
+now performed in safety daily. Such mysterious
+diseases as &#8220;icteric irritative fever&#8221; and &#8220;acute
+sinking&#8221; after operations, dreaded then with the fear
+that is always inspired by unseen or ill-understood
+dangers, have vanished before the progress of modern
+science in which the introduction of anæsthesia was
+the first great step.</p>
+<p>The practice of the branch of medicine which
+Simpson made so peculiarly his own&mdash;that of obstetrics&mdash;originally
+in the hands of women only, had
+been fiercely contested for by the two sexes during
+two centuries, and such was the feeling against man-midwives
+in Scotland that the dispute had scarcely
+ceased at Simpson&#8217;s birth. The stronger sex, however,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span>
+was then at last asserting its superiority, and to be an
+accoucheur was beginning to be considered after all
+as worthy of a gentleman. The despised art was
+preparing for its renaissance.</p>
+<p>Simpson grew to manhood whilst science, aided by
+precise methods of accurate observation, was shedding
+new light upon physic, surgery, and obstetrics. In
+fulfilling his great part in establishing the healing art
+on a firm scientific basis, Simpson encountered the full
+force of the ignorance and prejudice of his day both
+within and without his profession. It was, perhaps,
+fortunate that he was brought up in a small village
+and in a rank of life where he would meet from
+his earliest days with many superstitious beliefs and
+practices, strange and utterly irrational. A mind such
+as his would meet, reason, and experiment these out of
+existence. Probably through these circumstances he
+conceived the taste for archæology and antiquarian
+research which were his recreation in later years; but,
+what was more important, he gained also some training
+for the struggle with ignorance, untruth, and
+irrationalism, into which he threw with his eager
+vigour the whole strength of his manhood.</p>
+<p>Simpson was born in the village of Bathgate, in
+Linlithgowshire, where his father, David Simpson,
+was the local baker. David&#8217;s father, who died at the
+ripe age of ninety-one a few years after James&#8217;s birth,
+was the descendant of a line of small hard-working
+farmers, who added to his work and his profit the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span>
+practice of farriery. Although modern science has,
+by the aid of bacteriology, proved such practitioners
+of the rough veterinary medicine of the day to have
+been right in ascribing to unseen influences many of
+the diseases of animals which they found themselves
+powerless to check, the methods they employed for
+treatment when what they called witchcraft was at
+work scarcely have the support of present-day practitioners.
+In one of his addresses upon archæology
+Simpson records how his grandfather ordered and his
+own father took part in the burial alive of a cow in
+order to appease the evil spirit which was spreading
+the plague of murrain with fatal effect. And the
+older gentleman was known to have had more than
+one serious encounter with a witch. On one occasion
+an old beggar woman, who plied her calling in
+quite an original method&mdash;that of being wheeled in a
+barrow from farm to farm&mdash;hurled curses at old
+Simpson for ordering a servant to wheel her from his
+house on to her next calling-place, and vowed an
+awful vengeance on his family if he did not replace
+the servant with one of his stalwart sons. The
+farmer recollected that an ill event had followed the
+old woman&#8217;s last visit, and quickly drew a sharp flint
+from his pocket and made a gash across her forehead
+with it. &#8220;Ah,&#8221; he exclaimed, &#8220;I see what ye&#8217;re noo,
+ye auld witch; but I&#8217;ve scored ye aboon the braith
+and my house is safe.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Simpson noted these and many other curious practices
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span>
+and beliefs, and afterwards pointed out in one of
+his addresses that they were probably, for the most
+part, relics of the pagan creeds and customs of our
+ancestors. He urged the making of a collection of
+the folk-lore of Scotland, ere it utterly disappeared
+before the march of modern civilisation, and suggested
+that, perhaps, some archæological Cuvier might one
+day be able to re-construct from these mythological
+fragments distinct pictures of the heathen practices,
+rites, and faiths of our forefathers.</p>
+<p>In his early boyhood he listened to many stories of
+local and family superstitions told to him with all the
+earnestness of a firm believer by his father. He himself
+was the object of superstitious admiration to the
+simple villagers all through his boyhood, and they
+freely foretold great deeds from him in later years;
+for he was a seventh son, and the good luck which
+seventh sons were supposed to bring had appeared in
+the family soon after his birth. Up to the day on
+which James first saw the light, June 7, 1811, the
+baker&#8217;s business had been going steadily from bad to
+worse, and the shop books showed that on that very
+day the lowest depths were reached. The baker,
+David Simpson, seems to have been curiously lacking
+in business method, although he was a hard-working
+man. But after James&#8217;s birth he wisely interested his
+wife in his affairs, with the result that she energetically
+and successfully bestirred herself to recoup their fallen
+fortunes. Mrs. Simpson was directly descended from
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span>
+a fugitive Huguenot family, settled for many years on
+a farm near Bathgate, and intermarried with well-known
+families. Through her, indeed, Simpson claimed
+a distant relationship with the national hero, Sir William
+Wallace. The cares of her family and the strain of
+managing the increasing baker&#8217;s business proved too
+much for her always delicate constitution, and she died
+when James was only nine years old. There is no
+doubt that the youngest child and favourite son had an
+unusually large share of his mother&#8217;s society during those
+years; he was a peculiarly attractive child, &#8220;a rosy
+bairn wi&#8217; laughin&#8217; mou&#8217; and dimpled cheeks,&#8221; and his
+manner, even when he was little more than an infant,
+was quiet and affectionate. When physical sufferings
+overtook the mother, the child&#8217;s quiet sympathy and
+engaging manner helped and comforted her. Her own
+nature was bright, vivacious, and energetic, quick to
+think and prompt to act; and she was full of love,
+sympathy, and piety. These maternal traits influenced
+the youth, and added a soft, refined&mdash;delicately refined&mdash;tone
+to the paternal influence, whence he received
+self-reliance and habits of persevering industry.</p>
+<p>The boy&#8217;s school-life began at the age of four
+years. The orthodox learning came very easily to
+him; he entered into both work and play so whole-heartedly
+that he at once became known as the &#8220;wise
+wean,&#8221; and was at the same time ever sought after by
+his school-mates as a companion in out-door sports.
+The parish schoolmaster was one James Taylor, who
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span>
+had considerable ability for the post, and encouraged
+his pupils by kindly personal interest to develop affection
+for learning. But for Simpson there were other
+teachers and greater subjects for study in the countryside
+around Bathgate. The district was full of rich
+treasures for the field naturalist and for the antiquarian.
+Bathgate lies between the Firth of Forth
+and the Pentland Hills, in a geologically varied
+district, with a varied and abundant flora and fauna&mdash;more
+so in those days when Bathgate was a small
+village of hand-loom weavers than latterly, when it
+was a thriving little town, the centre of a coal, shale,
+and ironstone mining industry. The archæological
+features of the neighbourhood were full of interest.
+There was the famous &#8220;Catstane,&#8221; of Kirkliston,
+which had puzzled antiquarians even before the
+establishment of the Scots Society in 1780, and at
+Kipps was one of the few remaining cromlechs&mdash;and
+that a ruined one&mdash;in Scotland; whilst the line
+of the Roman wall between the Firth of Forth and
+the Clyde was not far distant. There were traces of
+a Cistercian monastery founded by David I., and
+various hills and fields and caves were associated with
+the names of Sir William Wallace, Robert Bruce,
+and King Edward I.</p>
+<p>Simpson thoroughly familiarised himself in boyhood
+with the natural features, as well as with the antiquarian
+objects in the district. He continued to investigate
+them during his vacations when a student at Edinburgh
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span>
+University, and rendered the neighbourhood
+famous archæologically by masterly monographs written
+when he was at the height of his fame. Amongst the
+village hand-loom weavers, a race of peculiarly observant
+and intelligent men, there were some who studied
+both the antiquarian objects and the natural history of
+Linlithgowshire. Simpson used to speak of one man,
+a daily labourer at the loom, who was able to write,
+in correct Latin, an accurate description of any plant
+or animal brought before him, although his earnings
+at the loom never amounted to fifty pounds a year.
+These men thoroughly enjoyed the evident interest of
+the &#8220;young philosopher&#8221; in their discussions and
+demonstrations, at the same time kindly directing his
+mind towards the simple, painstaking, true methods of
+observing and reflecting upon nature. There was no
+lack of change in his environment for him; his
+interest in natural phenomena was roused and kept
+alive during his drives round the countryside delivering
+bread to the farmers and cottagers, or in occasional
+visits to his parents&#8217; relations. He daily took his turn
+behind the shop counter, reading, writing, or drawing
+in the interval of waiting for customers. He trained
+himself to read or do his school lessons as readily in a
+roomful of romping children as in the quiet of the
+bedroom. It has been said that he never knew an
+idle moment from the day of his birth onwards, and
+his was such an indomitable and persevering energy
+that the remark is no exaggeration. But the pathway
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span>
+to greatness was made specially smooth for James
+Simpson. He was set upon it, and protected in his
+childhood, and guided in his youth, with the one
+definite object always in view. The Simpson family
+as well as the whole Bathgate community, took it for
+granted that eminence was to be his in whatever walk
+of life he entered seriously upon. His sister Mary and
+his brother Alexander looked upon him as a special
+care; the former watched over him as a mother, and
+the latter helped him in the ups and downs of boyhood,
+just as he constantly stood by him throughout the
+difficult days of his later career. It had always been
+a custom in Scots families of humble rank that one
+child, either from the exhibition of a natural aptitude,
+or through the ambition of the parents, was singled
+out to receive the advantages of a fuller education
+such as is within the reach of every able lad in Scotland.
+Honour and glory would thus be brought to
+the family, greatest of all if from the pulpit, while the
+less favoured members of the family would plod on in
+the same sphere of life as their parents. The world
+owes a great deal to the Simpsons, and particularly to
+Alexander, who cheerfully seconded their father&#8217;s
+efforts to help forward their young brother, without
+a suspicion of jealousy. They knew he would be
+great some day, and therein they looked for their
+reward.</p>
+<p>Happily there were ample means for all their
+requirements derived from the now prosperous bakery.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span>
+The money was kept in one drawer, the till where
+the shop earnings were placed. All the household
+were free to draw thence supplies for their ordinary
+wants, James without stint; and he alone was
+exempted from the condition that he who profited
+must also contribute by the sweat of his brow. The
+boy took very full advantage of his fortunate circumstances
+and drank deeply of all the knowledge that
+came near and ever hunted for more. With each
+succeeding year the craving to know, and to know
+thoroughly, became more and more his ruling passion;
+by the time his schooldays were over it had gained
+complete mastery over him; happily for the human
+race Providence had so endowed him that when
+knowledge had come wisdom did not linger.</p>
+<p>He was never in any way led away by the temptations
+that no doubt beset every boy in a village
+of hard-drinkers such as Bathgate was in his youth.
+Alexander took pains to warn him&mdash;&#8220;Others may
+do this, Jamie, but it would break all our hearts
+and blast all your prospects were you to do it,&#8221; he
+said. It was not necessary to make appeals to
+James to work and fulfil the family predictions; he
+was as firmly determined to be great as they were sure
+he would be: He never forgot how much he owed to
+the loving help of his family, and to the fact that he
+was the youngest son growing up at a time when the
+family struggles were fairly over; when instead of its
+being an effort for the parents to provide the necessary
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span>
+funds for his education, the shop-till was well filled
+and the elder brothers and the loving sister were at
+hand eagerly willing to help. In student days when
+struggles came and the path seemed dark and beset
+with dangers, the knowledge of the firm faith in his
+powers of the family at home and of the scarcely
+smaller faith of the weavers, was a powerful incentive
+in the moments when he required any other than that
+of the spirit within him.</p>
+<p>We cannot feel otherwise than thankful that up to
+the age of fourteen, when his schooldays ended, he
+had access to but a limited stock of literature wherewith
+to gratify his hunger for knowledge. To satisfy
+his appetite he was driven into the fields and the
+forests; every sense was stimulated, and became
+developed through repeated use. Thus he laid the
+foundation of his phenomenal faculty of rapid and
+accurate observation, and of his no less phenomenal
+memory.</p>
+<p>His imagination was fed with the legends of the
+district and tales of his remote moss-trooper ancestors
+told to him of an evening by his father. Though
+happily saved from being a bookworm to the exclusion
+of sounder means for acquiring knowledge, he
+devoured and digested every scrap of literature which
+came in his way. Like all Scots children of his class
+he learnt his Bible thoroughly from end to end&mdash;a
+knowledge which served him well in later years.
+Shakespeare followed the Bible in his own review of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span>
+his favourite reading as a boy; but a gazetteer or an
+almanac was quite as acceptable. His taste was for
+solid fact&mdash;fact which he could learn and put to the
+test; thus the great open book of Nature was the
+attraction he most readily yielded to. But nothing
+in book form ever came amiss to him; if between the
+covers there was useful information to be had, Simpson
+extracted it and stored it away in his capacious brain.</p>
+<p>The unusually large size of his head, a source of
+admiration in manhood, was in childhood an object of
+wonder to observers. In manhood he wore his hair
+in long locks, and this was apparently his habit in
+boyhood. Once a strange barber cut his hair so close
+that his brother took upon himself to go and rebuke
+the man. &#8220;The callant had suck a muckle head,&#8221;
+was the retort, &#8220;I was doin&#8217; my best to mak&#8217; it look
+respectable.&#8221; A close-cropped head gave altogether a
+too sportive appearance to the &#8220;young philosopher&#8221;
+in the eyes of the watchful elder brother.</p>
+<p>There is no evidence that Simpson displayed in his
+schooldays any special leaning towards the medical
+profession; it cannot be reasonably urged that his
+grandfather&#8217;s rough skill in the treatment of animals
+fostered any medical tendency in him, for James was
+but five years old when the old man died. Even had
+he been of an age to understand them, the methods
+employed would have scarcely recommended themselves
+to a youth of Simpson&#8217;s nature, sufficiently to
+raise a spirit of emulation within him. It is also not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span>
+recorded that the village doctor took any special
+interest in the boy or brought any influence to bear
+upon him; although his note-book thus gives the
+earliest record of the future prince of obstetricians:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>275.&mdash;June 7. Simpson, David, baker, Bathgate.
+Wife, Mary Jarvie. Æ. 40. 8th child, son.
+<i>Natus</i> 8 o&#8217;clock. <i>Uti veniebam natus.</i> Paid
+10s. 6d.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>James displayed his superiority so decidedly in the
+village school that when he reached the age of fourteen
+it was decided to send him to Edinburgh University
+without further waste of time. It was no unusual
+age for boys to commence their University career
+in Scotland. There was no secondary education
+in the Scots provinces, but instruction intermediate
+between that of the parish school and what is
+ordinarily known as University education was given
+within the walls of the University itself. Boys of
+humble rank who aspired to a profession were sent up,
+as indeed many still are, at the age of fourteen or
+fifteen, to attend these junior Arts classes in which
+this instruction was, and still is, imparted. The
+University was crowded with schoolboys of all ranks
+of life gathered together from town and country,
+and consisted of nothing more than a collection of
+class-rooms devoted to the giving of instruction in
+lecture form. This stepping-stone of junior classes
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span>
+threw open the higher education to hundreds of
+youths whose equals in England had no such advantage
+at that time. Scots University education
+besides being thorough was decidedly cheap, so that
+the church, law, and medicine received many recruits
+from the class out of which Simpson was drawn.</p>
+<p>His environment up to the age of fourteen was well
+calculated to train him for the great work that lay
+before him. The legends of the district, and the
+sight of the objects of archæological interest which he
+came across in his rambles out of school hours, were
+powerful stimuli to his sensations; whilst the accurate
+observation of natural phenomena in field and hedge
+which the kindly interested weavers helped him to,
+was also a valuable educative influence. It is probable
+that his senses received much of the training which
+was to lead to his ultimately being the greatest
+physician of his day by these means, rather than from
+the instruction imparted to him in the village school,
+or derived by him independently from the books that
+came in his way. It was undoubtedly a fortunate
+circumstance that he was born and bred in an out-of-the-way
+country district, where he drew his lessons
+from Nature and the phenomena which lay round
+him, rather than in a great city where he would have
+been educated on the stereotyped orthodox system.
+When we look further back, asking why he saw
+sermons in stones and books in the running brooks,
+to which the bulk of his schoolfellows were entirely
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span>
+blind, we are bound to confess that we find no satisfactory
+answer in his family history, to which it is
+customary to look for an explanation of such
+tendencies. Heredity played no great part in making
+Simpson great; from the paternal side there was
+imparted to him a vigorous physique; from his
+mother he received the bright, happy, sympathetic, and
+alert disposition, which descended through her from
+his French ancestors. He was provided with a brain
+of marvellous quality and phenomenal size. But it
+was the environment which acted upon this brain
+and brought out the capacities born in him without
+any apparent hereditary bias, and which might have
+remained entirely latent under less favourable circumstances.
+No small part of the development was
+due to the people among whom he lived; a race
+of men accustomed to rely upon their senses which
+were always with them, rather than upon books
+which they seldom saw, even if they were able to read
+them; and to observe not only all that lay around
+them, but also the characteristics of their fellowmen
+with whom they were brought into contact&mdash;the
+close contact of different classes which obtains
+in village and rural life. Simpson was taught to
+study Nature whether in field or fellow-creature
+first, and the knowledge and opinions of men as
+expressed in books afterwards.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_II_STUDENT_DAYS_18251830' id='CHAPTER_II_STUDENT_DAYS_18251830'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>Student Days. 1825-1830.</span></span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Visit to Edinburgh&mdash;Sent to the University&mdash;Takes the Arts classes&mdash;Gains
+a bursary&mdash;Influence of MacArthur and Reid&mdash;Robert Knox
+the anatomist&mdash;The Burke and Hare murders&mdash;Superiority of the
+extra-mural teachers of the day&mdash;Edinburgh an intellectual centre&mdash;University
+life&mdash;His mode of living as a student&mdash;Apprenticed
+to a chemist&mdash;Studies surgery under Liston&mdash;Regularly falls asleep
+in the obstetric class&mdash;Influence of his teachers&mdash;Verse writing&mdash;Description
+of the medical student of the day&mdash;Vacation work&mdash;Death
+of his father&mdash;Obtains qualification to practice at the age of
+eighteen.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Although Edinburgh was only eighteen
+miles from Bathgate, Simpson visited it only
+once as a schoolboy; probably he walked all the way,
+for railroads were as yet unknown and it was not a
+long walk for a country-bred vigorous youth. He
+exercised his already formed habit of noting objects of
+interest during this great event in his boyhood, and in
+his journal there are copies of old inscriptions from
+tombs in the famous Greyfriars&#8217; Churchyard to which
+he made his pilgrimage.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span></div>
+<p>The boy&#8217;s nearest and dearest ambition was to
+become a student at &#8220;the College,&#8221; as Edinburgh
+University was familiarly termed. It received encouragement
+in the periodical return to the village of
+elder boys who had gone up before him. He was
+specially struck, and afterwards stimulated, by the
+appearance of one John Reid, his senior by two years,
+and his former companion in many a country ramble,
+who came back for the vacations smartened up both
+physically and mentally by the new life.</p>
+<p>Although the collegiate life characteristic of Oxford
+was unknown in Scots Universities, there was social
+intercourse amongst the boys very different from
+that of the village. The ancient Edinburgh University
+attracted students from all parts of the world,
+mostly for the medical curriculum, but many preceded
+the professional course with a year or two&#8217;s attendance
+on the Arts classes; and it was usual for young
+Englishmen of good family to spend a session at Edinburgh
+before going to Oxford or Cambridge. Probably
+before he entered the medical classes, Simpson
+rubbed shoulders with lads of all ranks from home
+and abroad. Pillans was at this time the Professor of
+Humanity, Wallace held the chair of Mathematics,
+John Wilson&mdash;better known as Christopher North&mdash;that
+of Moral Philosophy, and Dunbar was Professor
+of Greek. Wallace had begun life as a bookbinder&#8217;s
+apprentice, and Dunbar had risen from being a
+gardener; the example of these men under whose
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span>
+influence he was brought encouraged the baker&#8217;s son
+to go and do likewise.</p>
+<p>The family had sent him off to the College with
+the mission to be famous, and he was beginning only
+in an orthodox fashion when he entered himself for the
+curriculum in Arts. It had been easy for him, with
+his magnificent brain power, to stand <i>dux</i> of the
+village school over the ordinary village youth; but
+here, in Edinburgh, he was brought into competition
+with the picked boys from other country schools, and
+intellectually eager youths from town schools where
+the course of instruction was such as more easily to
+lead to early University success than that of the
+Bathgate parish school. At first he found difficulty
+and desponded. The keen observer with senses all
+alert was dashed to find so much of the College life to
+which he had so eagerly looked forward only a magnified
+repetition of the dull school routine. But he was
+too intent on ultimate success to be repulsed by his
+initial disappointment, and soon brought his mind into
+adjustment with the circumstances he found himself
+in, reserving leisure time and vacations for the exercise
+of his faculties as he most loved to exercise them.
+He did not persevere in the Arts course after he found
+his tastes led him to other studies; he did not trouble
+to obtain the Master of Arts degree, which was then
+conferred in a very lax manner; probably he saw its
+worthlessness, for it was not until the passing of the
+Scots Universities Act in 1858 that this degree became
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span>
+really valuable. He recognised, however, the value
+of laying a good foundation of general knowledge;
+without straining after any distinction he acquitted
+himself creditably in all his classes. In the second
+year of the curriculum he won one of the numerous
+small bursaries of the value of £10 a year, for which
+logic was one of the chief subjects of examination;
+but as candidates were restricted to those who possessed
+either the name of the founder, Stewart, or that
+of his wife, Simpson, the competition was not
+particularly severe. His individuality and natural
+straightforwardness attracted the attention of some
+of his professors. The boldness of his original essays
+provided them with food for comment in a manner
+dear to the professorial heart.</p>
+<p>The Arts curriculum served him usefully in helping
+to develop a literary style and in teaching him how
+best to express his vigorous thoughts, as well as in
+strengthening his knowledge of Latin and Greek.
+According to the record preserved on his class certificates
+he worked attentively and diligently; but the
+mere fact that he did not excel is sufficient proof that
+he did not make an attempt.</p>
+<p>During his Arts course Simpson lodged at No. 1,
+Adam Street, along with the John Reid already mentioned,
+who was now a medical student, and with a
+Mr. MacArthur, who had been a junior master at the
+Bathgate school, but had now also commenced to
+study medicine. MacArthur was a man of dogged
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span>
+determination; he urged Simpson to persist with his
+Arts course when his spirit seemed to rebel against it,
+and so long as they were together seems to have maintained
+some of the authority of the usher over both
+of the youths. The spirit of work was strong within
+him. Soon after Simpson joined him he related that
+he could then do with four hours&#8217; sleep, John Reid
+with six, but he had not been able to break in James
+yet. What MacArthur and the Arts course could
+not do, however, the attraction of medicine accomplished
+without effort, and Simpson soon formed the
+habit of early rising.</p>
+<p>It seems remarkable that so much study should
+have been required when, compared with to-day, the
+science of the healing art was in but a rudimentary
+condition. The teachers of the day had, in spite of
+Sydenham, a great regard for authority, and burdened
+their students with much that is utterly unknown to
+the present generation, and, if known, would be
+regarded as worthless. A very large part of the
+curriculum consisted of practical and bedside work, so
+that book study was necessarily left to the evening or
+early morning. All three students, moreover, were
+fired with ambition, and thirsted for something more
+than mere professional knowledge. MacArthur constantly
+urged on his two young friends, and foretold
+great things for them if only they would work.
+When he afterwards heard of their successes he used
+to say, &#8220;Yes, but <i>how</i> they worked.&#8221; Simpson became
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span>
+the greatest living obstetrician, and Reid rose to be
+Professor of Physiology in St. Andrew&#8217;s University.
+MacArthur never became famous; his name is known
+only because of the initial impetus which his influence
+gave to the professional careers of his two young
+friends.</p>
+<p>In his close association with two such men as
+MacArthur and Reid, Simpson was again fortunate in
+his environment. The art of medicine was also
+fortunate inasmuch as at the right moment the right
+influences were at work to direct his mind towards
+it. While occupied in mastering the laws of
+hexameter and iambic or in assimilating the prescribed
+portion of Virgil and Tacitus, he happily now and then,
+living with two such enthusiastic medical students,
+got a taste of the more stimulating study of things
+scientific&mdash;food which was more agreeable to his
+mental palate, more suited to his mental digestion.
+By peeps into anatomical books, by little demonstrations
+of specimens in their lodgings, and by occasional
+visits to some of the lecture rooms or the wards of
+the Infirmary, his appetite was whetted for that
+great study of nature which his youthful training at
+Bathgate had prepared him for, and for which his
+mental constitution was specially adapted. One can
+picture the eagerness with which he would cast aside
+the finished Greek or Latin essay and urge the not
+unwilling embryo professor to demonstrate a bone or
+lecture on an anatomical preparation.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span></div>
+<p>Sometimes as a special favour he was taken by Reid
+to hear one of the lectures of the notorious Robert
+Knox, the extra-academical teacher of anatomy, whose
+strong personality and unrivalled powers as a lecturer
+were at that time attracting to Surgeon&#8217;s Square
+hundreds of students, while Munro (Tertius) was
+mechanically repeating his grandfather&#8217;s lectures from
+the University chair.</p>
+<p>It was towards the end of 1828, when Simpson
+was just about commencing his medical studies that
+Edinburgh, and in fact the whole of civilised Europe,
+was horrified by the revelation of the doings of Burke
+and Hare, when they were at last brought to justice for
+the long series of crimes perpetrated for the purpose of
+selling the bodies of their victims to the anatomical
+schools. Knox having a class of some four hundred
+students had special difficulty in meeting the demand
+for &#8220;subjects,&#8221; and it was brought to light at the
+trial of Burke that the majority of the bodies were
+disposed of to Knox. As was only natural, a fierce
+indignation against Knox sprang up in the city. His
+residence was assailed and his effigy burnt. His life
+was in danger at the hands of the mob on more than
+one occasion.</p>
+<p>Lord Cockburn in his &#8220;Memorials of His Time&#8221;
+says that all the Edinburgh anatomists incurred an
+unjust and very alarming though not an unnatural
+odium&mdash;Dr. Knox in particular, against whom not
+only the anger of the populace but the condemnation
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span>
+of more intelligent persons was directed. &#8220;But,&#8221;
+he says, &#8220;tried in reference to the invariable and the
+necessary practice of the profession our anatomists
+were spotlessly correct and Knox the most correct of
+them all.&#8221;</p>
+<p>These were stirring times in Edinburgh medical
+circles. The strong, cool demeanour of Knox under
+the persecutions to which he was subjected, must have
+made an indelible impression on Simpson&#8217;s mind, and
+the memory of it may have served to strengthen him
+in later years when himself subjected to the unjust
+accusations of thoughtless and ignorant people.</p>
+<p>One night when Knox had attracted a large class
+to hear him on a favourite subject, the crowd in the
+street mustered in unusual force; the yells and howls
+from outside were heard distinctly in the class-room.
+The students got alarmed, and kept looking to the
+doors of egress. Knox perceiving the restlessness and
+alarm of his audience paused, and then addressed to
+them reassuring words, expressing his contempt for the
+cowardly mob, and reminding them of the great
+men who at different times had suffered persecution
+for the cause of their science. His statement
+was received with such cheers as resounded beyond
+the class-room walls and actually cowed the
+uproarious mob, so loudly did the students applaud
+the words of the man who, they knew, daily placed
+his life in danger in order to lecture to them, and
+whose last hour seemed to have come, so great
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span>
+and threatening was the crowd on this particular
+evening.</p>
+<p>If Simpson did not actually witness such a scene as
+the foregoing&mdash;he was not a member of Knox&#8217;s class
+until the session 1830-31&mdash;he must at least have
+known full well about it at the time, and shared
+with the whole body of students the worship of the
+man as a hero. His fellow lodger, Reid, was not only
+a distinguished pupil in Knox&#8217;s class, but became one
+of Knox&#8217;s demonstrators in 1833, and was always a
+prominent Knoxite. We know also that Knox went
+down to Bathgate to visit Reid&#8217;s relations there, so
+that it is justifiable to conclude that Simpson came
+closely in contact with this remarkable teacher. That
+the relationship between Reid and Simpson was most
+intimate we have the former&#8217;s own words for. At a
+public dinner given to him when appointed to his
+professorship in 1841, he said, &#8220;In the croupier
+(Simpson) I recognise my earliest friend, a native of
+the same village. We were rivals at school and at
+college. We stood to each other from boyhood upwards
+in every possible relation, whether of an educational,
+warlike, delicate, or social character, which the
+warm and fitful feelings peculiar to boyhood and youth
+can produce.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In the end Knox and Reid quarrelled over a scientific
+matter. Knox never recovered from the effect of
+the Burke and Hare incident; in spite of the favourable
+report of an influential committee appointed to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span>
+inquire into his share in the proceedings, and his own
+explicit statements, the public never acquitted him of
+at least a wilful shutting of his eyes to much that
+ought to have aroused his suspicions. His crowded
+class-room gradually became empty during the next
+few years, and the once brilliant, talented, and determined
+man became demoralised and left Edinburgh.
+Christison says that Knox finally died almost destitute
+in London, and that one of his last occupations was
+that of showman to a party of travelling Ojibbeway
+Indians.</p>
+<p>However the strong personality and attractive
+lecturing of Knox may have influenced him, it is
+undoubted that to the personal influence of MacArthur
+and Reid, acting upon his constant hunger to
+know nature and truth, stimulated as it was by what
+he saw of anatomy and physiology, we owe the fact
+that Simpson decided to enter the medical profession.</p>
+<p>Although the number of medical students in Edinburgh
+University reached one of its highest points
+during the years that Simpson was a student, it is
+remarkable that with one, or perhaps two, exceptions,
+the University professors were men of no marked
+eminence in their various subjects. On the other
+hand, the extra-mural teachers included men of such
+wide reputation as Knox, Lizars, and Liston. Syme,
+who reached the height of his fame as a surgeon about
+the same time that Simpson became renowned, had
+just resigned the teaching of anatomy to take up
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span>
+surgery; shut out at first from the wards of the
+Royal Infirmary by jealous colleagues, he was boldly
+establishing for himself the little Minto House Hospital,
+which became the successful nursery of his own
+unsurpassed system of clinical teaching, and remains
+in the recollection to this day as the principal scene
+of Dr. John Brown&#8217;s pathetic story, &#8220;Rab and his
+Friends.&#8221; It was chiefly these extra-academical
+teachers who at that time made the medical school
+famous, and were raising for it a reputation in surgery
+such as it had acquired in physic in the days of Cullen.
+In certain subjects the students would, according to
+the regulations for the degree, take out their tickets
+of attendance on the professor&#8217;s course of lectures, but
+would put in only a sufficient number of appearances
+to entitle them to the necessary certificates; the real
+study of the subject being made under the more
+accomplished teacher outside the University walls.</p>
+<p>Edinburgh was at this period much more than the
+scene of the foremost medical and surgical teaching of
+the day in the world. It was a striking centre of intellectual
+activity. Sir Walter Scott, Cockburn, and
+Jeffrey were famous in literature and politics;
+Chalmers and Moncrieff in Church affairs; and
+Aytoun, John Wilson, Sir William Hamilton, and
+Sir David Brewster were names that attracted men
+from far and wide to the modern Athens. English
+and foreign advocates, scholars, artists, squires, and
+noblemen mingled together to hear or see some of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span>
+these men. Lord John Russell, Henry Temple&mdash;subsequently
+Lord Palmerston&mdash;and Lord Melbourne
+were amongst the young Englishmen who attended
+university classes for a session or two; and H.R.H.
+the Prince of Wales, and his brother the Duke of
+Edinburgh, each matriculated in later days. When
+Simpson began his studies Knox was the great lion,
+without a visit to whose class-room no sojourn in
+Edinburgh was complete; just as in later years
+Simpson&#8217;s house in Queen Street was the resort of all
+sorts and conditions of distinguished people.</p>
+<p>The University had little control over her students
+once they were outside the gates of the quadrangle.
+There were no residential colleges; each youth found
+lodgings for himself suitable to his means, and led a
+perfectly independent life. So long as he conducted
+himself with propriety within her walls his Alma
+Mater cared little how he conducted himself or how
+he fared outside. Before 1858, when the Town
+Council controlled University affairs, there were
+sometimes attempts to order the comings and goings
+of students. It is recorded that in 1635 the Town
+Council discovered that the scholars of the College
+were much withdrawn from their studies by &#8220;invitations
+to burials,&#8221; which &#8220;prejudiced their advancement
+in learning,&#8221; and they enacted that no student
+was to be permitted to attend burials except those of
+University or city worthies. This was at a time when
+some of the students were provided with residences
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span>
+inside the University, but by the beginning of the
+eighteenth century College residence had ceased.
+From time to time attempts have been made to render
+the students conspicuous in the city by the wearing
+of red gowns, but without success; and those of all
+faculties continue to be their own masters, in marked
+contrast to the mode of government in force at Oxford
+and Cambridge. Recently, in the eighties, a batch of
+students who had figured in the police-court after a
+riot in the gallery of a theatre were surprised to find
+themselves summoned before the Senatus Academicus
+and rusticated for varying periods; this, however, was
+but a spasmodic exercise of power. The chief advantage
+claimed for this custom of leaving the student to
+his own devices is that it encourages independence and
+develops each man&#8217;s individuality better than a system
+of discipline and control. In men of Simpson&#8217;s calibre
+it certainly has had a good effect.</p>
+<p>Although the family in Bathgate strained every
+nerve to keep James well supplied with the necessary
+funds as a student, they were not able to place
+him in such a pecuniary position as to make it unnecessary
+for him to exercise economy: He appears
+to have been very careful indeed of the money which
+he had; much more careful than when he reckoned
+his income by thousands. He kept methodical
+accounts of his expenses down to the most trivial
+items, and regularly submitted them to his family.
+His cash-book opened with the following quotation
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span>
+from a small book called the &#8220;Economy of Life,&#8221; which
+figures at a cost of ninepence:&mdash;&#8220;Let not thy recreations
+be expensive lest the pain of purchasing them
+exceed the pleasure thou hast in their enjoyment&#8221;;
+and to this he added:&mdash;</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;No trivial gain nor trivial loss despise;</p>
+<p>Mole-hills, if often heaped, to mountains rise.</p>
+<p>Weigh every small expense and nothing waste;</p>
+<p>Farthings long saved amount to pounds at last.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>It is easy to see here the imprint of a well-known
+national characteristic, from which, however, he completely
+shook himself free when prosperity came to him.</p>
+<p>His share of the rent of the Adam Street lodging
+amounted to only three shillings a week. The entries
+in the cash-book show how frugally he lived and how
+every spare sum was devoted to the purchase of books.
+His library, the foundation of much of his encyclopedic
+knowledge, was a curious mixture. Adam&#8217;s
+&#8220;Antiquities,&#8221; Milton&#8217;s Poems, Byron&#8217;s &#8220;Giaour&#8221; and
+&#8220;Childe Harold,&#8221; a Church Bible, Paley&#8217;s &#8220;Natural
+Theology,&#8221; Fife&#8217;s &#8220;Anatomy,&#8221; and &#8220;The Fortunes
+of Nigel,&#8221; were amongst those entered as purchased.
+The daily entries were such as the following:&mdash;&#8220;Subject
+(anatomical), £2; spoon, 6d.; bread and tart,
+1s. 8d. Duncan&#8217;s Therapeutics, 9d.; snuff; 1œd.;
+Early Rising, 9œd.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He followed out the usual student&#8217;s custom of the
+day of learning dispensing by serving for a time in a
+chemist&#8217;s shop. The late Dr. Keiller, of Edinburgh,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span>
+used to relate how, while he himself was so employed
+in a chemist&#8217;s shop in Dundas Street, one day &#8220;a little
+fellow with a big head&#8221; was brought in and entered
+as a pupil by a relative. The little fellow was Simpson,
+and no sooner was he left in the shop than he sat down
+with a book upon drugs, and turning to the shelves took
+down drug after drug to read up. The prompt industry
+of the big-headed fellow deeply impressed Keiller.</p>
+<p>James attended most of the University classes, but
+studied surgery under the great Robert Liston, the
+foremost extra-mural surgeon, daring and skilful as an
+operator and of great repute as a lecturer, who afterwards
+filled the post of Professor of Clinical Surgery
+in University College Hospital, London. Liston was
+an abrupt-mannered but sincere man, and a keen
+lover of truth. He was a warm advocate of hospital
+reform, and was successful in introducing several
+needed improvements into the Royal Infirmary after
+a fierce fight. Here again Simpson was brought
+under the influence of a strong, self-reliant man
+with a distinct tendency towards controversy; to
+whom he was also attracted by the fact that Liston
+was a native of Linlithgowshire. Liston and Syme,
+after being close colleagues, quarrelled most fiercely,
+and were bitter rivals until Liston removed to London
+in 1835. Simpson attended Liston&#8217;s lectures during
+three sessions.</p>
+<p>There is no record of his having obtained great
+distinction in any of the medical classes, but his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span>
+certificates show that he worked with pre-eminent
+diligence in them all, and obtained a characteristic
+mastery of each subject. If any exception occurred it
+was in the very subject in which he afterwards earned
+his greatest scientific fame&mdash;that of obstetrics. He
+attended Professor James Hamilton&#8217;s course of lectures
+on that subject early in his career, and apparently felt
+so little interest&mdash;the subject only became a compulsory
+one for examination for qualification in 1830&mdash;that
+he regularly went to sleep during the lecture.
+The excuse urged was that the lecture being a late
+one, three to four in the afternoon, it found him tired
+out after a long morning of study, lectures, and
+practical work. But had he been keenly interested
+he would have been wide awake, for Hamilton was
+a forcible, if plain, lecturer.</p>
+<p>Hamilton was another of Simpson&#8217;s teachers who
+exhibited the same uncompromising fighting characteristics&mdash;eager
+and strenuous in his efforts to obtain
+some object&mdash;which Simpson himself afterwards displayed.
+He fought hard for fifteen years to gain
+recognition for the subject which he taught, and to
+have it included in those necessary for qualification.
+He succeeded in the end, but in the course of the
+struggle had to bring two actions at law against professional
+brethren. In one the defendant was Dr.
+Gregory, whose teaching was mainly responsible for
+the British system of medical practice in the early
+part of this century, viz., free purging, free bleeding,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span>
+and frequent blistering, and who was the inventor of
+that well known household remedy, Gregory&#8217;s powder.
+Gregory was also a pugnacious man and could not
+abide the pretensions of the representative of the
+despised art of midwifery; he administered a public
+caning to him, and had to pay £100 in damages
+which, it is said, he offered to pay over again for
+another opportunity of thrashing the little obstetrician.
+This encounter occurred before Simpson became a
+student, but the memory of it was frequently revived
+in the subsequent disputes which Hamilton
+carried on.</p>
+<p>The notes which Simpson took of the curriculum
+lectures were concisely made and full of comments,
+criticisms, and queries. He by no means bowed down
+to authority; he allowed nothing to pass which he
+did not understand at the time, and specially noted
+points which it seemed to him his teachers themselves
+did not understand.</p>
+<p>Like most young men of his abilities and temperament,
+Simpson took pleasure in rhyming, and some of
+his verses are preserved. They indicate something of
+the rollicking spirit of the medical student&#8217;s life seventy
+years ago. The medical student at that date has been
+described in a recent interesting sketch of Edinburgh
+student life as wearing a white great-coat and talking
+loud; his hat was inclined knowingly to one side of his
+head, and the bright hues of an Oriental handkerchief
+decorated his neck. There was a great deal of acting in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span>
+his motions. He was first at the door of the theatre on a
+Saturday night, and regardless of the damages sustained
+by the skirts of his coat, secured the very middle seat
+of the fifth row of benches in the pit. Simpson, however,
+hardly conformed to this description. He
+enjoyed recreation as much as any man, and had a
+keen sense of humour which made him popular among
+his fellow students, but he was saturated with the love
+of study and was not led into extravagances of the
+Bob Sawyer type, or the harmless inanities of Albert
+Smith&#8217;s immortal Medical Student.</p>
+<p>During the long summer vacation he noted carefully
+his observations on the botany, zoology, geology,
+and even the meteorology of the Bathgate district.
+Dr. Duns, in his memoir, points out that he was much
+more at home with the phenomena of organic than
+with those of inorganic forms. His highest powers
+came into play when he had to do with the presence
+of life and its varied manifestations. Even his antiquarian notes
+illustrated this. He passed at once from
+the things to the thoughts and feelings of the men
+associated with them.</p>
+<p>In the holidays he also assisted the village doctor
+in visiting and dispensing, and lent a willing hand
+in his father&#8217;s shop when he was wanted, often enough
+driving the baker&#8217;s cart on the daily round of bread
+delivery.</p>
+<p>In January of the year 1830 his father was taken
+seriously ill, and James hastily left Edinburgh and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span>
+tended him till his death. On his return he presented
+himself for the final examination at the College of
+Surgeons. This he passed with ease and credit in
+April, and found himself a fully qualified medical
+practitioner at the age of eighteen.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_III_FURTHER_STUDIES_18301835' id='CHAPTER_III_FURTHER_STUDIES_18301835'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER III
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>Further Studies. 1830-1835</span></span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Applies for a village appointment&mdash;Disappointment&mdash;Brother&#8217;s help to
+further studies&mdash;Dispensary assistant&mdash;Obtains University M.D.,
+1832&mdash;Thesis&mdash;Assistant to the Professor of Pathology&mdash;Turns to
+obstetrics&mdash;Attends Professor Hamilton&#8217;s lectures again&mdash;Royal
+Medical and Royal Physical Societies&mdash;Edward Forbes&mdash;The
+Oineromathic Society&mdash;Foreign tour&mdash;Visits Liverpool and meets
+Miss Jessie Grindlay&mdash;His characteristics, principles, and methods,
+with extracts from addresses.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>There now came the first crisis in Simpson&#8217;s
+medical career. After his father&#8217;s death he felt
+that having obtained his qualification to practise it was
+his duty to relieve his family of the burden of supporting
+him through more extended studies. After due
+deliberation he applied for a small appointment which
+would have served as a nucleus for private practice,
+that of parish surgeon to a small village on the banks
+of the Clyde. Those in whose hands the appointment
+lay were not impressed with his fitness for the
+post, and he was not elected, &#8220;I felt,&#8221; he afterwards
+said, &#8220;a deeper amount of chagrin and disappointment
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span>
+than I have ever experienced since that date. If
+chosen, I would probably have been working there as
+a village doctor still.&#8221; Although such a commencement
+might have delayed his ultimate rise to eminence,
+it cannot be agreed that it could possibly have prevented
+it. It was at this crisis that what he tenderly referred
+to as &#8220;the ceaseless love and kindness of a dear elder
+brother&#8221; came to his rescue, and by Alexander&#8217;s or,
+as he affectionately called him, &#8220;Sandy&#8217;s&#8221; help, he
+returned to Edinburgh to resume his studies in the
+winter session, 1830-31. His other brother, David,
+had started in business as a baker at Stockbridge, close
+to Edinburgh, and James boarded with him there for
+a time. His qualification enabled him to become
+assistant to a Dr. Gairdner in dispensary practice, a
+class of work he had had some experience of in the
+previous year while staying with Dr. Girdwood at
+Falkirk during the summer. Dr. Gairdner was much
+struck with Simpson&#8217;s abilities, which he stated,
+&#8220;promised the most flattering expectations.&#8221; In the
+course of his first experiences of actual practice he
+became impressed with the necessity for a knowledge
+of obstetrics, and therefore attended lectures on the
+subject by Dr. Thatcher, an extra-mural teacher of
+repute, who subsequently applied for the University
+chair of midwifery when Simpson was the successful
+candidate.</p>
+<p>His chief object, however, was to qualify for the
+degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span>
+this he succeeded in doing in 1832. The regulations
+for this coveted degree were, for the times, wonderfully
+complete; it was held in such high estimation and
+such large numbers qualified annually&mdash;in 1827 there
+were one hundred and sixty graduates&mdash;that the
+authorities felt justified in being stringent. The
+length of the course of study necessary for graduation
+had been fixed at four years, and required the
+candidate to have attended classes in Anatomy,
+Surgery, Materia Medica, and Pharmacy, the
+Theory and Practice of Medicine, Clinical Medicine,
+Midwifery, Chemistry, and Botany, as well as a three
+months&#8217; course in any two of the following:&mdash;Practical
+Anatomy, Natural History, Medical Jurisprudence,
+Clinical Surgery, and Military Surgery.
+The first step in examination took place at the house
+of one of the professors where the candidate was
+questioned in literary subjects, chiefly Latin, and in
+the different branches of Medicine and Surgery. If
+he passed this satisfactorily he was examined more
+minutely by two professors in the presence of the
+others, and was subsequently given two Aphorisms of
+Hippocrates to explain and illustrate in writing and to
+defend before the faculty, as well as two cases with
+questions attached. The last step was the presenting
+of a thesis which was read by one of the faculty and
+was publicly defended by the candidate on the day of
+graduation. All this examination was conducted in
+Latin. Simpson&#8217;s thesis was entitled: &#8220;<i>De causa
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span>
+mortis in quibusdam inflammationibus proxima</i>.&#8221; He
+was amongst the last graduates who were examined
+through the medium of Latin, for after 1833 the
+language was optional, and English soon became the
+only one used; at the same time the examinations
+were differently arranged, and made to consist of more
+thorough and prolonged written and oral stages.
+Being on a pathological subject, Simpson&#8217;s thesis was
+allotted to Thomson, the professor of Pathology,
+to examine, who not only recommended the author
+for the degree, but was so impressed by the ability
+displayed in the dissertation that he sought him out
+and promptly offered him the post of assistant, which
+Simpson as promptly accepted. This appointment
+was most welcome. Not only did it give him a
+much desired opportunity for pathological work, but
+the salary of £50 a year enabled him to free his family
+from the immediate necessity of supporting him.</p>
+<p>If to MacArthur and John Reid was due the credit
+of first directing Simpson&#8217;s thoughts to the study of
+medicine, to Professor John Thomson belongs the
+credit of having made him an obstetrician. &#8220;At
+Dr. Thomson&#8217;s earnest suggestion and advice,&#8221; says
+Simpson, &#8220;I first turned more especially to the study
+of midwifery with the view of becoming a teacher of
+this department of medical science.&#8221; He lost no time
+in throwing himself heartily into the work that was
+nearest to him, and became almost indispensable
+to his chief. Most of his time was spent in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span>
+Pathological Museum, busily engaged in arranging,
+classifying, and describing the preparations, but he also
+assisted in preparing the professor&#8217;s lectures. He took
+up more readily than Thomson the then new mode
+of study by the microscope, and it is related that once
+he composed a lecture for his chief on this subject
+which Thomson delivered without previous perusal.
+Several times as Thompson read the lecture to the class
+he looked up to glare at his assistant, and when they
+returned to the side room he shook his fist in his face,
+saying, &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe one d&mdash;d word of it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Although Simpson was now earning enough by his
+salary as assistant to meet his expenses at the time, his
+family maintained their loving interest in his welfare.
+His sister told him he was working too hard and
+hurting his health. &#8220;Well,&#8221; he replied, &#8220;I am sure
+it is just to please you all.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Sandy, who had married in 1832, watched his
+career carefully, and when the cholera made its
+appearance in Scotland he made a will with a provision
+for &#8220;my dear James&#8221; in the event of his death.
+&#8220;I daresay,&#8221; he addressed his family therein, &#8220;every
+one of you has a pleasure in doing him good by
+stealth as I have had myself.&#8221;</p>
+<p>By Thomson&#8217;s advice Simpson attended Hamilton&#8217;s
+lectures in the winter session 1833-4, and this time
+with awakened interest. With the definite object
+of devoting himself to Midwifery clearly in view
+Simpson worked with all his phenomenal energy
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span>
+during the years from 1832 to 1835, studying the
+subject while he was helping Thomson. He entered
+the front rank of the young graduates of his day, and
+was elected a member of the Royal Medical and
+Royal Physical Societies in the same year, 1833. Both
+these societies were for the encouragement of scientific
+study and discussion among students and young
+graduates, and to obtain the Presidential chair of either
+was a high honour. The Royal Medical Society was
+the oldest Society in the University, having been established
+in 1737 by the great Cullen and others; it had
+always been of great account in the University, and
+the originality of the utterances on professional matters
+which emanated from it made it then a power to be
+reckoned with not only in Edinburgh, but throughout
+European professional circles. For membership of
+the Royal Physical Society he was proposed by
+Edward Forbes, a brilliant youth, who subsequently
+distinguished himself in Natural History, and held
+the University Chair in that subject for a brief period
+until cut down prematurely at the age of thirty-nine.
+Forbes was the leader of a set of able young students
+who have left a distinct mark in the history of the
+University. John Reid was an intimate friend of
+Forbes, and Simpson was probably as intimate with
+him. Forbes was the founder and editor of the best
+of all the shortlived literary ventures of Edinburgh
+undergraduates&mdash;<i>The University Maga</i>, which was
+issued weekly in 1834; and he was also one of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span>
+founders of the Oineromathic Society, &#8220;The brotherhood
+of the friends of Truth.&#8221; Forbes thus described
+the nature of this Society in song:&mdash;</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Some love to stray through lands far away,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>Some love to roam on the sea,</p>
+<p>But an antique cell and a college bell,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>And a student&#8217;s life for me.</p>
+<p>For palace or cot, for mead or grot</p>
+<p class='indent2'>I never would care or pine,</p>
+<p>But spend my days in twining lays</p>
+<p class='indent2'>To Learning, Love, and Wine.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>&#8220;Wine, Love, and Learning&#8221; was the motto of this
+curious brotherhood, and it numbered in its membership
+many men of the day, who afterwards became
+eminent, such as Forbes himself, Reid, George Wilson,
+Goodsir, and Bennet. Simpson must have been quite
+cognisant of this Society&#8217;s doings; he was closely
+associated with its leaders, but his name does not
+appear in any of the lists of members still preserved.
+His whole-hearted devotion to the
+<span lang="el" title="MATHÊSIS">&#924;&#913;&#920;&#919;&#931;&#921;&#931;</span>
+probably
+prevented his uniting with the brotherhood to
+worship the
+<span lang="el" title="ERÔS">&#917;&#929;&#937;&#931;</span> and <span lang="el" title="OINOS">&#927;&#921;&#925;&#927;&#931;</span>.
+The brotherhood
+was conspicuously united. In the great snowball
+riot of 1837, which was quelled only by the reading
+of the Riot Act and the marching down at the double
+from the Castle of the Cameron Highlanders into
+the University gates, they fought shoulder to shoulder.</p>
+<p>In 1835 Simpson felt that the time had come to
+enter into serious practice and turn his acquired knowledge
+to account. Fifty pounds a year was no large
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span>
+income on which to satisfy his craving for learning,
+and there was no surplus from which by any means
+to repay his family for their assistance. Before taking
+any decided step, however, he desired to pay a visit to
+the Continental centres of medical science and teaching.
+The funds for the proposed tour were promptly found
+by his brothers Alexander and John; by their assistance
+he was enabled to visit Paris, Liége, and Brussels, as
+well as London and Oxford. He was accompanied by
+Dr. (now Sir Douglas) Maclagan, and kept a journal
+of the tour, which is an interesting example of his
+lively powers of observation. In London he visited
+the leading hospitals, and made the acquaintance of
+the leading physicians and surgeons, amongst whom
+were many <i>alumni</i> of his own <i>alma mater</i>. In the
+journal he freely and concisely criticised the men,
+their methods, and their hospitals. In Paris he
+followed the same plan, going the round of all the
+hospitals, and searching for and grasping the principle
+which guided each distinguished man&#8217;s thought
+and teaching. He took more than a medical interest
+in all that he saw, and noted the appearance and
+habits of the people of each place that he visited.
+At the end of his coach ride from London to Southampton,
+on the way to Paris, he sat down to write:&mdash;&#8220;The
+ride as far as Windsor Park was delightful, and
+from the top of the coach we had two or three most
+lovely glimpses of English scenery. After passing
+Windsor the soil was rather inferior in many parts,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span>
+and we passed every now and then large tracts of
+heath.... The neatness and cleanliness of the
+English cottages is greatly superior to all that we
+have in Scotland; the little patches of garden ground
+before, behind, and around them set them off
+amazingly. I wish the Scottish peasantry could by
+some means or other be excited to a little more
+love of cleanliness and horticulture. I did not see
+above two or three dirty windows, men or women
+along the whole line of road. The snow-white
+smock-frocks of the Hampshire peasantry do actually
+look well in my opinion.&#8221;</p>
+<p>At Liége on June 13th he wrote:&mdash;&#8220;And is it
+possible that I here begin a second volume of a
+journal?... I began my journal chiefly with some
+distant prospect of teaching myself the important
+lesson of daily notation. I am vain enough to flatter
+myself now that I have partly at least succeeded. At
+all events that which was at first a sort of task, at
+times rather an annoying task, has now become to me
+a pleasure. If I had my first volume to write over
+again I think I would now write it twenty times
+better. In writing a journal &#8217;tis needless to think
+of making no blunders in the way of blots and bad
+grammar or of crooked sentences. We, or at least I,
+have occasionally felt so confoundedly tired at night
+that if I had been obliged to attend to such minutiæ
+I certainly would not have been able to advance above
+two sentences.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span></div>
+<p>&#8220;This morning rose by half-past seven&mdash;dressed
+and breakfasted on coffee and rolls, read the <i>Liége
+Courier</i>, and by nine o&#8217;clock called on Professor
+Fohman with a copy of Dr. Reid&#8217;s paper on the
+glands of the whale, which I had promised him yesterday.
+The Professor kept us until five minutes to ten,
+lecturing us on his discoveries upon the original
+elementary tubular structure of animal tissues. Somebody
+has remarked that no person ever entered into or
+at least came out of the study of the Book of Revelation
+without being either mad before or mad after it.
+I would not choose to say that Dr. F.&#8217;s case is perfectly
+analogous, but has it not some analogy? He seems to
+run wild on elementary tubular texture; ... he
+hates Lippi and his researches with a perfect hatred.
+Lippi has been preferred to him by the Parisian
+Academy. Is he not working against Lippi, and it
+may be against truth, if they happen to go together,
+which I do not believe?</p>
+<p>&#8220;We have taken our seats in the diligence to-morrow
+for Louvain, and on leaving Liége I must
+confess that I leave one of the most lovely places
+I have seen on the Continent. &#8217;Tis rich, populous,
+busy; the town in itself is old and good, though not
+so neat and clean as Mons; its environs wild and
+romantic. Besides it seems full of good-natured <i>gash</i>
+old wives, and sonsy, laughing-faced, good-looking,
+nay, some of them very good-looking girls.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The homeward journey was made <i>viâ</i> Birmingham,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span>
+Liverpool, and Glasgow. In Liverpool he called upon
+a distant relative named Grindlay, established there as
+a shipper, and laid the foundation of a life-long
+friendship with the family. He also then for the
+first time met Miss Jessie Grindlay who afterwards
+became his wife.</p>
+<p>With the end of this tour, Simpson brought to
+a close the more strictly student part of his career,
+although it remained true of him, as of all eminent
+scientific men, that he was a student to the end of his
+days. He felt himself now fully equipped to enter
+into the professional battle, and he stepped into the
+arena, not only full of vigorous life and hope, but
+possessed of highly trained faculties, keen senses, and
+lofty ideals. It was his strong, personal characteristics,
+apart from his accomplishments, which at once placed
+him head and shoulders above his fellows. &#8220;He had
+a great heart,&#8221; says a recent writer, &#8220;and a marvellous
+personal influence, calling forth, not only the sympathy
+and love of his fellowmen, but capable of kindling
+enthusiasm in others almost at first sight.&#8221; It is
+impossible to overestimate this personal influence in
+analysing the elements of his ultimate success, and it
+is more impossible for those who did not feel it to
+realise its nature; but that he became the beloved
+as well as the trusted physician is due to this influence.
+&#8220;He had no acquaintances,&#8221; says the writer already
+quoted; &#8220;none could come into contact with him and
+stop short of friendship.&#8221; This was a powerful trait to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span>
+possess; it cannot be denied that he was fully aware
+of it and its value; and used it with good effect in
+establishing himself as the greatest physician of his
+day.</p>
+<p>As a scientist he started with an eager desire for
+knowledge and reverence for truth, to which was
+added the highly developed power of mental concentration
+born of early self-training. When most men
+would be waiting in what they would term enforced
+idleness, Simpson would be busy with book or pen,
+deeply attentive to his occupation despite surrounding
+distractions or temptations to frivolous idleness. He
+took the full measure of the value of Time and handled
+his moments as another would a precious metal. &#8220;At
+all times,&#8221; he said himself, &#8220;on all occasions, and
+amidst the numerous disturbing influences to which
+the medical man is so constantly subjected, he should
+be able to control and command his undivided mental
+attention to the case or object that he may have
+before him.... In the power of concentrating and
+keeping concentrated all the energies of attention and
+thought upon any given subject, consists the power
+of thinking strongly and successfully upon that subject.
+The possession or the want of this quality of
+the mind constitutes the main distinction between the
+possession or the want of what the world designates
+&#8216;mental abilities and talents.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+<p>His high ideals, his conception of the functions of
+the physician, and the strivings of the scientist are
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span>
+best shown in his own words:&mdash;&#8220;Other pursuits
+become insignificant in their objects when placed in
+contrast with ours. The agriculturist bestows all his
+professional care and study on the rearing of crops and
+cattle; the merchant spends his energies and attention
+on his goods and his commissions; the engineer upon
+his iron-wheels and rails; the sailor upon his ships and
+freights; the banker upon his bills and his bonds; and
+the manufacturer upon his spindles and their products.
+But what after all are machinery and merchandise,
+shares and stocks, consols and prices-current, or the
+rates of cargoes and cattle, of corns and cottons, in
+comparison with the inestimable value and importance
+of the very lives of these fellowmen who everywhere
+move and breath and speak and act around us? What
+are any, or what are all these objects when contrasted
+with the most precious and valued gift of God&mdash;human
+life? And what would not the greatest and
+most successful followers of such varied callings give
+out of their own professional stores for the restoration
+of health and for the prolongation of life&mdash;if the first
+were once lost to them, or if the other were merely
+menaced by the dreaded and blighting finger of
+disease?&#8221;</p>
+<p>In one of his addresses of later years he urged upon
+his students the objects and motives which had been
+his in early professional life:&mdash;&#8220;The objects and
+powers of your art are alike great and elevated,&#8221; he
+said. &#8220;Your aim is as far as possible to alleviate
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span>
+human suffering and lengthen out human existence.
+Your ambition is to gladden as well as to prolong the
+course of human life by warding off disease as the
+greatest of mortal evils; and restoring health, and
+even at times reason itself, as the greatest of mortal
+blessings.... If you follow these, the noble objects
+of your profession, in a proper spirit of love and kindness
+to your race, the pure light of benevolence will
+shed around the path of your toils and labours the
+brightness and beauty that will ever cheer you onwards
+and keep your steps from being weary in well-doing; ... while
+if you practise the art that you
+profess with a cold-hearted view to its results, merely
+as a matter of lucre and trade, your course will be as
+dark and miserable as that low and grovelling love
+that dictates it.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Simpson&#8217;s method of study was simple, at the
+same time that it involved immense labour. In
+entering upon a new work his first proceeding was to
+ascertain conscientiously all that had already been said
+or written by others upon the subject. He traced
+knowledge from its earliest sources and was able, as he
+followed the mental workings of those who had
+preceded him, to estimate the value of every vaunted
+addition to the sum of knowledge; and to weigh the
+theories and new opinions of men which had been
+evolved with the progress of time, and which had
+sometimes obscured, instead of casting greater light
+upon the truth. His antiquarian tastes added to his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span>
+knowledge of Latin helped him in this work and
+turned a tedious task into a real pleasure. This
+preliminary accomplished, he plunged into the work
+of adding to the knowledge of the subject by thought,
+research, experiment, or invention.</p>
+<p>In writing upon an abstract subject he would disentangle
+the confused thoughts of his predecessors and
+restate their opinions in direct and simplified language.
+But matters of opinion never had such an attraction
+for him as matters of fact; in dealing with these latter
+he would test by experiment the statements of
+authorities and correct or add to them by his own
+researches. Most of his professional writings, as well
+as his archæological works, are valuable for the
+historical <i>résumé</i> of the knowledge on the subject
+as well as for his additions. His later writings show
+as careful an attention to the inductive method with
+which he started, as those produced in the days of his
+more youthful enthusiasm; when fame was attained
+and fortune secured, when excessive work was sapping
+his physical strength, he never sank into lazy or
+slovenly methods in scientific work, but ever threw
+his whole vigour into the self-imposed task.</p>
+<p>When studying Nature directly he was constantly
+asking her &#8220;why?&#8221;&mdash;just as in his notes of his
+teacher&#8217;s lectures the query was ever recurring. He
+never felt himself beaten by an initial failure, but
+returned again and again with his questions with
+renewed energy each time. He was not to be denied,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span>
+and in this manner he wrested from Nature some of
+those precious secrets the knowledge of which has
+relieved suffering and prolonged human life in every
+corner of the globe. &#8220;He never kept anything
+secret,&#8221; says his nephew and successor, Professor
+A. R. Simpson, &#8220;that he thought could help his
+fellows, and it is hard to say whether his delight was
+greater in finding some new means to cure disease, or
+in demonstrating to others his methods of treatment.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He was indeed clothed in well-nigh impenetrable
+armour, and provided with powerful weapons, when
+in the autumn of 1835 he returned from his foreign
+tour to commence the serious fight in which his
+avowed object was not only to obtain professional
+eminence, but to stand forth a proud benefactor of the
+human race. Although he appealed always directly
+to Nature and used his own well-trained eyes and ears
+in preference to those of others, he did not completely
+brush aside authority as Sydenham had done; he
+hesitated neither to extract all that was valuable, nor
+to discard what appeared worthless from the writings
+of past masters.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_IV_EARLY_PRACTICE_AND_PROFESSORSHIP_18351840' id='CHAPTER_IV_EARLY_PRACTICE_AND_PROFESSORSHIP_18351840'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>Early Practice and Professorship.</span> 1835-1840</span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>President of Royal Medical Society&mdash;Personal appearance&mdash;Practice
+among the poor&mdash;Corresponds with Miss Grindlay&mdash;Lecturer on
+obstetrics&mdash;Resignation of Professor Hamilton&mdash;Applies for vacancy&mdash;Active
+candidature&mdash;Strong opposition&mdash;Marriage&mdash;Account of
+the midwifery Chair&mdash;The medical professors at the time&mdash;Their
+opposition&mdash;Cost of candidature&mdash;Triumphant election.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>In November, 1835, Simpson was elected one of
+the annual Presidents of the Royal Medical
+Society; a position which has been occupied by many
+young Edinburgh graduates, who have subsequently
+risen to fame. He took pains to make his inaugural
+address worthy of the occasion, and chose a subject connected
+with the pathology of obstetrics. It was a great
+success, and contributed largely towards giving him a
+recognised position as an authority in that branch of
+study. After appearing in the <i>Edinburgh Medical and
+Surgical Journal</i> for January, 1836, it was translated
+into French, Italian, and German. It also obtained
+for him his first foreign honour&mdash;one of a long list that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span>
+was made up through his lifetime&mdash;that of corresponding
+member of the Ghent Medical Society; indeed,
+his early works received more attention and appreciation
+abroad than at home. In 1836, in order to widen
+his experience in his chosen subject, he filled the post
+of house-surgeon to the Lying-in Hospital, and held
+it for twelve months. He was also elected a Fellow of
+the Edinburgh College of Physicians. From this time
+he became a profuse writer on professional subjects,
+and developed an easy and convincing style; he
+carried on this work <i>pari passu</i> with practice amongst
+the poorer classes of the city and in addition to his
+work in connection with the Pathology Chair, always
+keeping in view his great object of becoming an obstetrician.
+It was not until 1838 that he became an
+independent lecturer on Midwifery. He had intended
+to do so earlier, but owing to Professor Thomson&#8217;s
+ill-health, he had been called upon to act as Deputy-Professor
+of Pathology, a most valuable and useful
+employment.</p>
+<p>Simpson&#8217;s personal appearance at this time has been
+described by one who visited a meeting of the Royal
+Medical Society on an evening when he was in the
+chair:&mdash;&#8220;The chair was occupied,&#8221; says the narrator,
+&#8220;by a young man whose appearance was striking and
+peculiar. As we entered the room his head was bent
+down, and little was seen but a mass of long tangled
+hair, partially concealing what appeared to be a head
+of very large size. He raised his head, and his countenance
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span>
+at once impressed us. A pale, rather flattish
+face, massive brent brows, from under which shone
+eyes now piercing as it were to your inmost soul, now
+melting into almost feminine tenderness; a coarsish
+nose with dilated nostrils, finely chiselled mouth which
+seemed the most expressive feature of the face ... Then
+his peculiar rounded soft body and limbs, as if he
+had retained the infantine form in adolescence, presented
+a <i>tout ensemble</i>, which even if we had never seen it
+again would have remained indelibly impressed on our
+memory.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In Simpson&#8217;s youth physicians and surgeons made a
+habit of cultivating peculiarities of appearances and
+behaviour, but he was so shaped by nature as to attract
+attention without artificial aid. The growth of long
+hair seemed a natural accompaniment to his massive
+head and broad expressive countenance.</p>
+<p>His practice at this time was scattered over the city,
+and he took long tramps in the course of the day. In
+one of his letters to his brothers, who were still loyally
+supporting him in his increasingly successful endeavours
+to establish himself after his heart&#8217;s desire,
+he says:&mdash;&#8220;The patients are mostly poor it is true,
+but still they are patients; ... if my health is spared
+me, I do hope I may get into practice sufficient to
+keep me respectable after the lapse of years; but I
+know years must pass before that. At present I enjoy
+the best possible spirits and health, and with all my
+toils was never happier or healthier.&#8221;</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span></div>
+<p><i>Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre.</i> Simpson
+knew how to wait; he knew that waiting did not
+mean inactivity. Every opportunity that arose for
+advancement found him prepared to take full advantage
+of it.</p>
+<p>That his lectures on pathology were acceptable
+was made manifest by the address presented to him by
+the students of the class at the end of his temporary
+term of office, testifying to his zeal, fidelity, and
+success, their admiration of his high talents, of the
+varied and extensive research which he displayed, and
+of his uniform and kind affability which, while it
+exalted him in the eyes of all as a teacher, endeared
+him to each as a friend.</p>
+<p>During this period he kept up a correspondence
+with the Miss Grindlay, of Liverpool, whose appearance
+he had been struck with when he visited the
+family, and towards the end of 1837 he found
+time to visit there again accompanied by Dr. John
+Reid.</p>
+<p>The way for his appearance as an extra-academical
+lecturer on midwifery was made clear at the end of
+1837 by the death of Dr. Macintosh, a successful
+teacher of that subject. He had been in negotiation,
+without success, with this Dr. Macintosh for the
+taking over of the part or whole of his lectures, and
+found it easy to step at once into his place at his death.
+He was firmly determined to succeed ultimately to
+the University Chair of Midwifery. On one occasion
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span>
+he pointed out to some friends the then holder of the
+Chair, Professor Hamilton, thus:&mdash;&#8220;Do you see that
+old gentleman? Well, that&#8217;s my gown!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The good luck which had been his during his boyhood
+did not desert him when he began his course of
+lectures; for not only did he speedily attain a reputation
+for teaching, science, and practical skill, wonderful
+for one so young, but he had not two years to wait
+after thus establishing himself before the chair of his
+ambition fell vacant owing to the resignation in 1839
+of Professor Hamilton, who died soon afterwards at the
+age of seventy-two.</p>
+<p>It was a bold step for so young a man&mdash;for Simpson
+was only twenty-eight&mdash;to apply for the professorship.
+He was, however, not without his precedent. The
+second Monro obtained the Anatomy Chair at twenty-five,
+Alison filled that of Physic at thirty, and Thomas
+Hope and Alexander Christison were Professors of
+Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence respectively
+each at the age of twenty-four. But this subject was
+one which was popularly thought to require a man of
+experience and especially a married man. Simpson
+had devoted his energies but partially to midwifery
+for only four or five years, and except for his
+short hospital appointment and recent experience as
+a lecturer on the subject had in the eyes of many
+no greater claim to the post than any other general
+practitioner, except in the fact that he had obtained
+a wide reputation in the science of the subject by his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span>
+contribution to its literature and his researches. This
+last was the point on which he himself most relied;
+for his age he had done more scientifically than any of
+his opponents. Those who had watched his career
+knew that he possessed in addition to zeal and ability,
+brilliant teaching and practical powers. The objection
+of his youth was less easily got over than that of his
+unmarried state. With characteristic promptness, as
+soon as he had determined to apply for the Chair and
+found that as a bachelor his chances would be small,
+he disappeared for a time from Edinburgh, and returned
+triumphantly with Miss Jessie Grindlay, of
+Liverpool, as his wife. It was a bold stroke which
+delighted his supporters, discomfited his opponents,
+who saw therein the removal of a barrier to his
+success and a weapon from their hands, and astonished
+the worthy town councillors in whose gift the
+appointment lay.</p>
+<p>The Edinburgh Chair of Midwifery was established
+in 1726, and was indisputably the first Chair of its
+kind in the British Islands, and probably in the world.
+It was in that year that the Town Council first
+established the medical faculty, by appointing two
+Professors of the Theory and Practice of Medicine
+and two of Medicine and Chemistry. A Chair of
+Anatomy had been instituted six years earlier through
+the instrumentality of the first Monro who became
+its first occupant. These five chairs were considered
+sufficient wherewith to teach all the medical knowledge
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span>
+of the day, and although appointed <i>ad vitam aut
+culpam</i> the professors received no remuneration out of
+the city revenues. The Chair was not reckoned at
+first as a faculty Chair, but was termed a city professorship.
+The newly created medical faculty would
+have no midwifery within the precincts of the University;
+and this is scarcely surprising when we
+remember that at first the only persons lectured to by
+the city professor were women of an inferior class in
+whose hands the practice of the art almost entirely
+lay.</p>
+<p>Along with this appointment the Town Council
+established a system of regulation for midwifery
+practice within the city. It ordered that all midwives
+already in practice should at once be registered, and
+that no persons should thereafter enter on the practice
+within the city until they had presented to the
+magistrate a certificate under the hands of at least
+one doctor and one surgeon who were at the same
+time members of the College of Physicians or of the
+Incorporation of Chirurgeons, bearing that they had so
+much of the knowledge and principles of this art as
+warranted their entering on the practice of it; whereupon
+a licence should be given them signed by four
+magistrates at least entitling them to practise. It was
+further enacted that certain pains and penalties were
+to be inflicted upon ignorant persons for practising
+without this licence whereby their &#8220;want of skill
+might be of such dangerous consequences to the lives
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span>
+of so many people.&#8221; It is to be presumed that as
+qualified medical men granted them these certificates
+and that these women had extensive practices, they
+possessed also a fair amount of skill. But slowly and
+gradually they had to give way and retire to the rank
+of nurses before the rise and growing public tolerance
+of the qualified male practitioner of obstetrics.</p>
+<p>The second occupant of the chair, appointed in
+1739, was elevated to a place in the medical faculty,
+but Professor Thomas Young, who occupied it in
+1756, was the first to teach the subject to medical
+students by means of lectures and clinical instruction.
+As already noted, it was left for James Hamilton
+to obtain the recognition of midwifery as a subject,
+a knowledge of which was necessary for the obtaining
+of the University medical degree.</p>
+<p>At the time when Simpson was straining every
+nerve to gain the post he coveted, the medical faculty
+of the University comprised the following professors of
+the following subjects:&mdash;Botany, Robert Graham,
+who established the Edinburgh and Glasgow Botanical
+Gardens; Anatomy, Monro the third; Chemistry,
+Hope, who discovered strontium in the lead mines
+of Argyleshire; Institutes of Medicine, Alison, an
+eminent physician and philanthropist who first pointed
+out the connection between destitution and epidemics
+of disease, and secured improved Poor Laws for his
+country; Practice of Physic, James Home; Materia
+Medica, Christison, the world-reputed toxicologist;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span>
+Natural History, Robert Jameson; Clinical Surgery,
+James Syme, the wonderful operator and teacher, and
+inventor of the &#8220;macintosh&#8221; waterproof; Military
+Surgery, Ballingall; Medical Jurisprudence, Traill;
+Pathology, Thomson; and Surgery, Charles Bell, the
+discoverer of the double function of the nerves, who
+was ranked in his day on the Continent as greater
+than Harvey. It was thus not an undistinguished
+body that Simpson strove to enter; several of the best-known
+members were comparatively young men,
+recently appointed to their posts, and full of the rising
+scientific spirit. It is little to their credit that they were
+practically unanimous in opposing the candidature of
+this young and enthusiastic scientist, who afterwards
+shed such lustre on the University from the chair
+which they would have denied him for no reasons
+other than his youth and his humble origin.</p>
+<p>Fortunately for Simpson and for the University,
+the appointment did not lie in the gift of the
+professors, but was entirely in the hands of the
+Town Council, comprising thirty-three citizens.</p>
+<p>Such an election was always a matter of keen
+interest to the inhabitants of Edinburgh, and each
+candidate brought all the direct and indirect influence
+within his power to bear on every councillor whom he
+could reach. The Professors in the various faculties
+had no doubt great influence; they openly canvassed
+for the candidate they favoured, and did not hesitate
+to decry those they did not approve of. Shortsighted
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span>
+as this professorial opposition was, it proved no small
+difficulty in Simpson&#8217;s way. Foremost amongst his
+opponents was Syme, who commenced a long feud
+with him by supporting his chief rival, Dr. Kennedy;
+&#8220;I feel no hesitation in stating,&#8221; he wrote purposely
+for publication, &#8220;that of all the candidates in the field,
+he (Kennedy) is out of all question, according to my
+judgment, the one that ought to be elected.&#8221; Sir
+Charles Bell was equally emphatic, and characterised
+Simpson&#8217;s testimonials, in a note which Kennedy
+circulated, as given by &#8220;good-natured people merely
+to do a civil thing to a friend&#8221;&mdash;which was his mode
+of describing the declarations of some of the most
+eminent men of the day.</p>
+<p>Each candidate also brought political influence to
+bear, and Whig and Tory grew agitated as the contest
+became keener. Simpson seems to have thought that
+both political parties were in opposition to him, but
+he certainly had the strong support of Ritchie of
+<i>Scotsman</i> fame, and the no less important influence of
+Mr. Duncan Maclaren.</p>
+<p>When writing to ask Mr. Grindlay for his
+daughter&#8217;s hand, Simpson candidly confessed his
+pecuniary position at the time. He referred to a
+debt of £200 already owing to his brother Sandy,
+and added:&mdash;&#8220;Again he gave me a bill for £120
+to assist me in furnishing my house. This has been
+renewed and becomes due in January. He hopes to
+be able to pay it, and I fondly imagined I would have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span>
+paid the half, but this canvass has involved me in new
+difficulties, and besides, I have endeavoured to assist my
+sister to go out to Van Diemen&#8217;s Land. As it is now
+I am self-sufficient enough to think that I am as well off
+as regards station in my profession as any who started
+here in the race of life with me. They have all, I
+believe, been aided by friends or by private wealth.
+They have almost all been fortunate enough to have
+the protection of a father&#8217;s roof during the first years
+of practice. I have had no such advantages, but have
+worked and stood alone. I have accumulated for
+myself a library and museum, worth £200 at least,
+amidst these difficulties. These I have won by my
+pen and my lancet, and these are my only fortune.
+And now could you trust her future happiness to me
+under such circumstances? I did not intend to ask
+her hand at present. I fondly hoped I might have
+<i>first</i> cleared myself of my debts.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Grindlay did not hesitate, but willingly gave his
+daughter, as she was willingly given, for better or
+worse.</p>
+<p>The expenses of the canvass amounted to about
+£500, an amazingly large sum; he spared no
+expense in printing and posting his testimonials and
+letters to every one who had any influence with the
+Council, however small; but taking into consideration
+the cost of printing and postage in 1839, it is difficult
+to realise how the money was expended. His aim
+was to make known his scientific attainments, powers
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span>
+as a teacher, and personal qualifications which he felt,
+if duly realised, would outweigh the disadvantages
+of his youth and comparative inexperience. His
+testimonials spoke in strong terms of his abilities and
+characteristics; they were a good deal more numerous
+and elaborate than is customary to-day, but Kennedy&#8217;s
+also made a fat volume of 150 octavo pages.</p>
+<p>As the day of election drew near the excitement
+amongst citizens, professors, and students grew
+intense. Of the five candidates in the field, three,
+including his former teacher Thatcher, speedily fell out
+of the running. Dr. Evory Kennedy, of Dublin, and
+Simpson stood face to face as rivals. Kennedy was no
+mean opponent, and his supporters honestly considered
+him the better man of the two; his attainments
+certainly merited warm support. The prophets foretold
+a close struggle, and the event proved them
+correct. So keen was public interest that when a
+report was circulated that Kennedy was a bad lecturer,
+his friends brought him over from Dublin a few days
+before the election, hired a public room, and made
+him lecture to a crowded and enthusiastic audience to
+dispel that illusion. In spite of this the popular vote
+was decidedly in Simpson&#8217;s favour; if the citizens had
+had votes Simpson would have been returned at the
+head of the poll by a large majority.</p>
+<p>On Tuesday, February 4, 1840, at a Council
+meeting, at which all thirty-three members were
+present, the Provost himself proposed Kennedy,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span>
+while Baillie Ramsay proposed Simpson. The
+result was awaited with breathless suspense, the
+chamber being crowded by anxious spectators.
+Simpson&#8217;s enthusiasm had infected his supporters;
+he had kindled the first sparks of that enthusiastic
+affection with which the citizens of Edinburgh ever
+after regarded him; when his triumph, by the
+narrowest majority, was announced, the cheers resounded
+loud and long.</p>
+<p>The same evening he was able to write to
+Liverpool:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p class='ralign'>&#8220;<span class='smcap'>1, Dean Terrace.</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I was this day elected Professor. My opponent
+had sixteen and I had seventeen votes. All the
+political influence of both the leading Whigs and
+Tories here was employed against me; but never
+mind, I have got the chair in despite of them, Professors
+and all. Jessie&#8217;s honeymoon and mine is to commence
+to-morrow.&#8221;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>It was the man&#8217;s strong individuality which carried
+the day. The town councillors threw aside the
+political and academic bias of those who endeavoured
+to lead them, and elected the man who had boldly said,
+&#8220;Did I not feel I am the best man for the Chair I
+would not go in for it&#8221;; and had more boldly gone
+on showing them how thoroughly he felt what he
+said until they themselves came to believe it.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span></div>
+<p>The gift of this Chair, as of many others in the
+University, has now passed from the hands of the
+Town Council into those of a body of curators, seven
+in number, three nominated by the University Court
+and four by the Town Council; such a body might
+have made a more cautious choice, but never a more
+fortunate one both for the city and the University
+than this of their long-headed and far-sighted predecessors.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_V_PROFESSOR_AND_PHYSICIAN_18401847' id='CHAPTER_V_PROFESSOR_AND_PHYSICIAN_18401847'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER V
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>Professor and Physician.</span> 1840-1847</span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Success as a lecturer&mdash;Increased practice&mdash;Generosity&mdash;Fashionable
+patients&mdash;Memoir on Leprosy&mdash;Controversy concerning the Pathology
+Chair&mdash;Address to the Graduates, 1842&mdash;Squabbles&mdash;Purchases
+52, Queen Street&mdash;A great and good physician&mdash;Called to
+London&mdash;Visit to Erskine House&mdash;The daily scene at 52, Queen
+Street&mdash;Rangoon petroleum and Christison&mdash;The disruption&mdash;His
+family&mdash;Appointed Physician-Accoucheur to the Queen for Scotland.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Simpson had not long been engaged upon his
+new duties before the town councillors gladly
+saw, and his brother professors were obliged to admit,
+that the baker&#8217;s son was bringing a mighty genius
+to bear upon the subject of his choice from the chair
+of his ambition. He cherished no ill-feeling against
+those <i>confrères</i> who had actively opposed his candidature,
+but set to work amidst his new surroundings
+conscious that the best way to obliterate bitter feelings
+was by gradually creating a stronger feeling&mdash;that of
+respect for him as a man and a worker. He had dealt
+heavy blows himself during the conflict&mdash;blows not
+easily forgotten. The position demanded tact and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span>
+patience, and he was not found wanting in either.
+He converted many who had worked against him
+into adherents, admirers, and even friends.</p>
+<p>His lectures speedily attracted students. Besides
+those who were entering the profession, grey-headed
+and grey-bearded men, whose student days had long
+since passed away, came to sit at the feet of this
+remarkable young man and hear the so recently despised
+subject dealt with in his own masterly, scientific
+manner. Conciseness, clearness, and directness characterised
+his delivery; while with illustration and
+anecdote he made his dull subject fascinatingly interesting.
+It was his custom to write out on a black-board
+notes of the subject on which he was about to
+speak&mdash;concise, pithy headings, which were hung up
+in the theatre and which he proceeded methodically to
+explain and enlarge upon. So successful were his
+efforts that even in the first session he was able to
+make the proud boast that his class was for the first
+time in its history the largest in the University, and
+this in spite of the fact that one of the leading professors
+altered his lecture hour to the same hour as
+Simpson&#8217;s, with the purpose of injuring the attendance
+at Simpson&#8217;s class.</p>
+<p>A direct result of the reputation obtained through
+his course of lectures and improved professional position
+was the rapid increase of his practice and the
+improvement of the class of his patients, so that
+pecuniary profit came within his reach. He continued
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span>
+to be a general practitioner, however, attending
+to all classes of cases that came to him; but his zeal
+for midwifery and the diseases of women, together
+with his renown in those subjects, brought mostly
+patients of the female sex to his consulting-room.
+With the improved position there came necessarily
+increased expenditure, which at first exceeded the
+income; he never stopped to consider the patients&#8217;
+circumstances or whether he was likely to be paid for
+his services. &#8220;I prefer to have my reward in the
+gratitude of my patients,&#8221; he said. He treated all
+that came to him, and his generous nature was oftentimes
+taken advantage of by persons very well able to
+remunerate him; moreover, at this time, when his
+pecuniary profit did not equal his professional reputation,
+he cheerfully helped many who appealed to
+him with amounts he could ill spare.</p>
+<p>His father-in-law generously and willingly stood by
+him until the fees began to come in more freely&mdash;his
+brother Sandy, who had supported him hitherto, having
+now other claims upon his purse. He found two ordinary
+but costly steps advisable&mdash;first, to move into a
+better and more centrally situated house; and, secondly,
+to obtain a carriage, &#8220;both to support my rank among
+my wealthier compeers and to save my body from
+excess of work.&#8221; The outlay was justified in the
+result; the fees from students and from his private
+practice very soon enabled him to repay the debts to
+his brothers and his father-in-law without inconvenience
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span>
+and with grateful pleasure. Once and for
+ever within the first few years of his professorship
+he placed himself in a safe position, free from all
+pecuniary anxiety.</p>
+<p>If he had laboured hard to fit himself for the front
+rank of his profession, his work on attaining that
+position showed increase rather than abatement. His
+private practice alone was the work of more than one
+ordinary individual, and his professorial duties took up
+some of the best hours of his day. In the evenings
+and at all odd times he busied himself with absorbing
+current or ancient literature, or in preparing his own
+contributions to both professional and general knowledge
+either with the pen or by experiment. &#8220;Oh
+that there were double twenty-four hours in the day,&#8221;
+he sighed at a time when he was working at highest
+pressure, practising amongst peers, commoners, and
+cottagers alike, who all flocked to his residence or
+sent long distances for him. When Princess Marie
+of Baden, wife of the Duke of Hamilton, came
+under his special care in 1843 he felt that he was
+placed at the top of his profession in Scotland, and
+must have smilingly recalled the words of old Dr.
+Dawson, of Bathgate, when he heard of the successful
+contest for the Chair. &#8220;It&#8217;s all very well,&#8221; he had
+said, &#8220;to have got the Chair! But he can never have
+such a practice as Professor Hamilton. Why, ladies
+have been known to come from England to consult
+him!&#8221;</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span></div>
+<p>They came from the furthest parts of Greater
+Britain to consult Hamilton&#8217;s successor, in spite of
+the old doctor&#8217;s prognostication!</p>
+<p>The energy as well as the versatility of the man is
+well shown in the works which he found time to
+carry on while he was thus establishing himself as a
+teacher and as a practitioner, during the years from 1840
+to 1845. One of his first literary efforts, not wholly
+professional, the Memoir on &#8220;Leprosy and Leper-Houses,&#8221;
+was produced at that time. It was a work
+of relaxation and pleasure, for it carried him deeply
+into his favourite archæology. The fascination which
+this subject always had for him sprang from his love
+of nature, and of the greatest work of nature&mdash;man.
+&#8220;The leading object and intent of all the
+antiquarian&#8217;s pursuit is <span class='smcaplc'>MAN</span>,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and man&#8217;s
+ways and works, his habits and thoughts, from the
+earliest dates at which we can find his traces and
+tracks upon the earth, onwards and forwards along the
+journey of past time. During this long journey he
+has everywhere left scattered behind him and around
+him innumerable relics forming so many permanent
+impressions and evidences of his march and progress.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The quantity and quality of the information concerning
+leper hospitals which he collected and embodied
+in his memoir, contributed to the Edinburgh
+Medico-Chirurgical Society in March, 1841, was
+phenomenal. He had consulted old manuscripts and
+registers, monastic chronicles, burgh records, and Acts
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span>
+of Parliament, as well as works of antiquity, travel,
+and history. He gave close upon five hundred references,
+as well as a list of one hundred and nineteen
+leper-houses, whose existence in Britain and whose
+history he had traced. The work illustrates the
+objects and proper methods of antiquarian research,
+which twenty years afterwards he dilated upon in his
+address from the Chair of the Scottish Society of
+Antiquaries. In the course of it he pointed out how
+vigorously our ancestors had set to work to stamp out
+the disease when it spread through Europe during the
+period from the tenth to the sixteenth century. The
+method adopted was that still employed&mdash;segregation;
+about the twelfth century scarcely a town or burgh in
+France and Britain was without its leper-hospital.
+Although we in Britain are happily now freed from
+its ravages, other parts of the world are not so fortunate.
+It is still regarded popularly as an incurable
+disease, as it was in 1597, when one Catherine Livingstone
+was gravely brought to trial for witchcraft, one
+instance of which had been that she dared to state her
+ability to cure &#8220;leprosie, which the maist expert men
+in medicine are not abil to do.&#8221; The indictment set
+forth that she &#8220;took a reid cock, slew it, baked a
+bannock with the blude of it, and gaf the samyn to
+the leper to eat.&#8221; The witch&#8217;s remedy is scarcely
+more curious and certainly no less useful than those
+recommended two centuries later by John Wesley in
+his &#8220;Primitive Physic,&#8221; where, moreover, he cheerfully,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span>
+if somewhat too briefly to satisfy the modern
+inquirer, reports the cure &#8220;of a most desperate case&#8221;
+by the drinking of a half-pint of celery-whey morning
+and evening.</p>
+<p>Scotland was severely smitten by leprosy in the
+centuries when it overspread Europe; Robert Bruce
+fell a victim to it in 1339, and the disease seems to
+have lingered in the North after it had almost vanished
+from England.</p>
+<p>Simpson&#8217;s paper was published in the <i>Edinburgh
+Medical and Surgical Journal</i> in three parts in 1841
+and 1842, and to this day is the most valuable contribution
+to the interesting and important history of the
+disease. Some of the information had been collected
+in his student days. In his antiquarian researches he
+had frequently met with references to the dirty and
+unwholesome habits and surroundings of Scots towns
+in early days. The thought that dirt and disease were
+directly connected&mdash;a new thought even so recently as
+fifty years ago&mdash;led to his investigations. He found
+that leprosy was most prevalent at the time when his
+country was most dirty; but he was not able to
+establish his supposition that the cause of the disease
+lay in the insanitary surroundings of the people;
+indeed his researches proved that, on the contrary,
+leprosy had declined and practically disappeared from
+the country long before any material improvement in
+sanitary conditions took place.</p>
+<p>Simpson&#8217;s conduct when Professor Thomson resigned
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span>
+the Chair of Pathology illustrates the vigour with
+which he entered into quite casually arising incidents
+where he saw that strength and a fight were necessary
+to conquer an evil or prevent an abuse. Thomson
+resigned in 1841 owing to ill-health. The Chair had
+been established by William IV. in 1831 on the representations
+of Thomson himself, who succeeded in
+satisfying Lord Melbourne that the subject was worthy
+of the dignity of a separate Chair, in spite of the
+protests of the Senatus Academicus, who throughout
+the history of the medical faculty generally appear to
+have been actuated more by personal considerations and
+professional jealousies, where new developments were
+in process, than by zeal for their <i>Alma Mater</i>. Professors
+Syme and Alison actively led an agitation that
+with Thomson&#8217;s resignation the separate teaching of
+pathology should be brought to an end. Without a
+moment&#8217;s hesitation, in the midst of his hard work,
+and suffering from indifferent health, Simpson plunged
+into a controversy with these colleagues, in which he
+silenced at once and for ever the detractors who had
+sneered at him as an ignorant, uncultured man-midwife.
+The controversy as usual was followed
+with intense interest by Edinburgh folks, and Simpson
+received a first taste of that popular approval which
+undoubtedly was one of the enjoyments of his life.
+The Crown avoided the difficulty of deciding between
+the rival petitioners for and against the Chair by
+transferring its patronage to the Town Council, who
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span>
+showed the same foresight which had led them to
+appoint Simpson, in deciding to maintain its existence.
+Unfortunately their wisdom failed when they elected
+as Thomson&#8217;s successor a man who, although of
+brilliant attainments, subsequently brought discredit
+upon his University and himself by becoming a convert
+to hom&oelig;opathy. Simpson, who was indirectly instrumental
+in securing the Chair of Pathology for this
+man became his bitterest opponent when he declared
+himself a follower of Hahnemann&#8217;s unorthodox and
+mistaken doctrines.</p>
+<p>In 1842 it fell to Simpson&#8217;s lot to deliver the
+customary address to the medical graduates after they
+had received their degrees at the annual ceremonial on
+the 1st of August. He treated his listeners to a
+discourse on the duties of young physicians. When
+we remember that he had attained to his then high
+professional position while he was no more than a
+young physician himself, we recognise that he was but
+setting forth the ideals and principles which had been
+and still were his guides in life and conduct.</p>
+<p>After warning his audience against regarding the
+gaining of the coveted degree as the end of their
+student career, instead of as in reality the opening up of
+a lifetime of observation and study, he pointed out that
+self-patronage was the best of all patronage. &#8220;Place
+from the first,&#8221; he said, &#8220;all your hopes of advancement
+upon the breadth and extent of your medical
+abilities alone.... Rather walk by the steady light of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span>
+your own lamp than by the more dazzling, but to you
+more uncertain, lustre borrowed from that of others ... Young
+physicians often dream that by extending the
+circle of their private acquaintances they thus afford
+themselves the best chance of extending the circle of
+their private patients.... No man will in any case
+of doubt and danger entrust to your professional
+care the guardianship of his own life or of the life of
+those who are near and dear to his heart, merely
+because you happen to be on terms of intimacy with
+him. The self-interest of human nature forbids it....
+The accomplishments which render you acceptable in
+the drawing-room are not always those that would
+make your visits longed for or valued in the chamber
+of sickness and sorrow.... Give therefore your whole
+energies to medicine; and in its multiplied departments
+you will find &#8216;ample room and verge enough&#8217; for the
+most energetic as well as the most comprehensive
+mind. Place your faith in no extrinsic influences.
+Let your own professional character be the one great
+patron to whom you ever look for your professional
+advancement.&#8221; He exhorted the young practitioners
+above all to save and economise their time, and to
+regard it as a property to be avaricious of and of every
+item of which they were to render a proper account to
+themselves. &#8220;It is by carefully preserving, confirming,
+and making diligent use of these broken and disjointed
+portions of it, which others thoughtlessly waste and
+destroy, that almost all the highest reputations in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span>
+medical profession have been formed.&#8221; He strongly
+urged the value of a &#8220;proper covetousness of time.&#8221;
+&#8220;Look around, and you will find that those who have
+the most to do in the way of business as practitioners
+have also apparently the most time to spare as observers
+and writers.... And why? Because they have all
+their daily duties perfectly assorted and arrayed; they
+save from loss and destruction every possible fragment
+of time and this very industry and precision procures
+them more true leisure than indolence can boast of.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In referring to the relation of practitioner to
+patient, he spoke on a subject which has been much
+discussed in recent years without altering the
+principle originally laid down in the oath of Hippocrates:&mdash;&#8220;Whatever,&#8221;
+said Simpson, &#8220;is communicated
+to you as a matter of professional confidence, must
+ever remain buried within your own breasts in all the
+silence and secrecy of the grave.&#8221; He concluded his
+address with well-judged remarks on the relation of
+the physician to his professional brethren, counselling
+his hearers to observe the Golden Rule, and, moreover,
+&#8220;if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
+with all men; never allow the darker part of
+your nature to persuade you to the attempt of over-taking
+him who has distanced you in the race of life
+by any unjust efforts to lame the character, and thus
+diminish the speed, of your adversary. And if such
+attempts are made upon you by others, have no dread
+of them&mdash;if you are armed strong in honesty, if you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span>
+have pursued a line of irreproachable truth and unbending
+rectitude of conduct. &#8216;Be thou as pure as
+snow thou shalt not escape calumny.&#8217;... Your
+future career is a matter of your own selection, and
+will be regulated by the conduct which you choose to
+follow. That career may be one of happiness or self-regret,
+one of honour or of obscurity, one of wealth
+or of poverty. The one or other result is not a
+matter of <i>chance</i>, but a matter of choice on your part.
+Your diligence and industry for the next few years
+will almost inevitably secure for you the one; your
+apathy and indolence will almost inevitably entail
+upon you the other. May God, in His infinite
+goodness, enable you to select the wiser and the
+better path.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In this address, as in that previously quoted, we
+hear him exhorting his young listeners to a line of
+conduct which we know to have been broadly his own
+in practice as well as in ideal. During these early
+years as professor, Simpson had to ward off many ill-disposed
+adversaries, and he met their attack with the
+determination and powerful preparedness that characterised
+his attitude in later years, when he experienced
+the hostility so constantly opposed to genuine reformers,
+and men who have lived ahead of their times.
+He sometimes regarded these encounters regretfully
+himself; but none the less remembered to</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Bear&#8217;t that the opposed may beware.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>The correspondence pertaining to some of these
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span>
+disputes was filed and ticketed, with brief contempt,
+&#8220;Squabbles.&#8221; His controversy with Professor Syme
+over a personal matter in 1845 was not to the credit
+of either of these great men, and, as Simpson himself
+confessed, was equally discreditable to their profession.
+Simpson had seen, as has been pointed out, several
+of his teachers fighting long and strongly for their
+own cherished objects; and he doubtless then, in
+his student days, learnt the lesson that vigorous persistence
+had the power to gain much that at first
+seemed hopeless; he fought with such energy, that he
+accomplished in his own lifetime what the example
+of others might have led him to think would have
+been accomplished only by his successors.</p>
+<p>The growth of his practice up to 1847 was little
+short of phenomenal. In 1845 he purchased No. 52,
+Queen-street, the house which he inhabited up to his
+death, and which became the Mecca of hundreds
+upon hundreds of pilgrims from all quarters of the
+globe. Here, in those years, he was sought and
+consulted by unceasing crowds; in the public mind
+he was undoubtedly endowed with more than human
+powers, and regarded as a magician, at the wave of
+whose wand pain and disease would vanish. This
+caused him much embarrassment, and brought upon
+him the abuse of ignorant persons, irritated to find
+that, after all, even in Simpson&#8217;s person, there was a
+limit to human powers; or of others with unimportant
+ailments who were disappointed to find that, once
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span>
+having made his diagnosis of their condition, he would
+have no more of them, preferring to place his time at
+the disposal of those whose sufferings were real and
+capable of relief, or whose cases were complicated and
+interesting. The question of remuneration was always
+secondary, and so careless was he in pecuniary matters
+that it is related that he would wrap up interesting specimens,
+professional or antiquarian, in bank notes; and his
+trusted valet was in the habit of emptying his pockets
+at night of the money earned in the day, to prevent
+its being lost, mislaid, or given away to undeserving
+persons. With him work was first and fee second.
+Like a great modern teacher he was able to say,
+&#8220;Work first&mdash;you are God&#8217;s servant; fee first&mdash;you
+are the fiend&#8217;s.&#8221; To Simpson &#8220;work was master and
+the Lord of Work, who is God.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The personal power and attractiveness of the man
+were large factors in gaining the practice which he
+now enjoyed. But he did not depend for success on
+these alone, by any means. His professional reputation
+was fully won by great work in obstetrics and
+gynæcology, and by the introduction of methods and
+instruments which contributed to the saving of countless
+lives. It has been said that he gave a new life to
+the obstetric art, and presided at the birth of gynæcology.
+He had done this before the great deed was
+dreamt of which hands his name down to posterity,
+before his discovery of the anæsthetic power of
+chloroform. Simpson was a great physician, the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span>
+leading practitioner of the art and exponent of the
+science with which his name will always be connected.
+But many great physicians have failed to
+fulfil as Simpson did, Robert Louis Stevenson&#8217;s
+description of the physician:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Generosity he has such as is possible to those who
+practise an art, never to those who drive a trade;
+discretion tested by a hundred secrets; tact tried in
+a thousand embarrassments; and what are more
+Heraclean cheerfulness and courage. So it is that he
+brings air and cheer into the sick room, and often
+enough, though not so often as he wishes, brings
+healing.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Great as a man and great as a physician, Simpson
+was actually run after by the greatest in the land. In
+1845 he was summoned professionally to London, and
+gave an interesting description of his kindly reception
+by the Duchess of Sutherland and her family in a
+letter written from Stafford House. His advent to
+London was a matter of notoriety, and he noted that
+he bought in the street a life of himself which
+mightily diverted him and made him laugh until he
+was sore. A year or more later he was invited for
+rest and change to Erskine House by Lord Blantyre,
+where he says, &#8220;the Duchess of Sutherland, the
+Marquis and Marchioness of Lorne, and two Ladies
+Gower have made up with myself all the strangers.&#8221;
+&#8220;Tell Janet,&#8221; he wrote to his brother, &#8220;I think now
+artificial flowers very ungenteel. The ladies here
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span>
+wear nothing but real flowers in their hair, and every
+day they come down with something new and for us
+males to guess at. Often the Duchess wears a simple
+chaplet of ivy leaves, sometimes a bracken leaf is all
+she sports in her head ornaments, and beautiful it
+looks. Rowans and &#8216;haws&#8217; are often worn beaded
+into crowns or flowers or chaplets. Heather is also
+a favourite. On Thursday Lady Lorne came down
+with a most beautiful chaplet tying round and keeping
+down her braided hair. It was a long bunch of
+bramble leaves and half-ripe bramble berries&mdash;actual
+true brambles. They have been all exceedingly kind
+to me, and I really feel quite at home among them
+though the only untitled personage at table.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The daily scene at 52, Queen Street was now
+unique. Those who had the fortune to lunch or
+breakfast in that hospitable house never forgot it.
+Statesmen, noblemen, artists, scientists, clergymen,
+and politicians from various countries sat down
+together and entertained each other or attempted to
+do so in their different languages. The host guided
+the conversation while he still glanced over the newspaper
+or some newly published book, and never failed
+by skilful leading to entice out of every one the best
+knowledge that they possessed. With his quick
+insight he rarely failed in his estimate of character,
+but rapidly perceived even in a stranger where the
+conventional ceased and the real man began.</p>
+<p>No stranger to Edinburgh omitted to bring or
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span>
+obtain an introduction to the genial professor; all
+were welcome, and an open table was kept. The
+scene has been described from intimate knowledge
+in the columns of the <i>Scots Observer</i> as follows:&mdash;&#8220;Luncheon
+is set on the table, and some ten, twenty,
+or even fifty people wait the appearance of their host,
+who is on his rounds maybe, or in another room
+ministers to an urgent case. A stranger who has not
+learnt that the great Simpson was only in the broadest
+sense a punctual man&mdash;of minutes, hours, he knew
+nothing, but none more reliably punctual, few so
+unsparingly regular in working while &#8217;tis called to-day&mdash;might
+be prompted by hungry discontent to suggest
+that none but the wealthiest can keep the doctor from
+his guests. The mere suggestion would be infamous,
+for rich and ragged alike pay fees or not exactly as it
+pleases them. Whatever the cause, the host still
+lingers, and the impatient stranger has time to wonder
+how it is that so odd an assortment of human beings
+should be met together in one room. Lords and
+Commons rub shoulders at his table; the salt of the
+earth sit down side by side with the savourless; tweed
+jostles broadcloth; the town-bred Briton looks askance
+at his country-bred compatriot, and both unconsciously
+shudder at the Briton with no breeding at all.
+In one room are assembled together the American of
+bluest blood; the Yankee bagman; the slave-owning
+Southerner, and even the man of colour hateful to both
+alike. The atmosphere is chill like the grave, each
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span>
+guest, eyeing his neighbour suspiciously, shrinks into
+his own social shell; on each face the meanness and
+snobbery of humankind is, if not aggressively expressed,
+at least clearly legible; when all at once Simpson
+bustles in. In a few minutes, under the genial influence
+of his presence, all tongues are set a-wagging,
+and well may you ask whether the men who leave his
+house after luncheon are those who half-an-hour ago
+regarded each other with cold disdain. For now
+they are cordial, kindly, sympathetic; each has been
+induced to show whatever was attractive in his nature,
+or to give the fruits of his experience. If in one short
+hour Simpson could thus transform a crowd of frigid,
+haughty strangers into an assemblage of decent,
+amiable human beings, what could he not achieve in a
+day, a year, or a life?&#8221;</p>
+<p>His reception of members of his own profession was
+specially cordial, and if those from any one country
+were more welcome than others, it was the many who
+crossed the Atlantic to see and hear him. America
+had the greatest share in the birth of anæsthetics, and
+Simpson&#8217;s intimacy with so many of the profession in
+the United States made it easy for them to welcome
+his assistance in that great event. Gynæcology, too,
+was eagerly taken up in America, and many were
+Simpson&#8217;s admirers from that country who returned
+home fired by his influence to work out for themselves
+valuable additions to that science.</p>
+<p>Simpson paid close attention to current events in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span>
+other branches of science, in politics, and in religion.
+Sir Robert Christison and he were at one time associated
+in an enterprise which narrowly escaped being
+the source of a fortune to him. Rangoon petroleum
+which was obtained from pits dug on the banks of the
+Irawaddy had been chemically investigated by Christison,
+and he had isolated from it a substance which he
+named petroline; unfortunately, unknown to him, a
+German chemist had independently made the same
+discovery a few months earlier, and christened the
+substance paraffin. When, a few years later, it occurred
+to Simpson that the crude Rangoon petroleum
+might serve as a lubricant for machinery and prove
+cheaper than those in general use, he applied to
+Christison. He met with willing assistance, but a
+refusal on principle to have anything to do with a
+patent, which Christison laughingly suggested, might
+be called &#8220;Simpson&#8217;s incomparable antifriction lubricant!&#8221;</p>
+<p>&#8220;When I called for Simpson,&#8221; says Christison, in
+his Recollections, &#8220;his two reception rooms were as
+usual full of patients, more were seated in the lobby,
+female faces stared from all the windows in vacant expectancy,
+and a lady was ringing the door bell. But
+the doctor brushed through the crowd to join me, and
+left them all kicking their heels for the next two
+hours.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Their experiments proved that petroleum was vastly
+superior to sperm oil, the best known and most commonly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span>
+used lubricant. Simpson proceeded to take out
+a patent, having no such scruples as Christison; but
+to his chagrin found that he had been forestalled by
+others, and had to abandon the subject.</p>
+<p>About the period now referred to Scotland was
+stirred from end to end by the ecclesiastical movement
+which culminated in the crisis known as the Disruption,
+when, for reasons connected with the jurisdiction
+of the National Church, a majority of its
+members severed their connection therewith in a
+public and dramatic fashion, and &#8220;came out&#8221; to
+found the now strong and vigorous Free Kirk. Simpson
+at first steered clear of all the squabbles and
+discussions which the movement gave rise to, but
+when affairs approached a crisis he threw his lot in
+with the leaders of the new movement, and became a
+staunch Free Churchman.</p>
+<p>Busy as he was, Simpson fully enjoyed his home and
+all the inner domestic life. He was a cheery and
+hearty host to his intimate friends, and took a pleasure
+in impromptu entertainments got up by himself in his
+own house, when he found time at his disposal for such
+amusement. His first child&mdash;a daughter&mdash;of whom
+he was mightily proud, was born in 1840; his first
+son, David, in 1842; and the second, Walter, in 1843.
+In 1844 the young couple, in the midst of their
+rising prosperity, suffered the loss of their daughter,
+who died after a brief illness. Simpson felt the loss
+keenly, and wrote pathetically on the subject to his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span>
+relations; long afterwards he loved to talk of her and
+her winning ways.</p>
+<p>By 1846 the vast majority of his work lay in
+obstetrics and gynæcology, although he himself would
+no doubt have indignantly repelled the suggestion
+that he was a specialist; his mind recognised the
+interdependence of all the great branches of the
+healing art, and the necessity for any who wished to
+excel or be useful practitioners to be <i>au courant</i> with
+each and every branch. He had early shown that as
+a pathologist alone he was worthy of a niche in the
+temple of fame; and in later days he was urged to
+apply for the vacant chair of Physic in his own University;
+while Professor A. R. Simpson tells us that
+foreigners working in the sphere of surgery sometimes
+spoke of him as a surgeon.</p>
+<p>Early in 1847 his good friend, the Duchess of
+Sutherland, wrote to inform him that the Queen had
+much pleasure in conferring upon him the vacant post
+of Physician to Her Majesty. In the Queen&#8217;s own
+words, &#8220;His high character and abilities made him
+very fit for the post.&#8221; He held this post until his
+death, under the title of Physician Accoucheur to the
+Queen for Scotland.</p>
+<p>Thus in his thirty-sixth year, to the pride of his
+family and of the whole village community in which
+he had been born and received his early training, to
+the admiration of patients and friends, as well as to
+his own conscious satisfaction, the Bathgate baker&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span>
+son had risen by his own efforts to the highest
+attainable position in his native land. But the work
+which was to make him one of the most conspicuous
+figures in the history of medicine, and raise him
+to a place of honour in the grateful estimation of
+humanity, was scarcely begun.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_VI_THE_DISCOVERY_OF_ANSTHETICS_18441847' id='CHAPTER_VI_THE_DISCOVERY_OF_ANSTHETICS_18441847'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>The Discovery of Anæsthetics.</span> 1844-1847</span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>His early sympathy for suffering&mdash;Surgical methods before the discovery
+of anæsthetics&mdash;His mental struggle caused by the sickening
+sights of the operating theatre&mdash;His researches into the history of
+anæsthesia&mdash;Indian hemp&mdash;Mandrake&mdash;Alcohol&mdash;Hypnotism and
+other methods&mdash;Inhalation of drugs&mdash;Sir Humphry Davy&mdash;Anæsthetics
+discovered in America&mdash;Horace Wells and laughing-gas&mdash;Morton
+and ether&mdash;Ether in Great Britain&mdash;He uses it in midwifery
+practice&mdash;Search for a better-anæsthetic&mdash;Discovery of anæsthetic
+power of chloroform.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>From his earliest student days the desire had
+ever been present in Simpson&#8217;s mind to see
+some means devised for preventing the sufferings
+endured by patients on the operating table, without,
+as he put it, &#8220;interfering with the free and healthy
+play of the natural functions.&#8221; It is difficult for us at
+the close of the nineteenth century to understand,
+without an effort of the imagination, the strong incentives
+which he had for such a wish. Even to-day,
+when operations are conducted without the infliction
+of pain, young students are not unfrequently overcome
+by the sight and the thought of what is in front of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span>
+them. At the commencement of a winter session the
+theatre is crowded with those students who are entering
+upon surgical study, and with others, not so far
+advanced, who have come to get a preliminary peep
+at the practice of this fascinatingly interesting art.
+Many of these at first succumb and faint even before
+the surgeon has begun his work, and sometimes are
+only persuaded to pursue their studies by the encouragement
+of kindly teachers.</p>
+<p>Simpson also went through this trying experience,
+but it must have been a greater struggle to him to
+persist. The surroundings of the surgeon at the
+commencement of the century were vastly more repugnant
+to a youth of sensitive nature than to-day.
+The operating theatre then has been compared to a
+butcher&#8217;s shambles; cleanliness was not considered
+necessary, and little attention was paid to the feelings
+of the patient. He was held down by three or
+four pairs of powerful arms as the surgeon boldly
+and rapidly did his work, despite the screams,
+stopping, perhaps, only to roughly abuse the patient
+for some agonised movement which had interfered
+with the course of action. The poor wretch saw
+the instruments handed one by one by the assistant,
+and heard the surgeon&#8217;s calm directions and his
+remarks on the case. The barbarous practice of
+arresting bleeding by the application of red-hot irons
+to the surface of the wound had indeed ceased three
+centuries before, when that humane reformer, Paré,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span>
+displaced it with the method of tying the open blood-vessel,
+but the patient&#8217;s blood gushed forth before him
+until arrested, into the sawdust spread to receive it,
+and the sight and the hot odour of it oftentimes mercifully
+caused him to faint. The spirit of Paré who,
+when relating a successful operation, would humbly
+add at the end, &#8220;I dressed him; God healed him,&#8221;
+had not descended to those who practised in Simpson&#8217;s
+day the art for which Paré did so much. It had grown
+to be necessary for a surgeon to be rough and callous;
+it was expected of him by the public; he was a man
+to be pointed at in the street, and shuddered at when
+he passed, by all who devoutly prayed they might
+escape his clutches. Much of this conduct was mere
+mannerism; it had become the custom, and had to
+be maintained in order to preserve the dignity and
+stamp the identity of the surgeon. Much of it arose
+from the haste with which the surgeon had to work;
+the quicker the operation the better chance had the
+patient; it was no uncommon thing to see a bystander
+timing the surgeon&#8217;s work, as the professional time-keeper
+carefully times a race; and the rapidity of each
+surgeon&#8217;s performances was a subject of comparison
+and admiration amongst the students of his day.
+Much of it also arose from the effect of the hideous
+scenes in the operating room upon the surgeon
+himself; his nerve had to become of iron if he desired
+to succeed, and with the nerve the face and the
+manner, but not necessarily always the heart hardened
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span>
+also. Tennyson possibly recollected these days, when
+he wrote of the surgeon who</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Sent a chill to my heart when I saw him come in at the door,</p>
+<p>Fresh from the surgery schools of France, and of other lands;</p>
+<p>Harsh red hair, big voice, big chest, big merciless hands.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>When Simpson first saw Liston raise his knife to
+operate on a poor Highland woman, he actually felt so
+repelled that he contemplated abandoning his studies,
+and made a serious attempt to enter upon legal work
+instead. But the mental struggle with which medical
+men of all countries, and in all times, can sympathise
+out of their own knowledge, ended in a victory for
+medicine, and a triumphant return to his studies with
+the question permanently engraved on the tablets of
+his mind, &#8220;Can nothing be done to prevent this
+suffering?&#8221;</p>
+<p>It is necessary and it is certainly beneficial that we
+should thus remind ourselves of the horrors which
+surrounded the surgeon so recently as sixty years ago.
+&#8220;Before the days of anæsthetics,&#8221; wrote an old
+patient to Simpson, in a letter which he treasured with
+pride&mdash;the writer was himself a medical man&mdash;&#8220;a
+patient preparing for an operation was like a condemned
+criminal preparing for execution. He counted
+the days till the appointed day came. He counted
+the hours of that day till the appointed hour came.
+He listened for the echo in the street of the surgeon&#8217;s
+carriage. He watched for his pull at the door bell;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span>
+for his foot on the stair; for his step in the room; for
+the production of his dreaded instruments; for his few
+grave words, and his last preparations before beginning.
+And then he surrendered his liberty and, revolting at
+the necessity, submitted to be held or bound, and
+helplessly gave himself up to the cruel knife.&#8221;.</p>
+<p>It was, indeed, a monstrous ogre this giant Pain,
+holding the poor weak human creature in its merciless
+clutches, which Simpson even in his youthful days
+bethought himself to attack. It is well that we
+who are the heirs, should know how Simpson and
+those others whose names are ever associated with his,
+slew the monster, won the victory, and championed
+the human race forward into a land where further
+victories undreamt of by themselves are now being
+daily won.</p>
+<p>Simpson searched into ancient history in order to
+ascertain the methods, if any, by which in remote and
+mediæval times surgeons sought to prevent the pain of
+operations. The most time-honoured method seems
+to have been by the internal administration of drugs,
+the chief one used being Indian hemp, which was well
+known in the East, and under one of its names
+<i>haschish</i> gave origin to the term assassin (strictly eater
+of haschish). A certain Arab Sheikh got together a
+band of followers to whom he administered haschish,
+which produced in them its usual effect&mdash;beautiful
+dreams of a delightful paradise. He induced them to
+believe so thoroughly in his power to gain for them at
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span>
+death permanent entrance to this paradise that they
+obeyed all his ferocious and bloodthirsty behests.
+Thus these assassins became known as men obedient
+to their leader in any murderous enterprise. Indian
+hemp was, and still is, used as a luxury all over the
+East, as well as to annul pain, and was used by
+criminals doomed to torture or execution. Simpson
+thought the <i>nepenthe</i> of Homer was a preparation of
+this drug; he also refers to the fact that Herodotus
+relates that the Massagetæ inhaled the vapour of
+burning hemp to produce intoxication and pleasurable
+excitement.</p>
+<p>Mandrake was used in a similar manner and for
+similar purposes as Indian hemp in the Middle Ages,
+but it fell into disuse on account of the fatal results
+that often followed. It is frequently referred to by
+Shakspeare both for its narcotic properties and for its
+fabulous power of uttering a scream when torn up by
+the roots, to hear which meant death or madness.
+Simpson cited also well-known passages from Shakspeare
+to prove that the practice of &#8220;locking up the
+spirits a time&#8221; was known to that poet.</p>
+<p>In later days the intoxication produced by alcohol
+was taken advantage of, and instances of its use have
+been known in quite recent years in the Colonies,
+where both a surgeon and chloroform were out of
+reach.</p>
+<p>No drug, however, was known to be of such value
+in producing anæsthesia as to be constantly used, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span>
+many trials were made of other means, notably that
+of compressing the nerves supplying the part to be
+operated upon, but this was found to be too painful in
+itself. The stupor produced by compressing the
+carotid arteries&mdash;a method taken advantage of by the
+ruffians known as garotters&mdash;was also put in practice
+for a time during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
+but it was found too barbarous a method even
+for those days.</p>
+<p>Hypnotism was known to the Indians, Egyptians,
+and Persians at a very remote period, and may possibly
+have been used by them sometimes to produce anæsthesia
+for surgical purposes. Simpson was attracted by
+the words of the poet Middleton in his tragedy
+&#8220;Women, beware Women&#8221; (1617) where he says&mdash;</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll imitate the pities of old surgeons</p>
+<p>To this lost limb&mdash;who ere they show their art</p>
+<p>Cast me asleep, then cut the diseased part.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>When hypnotism made one of its periodic re-appearances
+in 1837, this time under the name of
+mesmerism, after that extraordinary exponent of its
+powers Mesmer, Simpson recognised in it a possible
+method for &#8220;casting the patient asleep&#8221; before operation
+and set to work to investigate its phenomena.
+A Frenchman named Du Potet, disheartened by the
+prejudice against mesmerism in his own country,
+came to London in 1837, and was fortunate enough
+to receive the support of Dr. John Elliotson, physician
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span>
+to University College Hospital. Elliotson&#8217;s advocacy
+of the new practice was received with ridicule by
+the profession, and was treated with such scathing
+contempt by the <i>Lancet</i> and other journals, that he
+was completely ruined.</p>
+<p>Simpson was very successful in his experiments with
+mesmerism, conducted on the lines suggested by
+Elliotson, but he recognised that, after all, it was not
+the agent for which he was seeking, and dropped his
+researches.</p>
+<p>He did not resume them even when Liston, a few
+years later, stimulated by the advocacy of the Manchester
+surgeon Braid, who met with a better reception
+than Elliotson, and by the relation of a long series of
+successful cases by a surgeon named Esdaile, in Calcutta,
+actually performed operations with success on patients
+brought under its influence.</p>
+<p>The first suggestion to produce anæsthesia by the
+<i>inhalation</i> of drugs was made by Sir Humphry Davy
+in 1800. He discovered by experiment upon himself
+that the inhalation of <i>nitrous oxide</i> gas&mdash;commonly
+known as a <i>laughing gas</i>&mdash;had the power of relieving
+toothache and other pains; he described the effect as
+that of &#8220;uneasiness being swallowed up for a few
+minutes by pleasures.&#8221; Although he stopped short at
+this stage, and does not seem to have used the inhalation
+to produce actual loss of consciousness, he, nevertheless,
+forecast the future by suggesting that nitrous
+oxide might be used as an inhalation in the performance
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span>
+of surgical operations, in which &#8220;no great effusion of
+blood&#8221; took place.</p>
+<p>Some thirty years later Faraday pointed out that
+<i>ether</i> had effects upon the nervous system when inhaled,
+similar to those of laughing-gas. These two drugs
+came to be inhaled more in jest than in earnest; more
+as an amusing scientific experiment for the sake of
+the pleasure-giving excitement they set up, than for
+the purpose Davy had suggested. Ether, it is true,
+was recommended even before Davy&#8217;s day for the
+relief of the suffering in asthma, but until the fifth
+decade of the century no one had attempted to prevent
+suffering as inflicted by the surgeon or the dentist, by
+producing the state of unconsciousness brought about
+by the inhalation of such drugs as ether&mdash;a process
+now known to the world as anæsthesia.</p>
+<p>The persons who first made the bold experiments
+which resulted in the discovery of how to produce
+anæsthesia were Americans; and two men were
+prominently concerned in the discovery. Several
+others made isolated and successful efforts with both
+ether and nitrous oxide, but they lacked the confidence
+and the courage to make their success public and to
+persist in their experiments. Of these, Dr. Long, of
+Athens, Georgia, was one of the earliest; he is said to
+have successfully removed a tumour from a patient
+under the influence of ether in 1842, and in the
+Southern States he is regarded as the discoverer of
+anæsthesia. Dr. Jackson, of Boston&mdash;a scientific
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span>
+chemist&mdash;laid claim to the honour of the discovery
+after others had fought the fight and established the
+practice of anæsthesia. Neither of these men, for
+the reason already given, deserves the honour which is
+now universally attributed to their fellow-countrymen,
+Wells and Morton.</p>
+<p>Horace Wells was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in
+1815, and was educated to the profession of dental
+surgeon. He gave much attention to the desire
+present in the minds of many men at that time to
+render dental operations painless. On December 10,
+1844, he witnessed at a popular lecture the experiment
+of administering laughing-gas, and noticed that a Mr.
+Cooley, while still under the influence of the gas, struck
+and injured his limb against a bench without suffering
+pain. The idea at once occurred to Wells that here
+was the agent he was in search of, and the very next
+day he experimented upon himself. If it has ever
+been fortunate to have toothache it was so for Wells
+that day; he was troubled by an aching molar which
+was removed by a colleague named Rigg, whilst he
+was fully under the influence of nitrous oxide; and
+thus he began what he himself at once called on recovering
+consciousness, &#8220;a new era in tooth-pulling.&#8221; He
+proceeded promptly to test the experiment upon others
+and with complete success; and then making his
+success known, he proceeded with his former pupil
+Morton to Boston, and gave a public demonstration of
+his method which unfortunately was so imperfectly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span>
+carried out that he was laughed at for his pains and
+stigmatised an impostor. Wells himself stated that
+the failure was due to the premature withdrawal of the
+bag containing the gas, so that the patient was but
+partially under its influence when the tooth was
+extracted. Wells and Morton were ignominiously
+hissed by the crowd of practitioners and students
+gathered to see the operation. Wells never recovered
+from the disappointment and the illness which resulted,
+and although he was able to explain his discovery to
+the French Academy of Science in 1846, he unfortunately
+died insane in New York two years later. Undoubtedly
+he was the first to discover the practicability
+of nitrous oxide anæsthesia, and to proclaim the discovery
+with a discoverer&#8217;s zeal. Although his career
+ended so sadly, his efforts had, nevertheless, inspired to
+greater endeavour his colleague Morton, who had not
+only been associated in his experiments, but had
+been deeply interested in the subject for many
+years.</p>
+<p>William Thomas Green Morton was born in 1819;
+his father was a farmer at Charlton, Massachusetts.
+He qualified as a dentist at Baltimore, and entered
+into successful practice at Boston. Fired with the
+same ambition as Wells, he made attempts to extract
+teeth painlessly with the assistance of drugs administered,
+or sometimes of hypnotism. In December, 1844, after
+Wells&#8217;s failure with nitrous oxide gas, he wisely
+abandoned that agent and investigated another which
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span>
+promised better results. He experimented first with
+a drug known as <i>chloric ether</i>, but failing to get the
+desired effect, and at the suggestion of the aforementioned
+Dr. Jackson, he proceeded to investigate
+the effect of ordinary ether. The first experiments
+were made on animals, and were so encouraging that
+he believed he had at last found the desired agent,
+provided the effect on human beings corresponded with
+that upon dumb creatures. Boldly and heroically he
+made the necessary experiment upon himself, and on
+September 30, 1846, inhaled ether from a handkerchief
+while shut up in his room and seated in his own
+operating-chair. He speedily lost consciousness, and
+in seven or eight minutes awoke in possession of the
+greatest discovery that had ever been revealed to
+suffering humanity. We can picture the man
+gradually awakening in his chair first, to the consciousness
+of his surroundings and then to the
+consciousness of his great achievement; sitting with
+his physical frame excited by the influence of the drug
+which he had inhaled, and his soul stirred to its
+deepest depth by the expanding thought of the far-reaching
+effects of what he had done.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Twilight came on,&#8221; he said, in subsequently
+relating the event. &#8220;The hour had long passed when
+it was usual for patients to call. I had just resolved to
+inhale the ether again and have a tooth extracted
+under its influence, when a feeble ring was heard at
+the door. Making a motion to one of my assistants
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span>
+who started to answer the bell, I hastened myself to
+the door, where I found a man with his face bound up,
+who seemed to be suffering extremely. &#8216;Doctor,&#8217;
+said he, &#8216;I have a dreadful tooth, but it is so sore I
+cannot summon courage to have it pulled; can&#8217;t you
+mesmerise me?&#8217; I need not say that my heart
+bounded at this question, and that I found it difficult
+to control my feelings, but putting a great constraint
+upon myself I expressed my sympathy, and invited him
+to walk into the office. I examined the tooth, and in
+the most encouraging manner told the poor sufferer
+that I had something better than mesmerism, by
+means of which I could take out his tooth, without
+giving him pain. He gladly consented, and saturating
+my handkerchief with ether I gave it to him to inhale.
+He became unconscious almost immediately. It was
+dark. Dr. Haydon held the lamp. My assistants
+were trembling with excitement, apprehending the
+usual prolonged scream from the patient, while I extracted
+the firmly-rooted bicuspid tooth. I was so much
+agitated that I came near throwing the instrument
+out of the window. But now came a terrible reaction.
+The wrenching of the tooth had failed to rouse him in the
+slightest degree; he remained still and motionless as if
+already in the embrace of death. The terrible thought
+flashed through my mind that he might be dead&mdash;that
+in my zeal to test my new theory, I might have gone
+too far, and sacrificed a human life. I trembled under
+the sense of my responsibility to my Maker, and to my
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span>
+fellowmen. I seized a glass of water and dashed it in
+the man&#8217;s face. The result proved most happy. He
+recovered in a minute, and knew nothing of what had
+occurred. Seeing us all stand around he appeared bewildered.
+I instantly, in as calm a tone as I could
+command, asked, &#8216;Are you ready to have your tooth
+extracted?&#8217; &#8216;Yes,&#8217; he answered, in a hesitating
+voice. &#8216;It is all over,&#8217; I said, pointing to a decayed
+tooth on the floor. &#8216;No,&#8217; he shouted, leaping from
+his chair. The name of the man who thus for the
+first time underwent an operation under anæsthesia
+induced by ether was Eben Frost.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The nature of the agent used by Morton was kept
+secret only a short period; the steps he took to bring
+his discovery before the medical profession would have
+rendered it difficult if not impossible, even if ether had
+not a penetrating tell-tale odour. Morton laid his
+method before one of the surgical staff of the Massachusetts
+General Hospital, Boston, the same institution
+where Wells&#8217;s ill-managed demonstration had taken
+place two years before; he requested, with complete
+confidence, to be allowed to exhibit the powers of his
+agent. The surgeon was sceptical, but wisely consented,
+after having satisfied himself that there was no
+risk to life. A patient suffering from a tumour was
+chosen, and readily consented to act as a subject for
+demonstration. A large crowd of professional men and
+students assembled in the surgical theatre on the morning
+of October 16, 1846, the day chosen for the trial.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span>
+The senior hospital surgeon, Dr. J. Collins Warren,
+was to perform the operation. The spectators, many
+of whom no doubt recollected the failure with laughing-gas,
+were disposed to deride when the appointed hour
+passed and Morton did not appear; but the delay was
+due only to the desire of the dentist to bring a proper
+inhaler, and although the crowd received him with a
+chilling reserve, and the occasion was one fit to try the
+nerve of the strongest, Morton did not lose his presence
+of mind. He promptly anæsthetised the patient,
+and as unconcernedly as does the modern administrator,
+nodded to the surgeon that the patient was ready.
+From the first moment that the knife touched the
+patient, until the operation was concluded, no sound,
+no movement indicated that he was suffering. The
+men who had scoffed once and had come, even the
+surgeon himself, prepared to scoff again, realised the
+success and the wonder of it, and remained to admire.
+&#8220;Gentlemen, this is no humbug,&#8221; exclaimed Dr.
+Warren, as he finished his handiwork. When the
+patient recovered he was questioned again and again,
+but stoutly maintained that he had felt no pain&mdash;absolutely
+none. &#8220;Gilbert Abbott, aged twenty, painter,
+single,&#8221; was the description of the man on whom was
+performed the first surgical operation under the
+influence of ether.</p>
+<p>News of the great success rapidly spread, and the
+experiment was repeated by Morton and others in
+America, and similar work was taken up throughout
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span>
+Europe. It cannot be said that Morton derived much
+benefit from his discovery. Although the greatness of
+it was recognised in his lifetime, and he received
+several honours and presents, he entered into prolonged
+squabbles concerning the discovery which
+worried him into a state of ill-health, ending in his
+death in 1868. A monument was erected over his
+grave by the citizens of Boston, bearing the following
+concise description of his achievement:&mdash;</p>
+<div class='poem w25'><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='center'>&#8220;WILLIAM T. G. MORTON,</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Inventor and revealer of anæsthetic inhalation,</p>
+<p>By whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled;</p>
+<p>Before whom in all time surgery was agony,</p>
+<p>Since whom Science has control of Pain.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>Whilst the discoverer of nitrous-oxide anæsthesia
+was dying from chagrin and inaction, and the revealer
+of anæsthetic inhalation by ether was wasting time
+in unworthy disputes concerning priority, and fruitless
+endeavours to gain pecuniary reward, a bolder than
+either had taken up the work where they had left it,
+with the high object of pursuing it until he had for
+ever established the benefit to humanity which he
+recognised in it. He went straight forwards and
+onwards, strong in his endeavour; undeterred by the
+jeers of the ignorant, the opposition of the prejudiced
+or the attacks of the jealous, with no thought of or
+wish for reward except that which was to come daily
+from the depth of sufferers&#8217; hearts.</p>
+<p>During the Christmas holidays of 1846 Simpson was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span>
+in London, and discussed the new discovery with
+Liston, who was one of the first to operate under ether
+in Great Britain at University College Hospital. The
+great surgeon thought that the chief application of the
+process would be in the practice of rapidly operating
+surgeons; it was at first generally believed that the
+inhalation could be borne for only a brief period.
+Simpson speedily showed that no evil resulted if the
+patient remained under the influence of the vapour for
+hours. In the month of January, 1847, he gained for
+the Edinburgh Medical School the proud honour of
+being the scene of the first use of anæsthetics in
+obstetric practice. In March of the same year he
+published a record of cases of parturition in which he
+had used ether with success; and had a large number
+of copies of his paper printed and distributed far and
+wide at home and abroad, so eager was he to popularise
+amongst the members of his profession the revolutionary
+practice which he introduced. From the day
+on which he first used ether in midwifery until the end
+of his career he constantly used anæsthetics in his
+practice. He quickly perceived, however, the short-comings
+of ether, and having satisfied himself that
+they were unavoidable, he set about his next great step,
+namely, to discover some substance possessing the advantages
+without the disadvantages of ether. In the
+midst of his now immense daily work he gave all his
+spare time, often only the midnight hours, to testing
+upon himself the effect of numerous drugs. With the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span>
+same courage that had filled Morton he sat down
+alone, or with Dr. George Keith and Dr. Matthews
+Duncan, his assistants, to inhale substance after substance,
+often to the real alarm of the household at 52,
+Queen Street. Appeal was made to scientific chemists
+to provide drugs hitherto known only as curiosities of
+the laboratory, and for others that their special knowledge
+might be able to suggest. The experiments
+usually took place in the dining-room in the quiet of
+the evening or the dead of night. The enthusiasts sat
+at the table and inhaled the particular substance under
+trial from tumblers or saucers; but the summer of
+1847 passed away, and the autumn was commenced
+before he succeeded in finding any substance which at
+all fulfilled his requirements. All this time he was
+battling for anæsthesia, which, particularly in its application
+to midwifery, was meeting with what appears
+now as an astonishing amount of opposition, on varying
+grounds from all sorts and conditions of persons; but
+the vigour and power of his advocacy and defence of
+the practice in the days when laughing-gas and ether
+were the only known agents, were as nothing to that
+which he exerted after his own discovery at the end of
+1847.</p>
+<p>The suggestion to try chloroform first came from a
+Mr. Waldie, a native of Linlithgowshire, settled in
+Liverpool as a chemist. It was a &#8220;curious liquid,&#8221;
+discovered and described in 1831 by two chemists,
+Soubeiran and Liebig, simultaneously but independently.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span>
+In 1835 its chemical composition was first
+accurately ascertained by Dumas, the famous French
+chemist. Simpson was apparently not aware that early
+in 1847 another French chemist, Flourens, had drawn
+attention to the effect of chloroform upon animals, or
+he would probably have hastened to use it upon himself
+experimentally, instead of putting away the first
+specimen obtained as unlikely; it was heavy and not
+volatile looking, and less attractive to him than other
+substances. How it finally came to be tried is best
+described in the words of Simpson&#8217;s colleague and
+neighbour, Professor Miller, who used to look in every
+morning at nine o&#8217;clock to see how the enthusiasts
+had fared in the experiments of the previous evening.</p>
+<p>&#8220;Late one evening, it was the 4th of November,
+1847, on returning home after a weary day&#8217;s labour,
+Dr. Simpson with his two friends and assistants, Drs.
+Keith and Duncan, sat down to their somewhat
+hazardous work in Dr. Simpson&#8217;s dining-room.
+Having inhaled several substances, but without much
+effect, it occurred to Dr. Simpson to try a ponderous
+material which he had formerly set aside
+on a lumber-table, and which on account of its
+great weight he had hitherto regarded as of no
+likelihood whatever; that happened to be a small
+bottle of chloroform. It was searched for and recovered
+from beneath a heap of waste paper. And
+with each tumbler newly charged, the inhalers resumed
+their vocation. Immediately an unwonted hilarity
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span>
+seized the party&mdash;they became brighteyed, very
+happy, and very loquacious&mdash;expatiating on the
+delicious aroma of the new fluid. The conversation
+was of unusual intelligence, and quite charmed the
+listeners&mdash;some ladies of the family and a naval
+officer, brother-in-law of Dr. Simpson. But suddenly
+there was a talk of sounds being heard like those of a
+cotton mill louder and louder; a moment more and
+then all was quiet&mdash;and then crash! On awakening
+Dr. Simpson&#8217;s first perception was mental&mdash;&#8216;This is
+far stronger and better than ether,&#8217; said he to himself.
+His second was to note that he was prostrate on the
+floor, and that among the friends about him there was
+both confusion and alarm. Hearing a noise he turned
+round and saw Dr. Duncan beneath a chair&mdash;his jaw
+dropped, his eyes staring, his head bent half under him;
+quite unconscious, and snoring in a most determined
+and alarming manner. More noise still and much
+motion. And then his eyes overtook Dr. Keith&#8217;s feet
+and legs making valorous attempts to overturn the
+supper table, or more probably to annihilate everything
+that was on it. By and by Dr. Simpson having
+regained his seat, Dr. Duncan having finished his uncomfortable
+and unrefreshing slumber, and Dr. Keith
+having come to an arrangement with the table and its
+contents, the <i>sederunt</i> was resumed. Each expressed
+himself delighted with this new agent, and its inhalation
+was repeated many times that night&mdash;one of the
+ladies gallantly taking her place and turn at the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span>
+table&mdash;until the supply of chloroform was fairly
+exhausted.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The lady was Miss Petrie, a niece of Mrs. Simpson&#8217;s;
+she folded her arms across her breast as she inhaled the
+vapour, and fell asleep crying, &#8220;I&#8217;m an angel! Oh,
+I&#8217;m an angel&#8221;! The party sat discussing their
+sensations, and the merits of the substance long
+after it was finished; they were unanimous in
+considering that at last something had been found
+to surpass ether.</p>
+<p>The following morning a manufacturing chemist
+was pressed into service, and had to burn the midnight
+oil to meet Simpson&#8217;s demand for the new substance.
+So great was Simpson&#8217;s midwifery practice that he was
+able to make immediate trial of chloroform, and on
+November 10th he read a paper to the Medico-Chirurgical
+Society, describing the nature of his
+agent, and narrating cases in which he had already
+successfully used it. &#8220;I have never had the pleasure,&#8221;
+he said, &#8220;of watching over a series of better and more
+rapid recoveries; nor once witnessed any disagreeable
+results follow to either mother or child; whilst I have
+now seen an immense amount of maternal pain and
+agony saved by its employment. And I most conscientiously
+believe that the proud mission of the
+physician is distinctly twofold&mdash;namely to alleviate
+human suffering as well as preserve human life.&#8221;
+In a postscript to the same paper he states on
+November 15th that he had already administered
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span>
+chloroform to about fifty individuals without the
+slightest bad result, and gives an account of the
+first surgical cases in which he gave the agent to
+patients of his friends, Professor Miller and Dr.
+Duncan, in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. &#8220;A
+great collection,&#8221; he says, &#8220;of professional gentlemen
+and students witnessed the results, and amongst
+them Professor Dumas, of Paris, the chemist who
+first ascertained and established the chemical composition
+of chloroform. He happened to be passing
+through Edinburgh, and was in no small degree
+rejoiced to witness the wonderful physiological
+effects of a substance with whose chemical history
+his own name was so intimately connected.&#8221; Four
+thousand copies of this paper were sold in a few
+days, and many thousands afterwards.</p>
+<p>It is worthy of mention that, according to a promise,
+Professor Miller had sent for Simpson a few days after
+the discovery to give chloroform to a patient on whom
+he was about to perform a major operation; Simpson,
+however, was unavoidably prevented from attending,
+and Miller began the operation without him&mdash;at the
+first cut of the knife the patient fainted and died. It
+is easy to imagine what a blow to Simpson, and to
+the cause of anæsthesia this would have been had it
+happened while the patient was under chloroform.</p>
+<p>Thus in little more than a year from the date of
+Morton&#8217;s discovery of the powers of ether, Simpson
+had crowned the achievement by the discovery of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span>
+equally wonderful and beneficial powers of chloroform.
+Already he had made two satisfactory answers to
+the question he had early set himself&mdash;first, the application
+of anæsthesia to midwifery practice; and, second,
+the discovery of the properties of the more portable
+and manageable chloroform; the third, and perhaps
+the greatest, the defence of the practice, and the
+beating down of the powerful opposition to anæsthesia
+was yet required to render his reply complete.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_VII_THE_FIGHT_FOR_ANSTHESIA_1847_ONWARDS' id='CHAPTER_VII_THE_FIGHT_FOR_ANSTHESIA_1847_ONWARDS'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>The Fight for Anæsthesia. 1847 onwards</span></span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>His faith in chloroform&mdash;Confused public opinion on the subject&mdash;Personal
+attacks&mdash;Opposition on professional grounds&mdash;His reply&mdash;Opposition
+on moral grounds&mdash;His reply&mdash;Opposition on religious
+grounds&mdash;His reply&mdash;Her Majesty the Queen anæsthetised&mdash;Indiscrete
+supporters&mdash;The Edinburgh teaching of anæsthesia administration&mdash;The
+far-reaching effects of the successful introduction of
+anæsthesia.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Professor Simpson firmly believed that
+he possessed now in chloroform an anæsthetic
+agent &#8220;more portable, more manageable and powerful,
+more agreeable to inhale, and less exciting&#8221; than
+ether, and one giving him &#8220;greater control and command
+over the superinduction of the anæsthetic state.&#8221;
+Fortified by this belief, full of facts relating to the
+subject, and fired with zeal and enthusiasm, he was
+prepared to meet the opposition which from his
+knowledge of human nature he must have anticipated.
+So bravely and so emphatically did he champion the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span>
+cause that he became identified with it in the public
+mind. The revelation of anæsthesia, the discovery of
+chloroform, and the application of anæsthetics to
+surgery as well as to midwifery were attributed to him
+by all classes of the community, not even excepting
+many of his own profession. Chloroform was spoken
+of as if ether had never existed; and chloroform and
+chloroforming displaced the terms anæsthetic and
+anæsthetising in ordinary talk&mdash;such unwieldy terms
+were naturally abandoned when there was the excuse
+that chloroform was universally considered the best
+substance of its class. Simpson made no attempt as
+Morton had done to patent his discovery under a
+fanciful name for his own pecuniary profit; but
+widely spread abroad every particle of knowledge concerning
+it that he possessed, so that every practitioner
+was forthwith enabled to avail himself thereof for the
+benefit of his patients.</p>
+<p>Partly owing to his own enthusiasm and his strong
+belief in the superiority of chloroform over ether, and
+partly owing to the confusion prevailing in general
+circles as to the history of anæsthesia, no small number
+of attacks were directed against Simpson personally
+by those who either were jealous of his achievements,
+or who considered that the part taken by themselves
+or their friends in the establishment of this new era in
+medical science had been slighted or overlooked.
+Simpson took all these as part of the fight into which
+he had entered. His nature was not sensitive to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span>
+such personal attacks; he replied to them, cast
+them off, and went on his way unaffected. He
+handled some of these opponents somewhat severely
+when they accused him of encouraging the public
+belief in him as the discoverer of anæsthesia. It
+is clear to us to-day after anæsthesia has been on
+its trial for fifty years that Simpson magnified the superiority
+of chloroform over ether, and was led by that
+feeling to look on the history of ether as but a stage
+in the history of the greater chloroform. He regarded
+chloroform as the only anæsthetic; his utterances
+betrayed this feeling, and offence was naturally taken
+by the introducers and advocates of ether. His
+opinion of chloroform was shared by the leading
+European surgeons to such an extent in his day that
+shortly after his death Professor Gusserow, of Berlin,
+stated that with a few exceptions almost all over the
+earth nothing else was used to produce anæsthesia but
+chloroform.</p>
+<p>The real fight for anæsthesia was against those who
+found in the practice something which ran contrary
+to their beliefs or principles. There were first those
+who objected on purely <i>medical</i> grounds; secondly,
+those who took exception to it from a <i>moral</i>
+point of view; and thirdly, those who found their
+<i>religious</i> convictions seriously offended by the new
+practice.</p>
+<p>The <i>medical</i> opponents were, perhaps, the most
+powerful; certainly it was they who had first to be
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span>
+won over, for without the support of the profession
+the cause was in danger. It was urged first of all that
+the use of anæsthetics would increase the mortality,
+then very great, of surgical operations, and those who
+took their stand upon this ground were men who had
+at first denied the possibility of making operations
+painless, and had been driven to abandon that opinion
+only by a clear demonstration of the fact. To meet
+this form of opposition he instituted a laborious and
+extensive statistical investigation in order to compare
+the results obtained in hospitals where anæsthetics
+were used with those where the operations were
+performed on patients in the waking state. He took
+care that the reports dealt with the same operations
+under, as nearly as possible, similar conditions in each
+case. He obtained returns from close upon fifty
+hospitals in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and various
+provincial towns. One of the most fatal operations in
+those days, and one dreaded by patient and surgeon
+alike, was amputation of the thigh. In 1845 Professor
+Syme said that the stern evidence of hospital
+statistics showed that the average frequency of death
+after that operation was not less than 60 to 70
+per cent., or above one in every two operated upon.
+Simpson fearlessly collated statistics of this operation
+amongst the others, and proved that when performed
+under anæsthetics amputation of the thigh had its
+mortality reduced to 25 per cent. His figures were
+as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span></div>
+<h3><span class='smcap'>Table of the Mortality of Amputations of the Thigh.</span></h3>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td colspan="2" /><td align="left"><i>Reporter.</i></td><td /><td align="right"><i>No. of Cases.</i></td><td align="right"><i>No. of Deaths.</i></td><td align="right"><i>Percentage of Deaths.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" rowspan="6">Not anæsthetised.</td><td align="left" rowspan="6" style="font-size: 600%">{</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Parisian hospitals</td><td align="left">Malgaigne</td><td align="right">201</td><td align="right">126</td><td align="right">62 in 100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Edinburgh hospitals</td><td align="left">Peacock</td><td align="right">43</td><td align="right">21</td><td align="right">49 in 100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">General collection</td><td align="left">Phillips</td><td align="right">987</td><td align="right">435</td><td align="right">44 in 100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Glasgow hospitals</td><td align="left">Lawrie</td><td align="right">127</td><td align="right">46</td><td align="right">36 in 100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">British hospitals</td><td align="left">Simpson</td><td align="right">284</td><td align="right">107</td><td align="right">38 in 100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Cases on patients in an
+anæsthetised state</td><td align="right">145</td><td align="right">37</td><td align="right">25 in 100</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>He pointed to the above table as a proof that far
+from increasing the mortality of this operation the
+introduction of anæsthetics had already led to a saving
+of from eleven to twenty lives out of every hundred
+cases. He acknowledged that the number of cases he
+had collected (145) was somewhat small from a statistical
+point of view; but he confidently asserted that
+future figures would show greater triumphs. The
+tables of other operations showed similar results,
+and he entered exhaustively into the subject in
+a paper published in 1848. The paper was entitled,
+&#8220;Does Anæsthesia increase or decrease the
+mortality attendant upon surgical operations?&#8221; According
+to his wont, he headed it with a quotation
+from Shakspeare:</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Why doest thou whet thy knife so earnestly?</p>
+<p class='indent2'>... Shylock must be merciful.</p>
+<p>On what compulsion must I? Tell me that!&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>Victorious in this encounter, he turned to those who
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span>
+urged that anæsthetics were responsible for various
+kinds of ills such as a tendency to hæmorrhage, convulsions,
+paralysis, pneumonia, and various kinds of
+inflammatory mischief as well as mental derangement.
+He combated these contentions until the
+end of his career; and not only proved that the objections
+were visionary, but showed that for one of the
+alleged evils formerly often seen after operations, viz.,
+convulsions, chloroform, far from being a cause, was
+one of our most powerful remedies.</p>
+<p>But the professional opponents of anæsthesia were
+most emphatic in the denunciation of its use in midwifery.
+Pain in the process of parturition was, they
+said, &#8220;a desirable, salutary, and conservative manifestation
+of life-force&#8221;: neither its violence nor its continuance
+was productive of injury to the constitution.
+Strong opposition on these grounds came from the
+Dublin School, and with characteristic boldness Simpson
+turned to the statistics of their own lying-in hospital to
+prove his contention that to abolish parturient pain
+was to diminish the peril of the process. Again the
+statistics stood him in good stead; he flourished them
+triumphantly before his opponents, and proceeded
+to deal with those who asserted that the use of
+anæsthetics was accompanied by danger to life. He
+pointed out that, although unquestionably there were
+some dangers connected therewith, they were insignificant
+compared with the dangers in both surgery and
+midwifery which their use averted. Pain itself was a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span>
+danger; shock in surgery was responsible for many
+untimely deaths upon the operating table; by preventing
+these chloroform saved countless lives. His
+arguments were characterised by painstaking thoroughness
+and evidenced wide reading. In addressing
+Professor Meigs, of Philadelphia, he said:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;First, I do believe that if improperly and incautiously
+given, and in some rare idiosyncrasies, ether
+and chloroform may prove injurious or even fatal&mdash;just
+as opium, calomel, and every other powerful
+remedy and strong drug will occasionally do. Drinking
+cold water itself will sometimes produce death.
+&#8216;It is well known,&#8217; says Dr. Taylor, in his excellent
+work on Medical Jurisprudence, &#8216;that there are <i>many</i>
+cases on record in which cold water, swallowed in
+large quantity and in an excited state of the system,
+has led to the destruction of life.&#8217; Should we therefore
+never allay our thirst with cold water? What
+would the disciples of Father Mathew say to this?
+But, secondly, you and others have very unnecessary
+and aggravated fears about the dangers of ether and
+chloroform, and in the course of experience you will
+find these fears to be, in a great measure, perfectly
+ideal and imaginary. But the same fears have, in
+the first instance, been conjured up against almost
+all other innovations in medicine and in the common
+luxuries of life. Cavendish, the secretary to Cardinal
+Wolsey, tells us in his life of that prelate, that when
+the cardinal was banished from London to York
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span>
+by his master&mdash;that regal Robespierre, Henry the
+Eighth&mdash;<i>many</i> of the cardinal&#8217;s servants refused to go
+such an enormous journey&mdash;&#8216;for they were loath to
+abandon their native country, their parents, wives, and
+children.&#8217; The journey which can <i>now</i> be accomplished
+in six hours was considered then a perfect banishment....
+In his Life of Lord Loughborough, John
+Lord Campbell tells us that when he (the biographer)
+first travelled from Edinburgh to London in the mail-coach
+the time had been reduced (from the former
+twelve or fourteen days) to three nights and two days;
+&#8216;but,&#8217; he adds, &#8216;this new and swift travelling from
+the Scots to the English capital was wonderful, and I
+was gravely advised to stop a day at York as several
+passengers who had gone through without stopping
+had died of apoplexy from the rapidity of the motion&#8217;
+(&#8216;Lives of the Lord Chancellors&#8217;). Be assured that
+many of the cases of apoplexy, &amp;c., &amp;c., alleged to
+arise from ether and chloroform, have as veritable an
+etiology as this apoplexy from rapid locomotion, and
+that a few years hence they will stand in the same
+light in which we now look back upon the apoplexy
+from travelling ten miles an hour. And as to the
+supposed great moral and physical evils and injuries
+arising from the use of ether and chloroform, they will
+by and by, I believe, sound much in the same way
+as the supposed great moral and physical evils and
+injuries arising from using hackney coaches, which
+were seriously described by Taylor, the water-poet,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span>
+two or three centuries ago when these coaches were
+introduced. Taylor warned his fellow-creatures to
+avoid them, otherwise &#8216;they would find their bodies
+tossed, tumbled, rumbled, and jumbled&#8217; without mercy.
+&#8216;The coach,&#8217; says he, &#8216;is a close hypocrite, for it hath
+a cover for knavery; they (the passengers) are carried
+back to back in it like people surprised by pirates, and
+moreover it maketh men imitate sea-crabs in being
+drawn sideways, and altogether it is a dangerous
+carriage for the commonwealth.&#8217; Then he proceeds
+to call them &#8216;hell-carts,&#8217; &amp;c., and vents upon them a
+great deal of other abuse very much of the same kind
+and character as that lavished against anæsthetics in
+our own day.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Following out the same line of reasoning he brought
+to the minds of medical opponents how the introducers
+of such useful drugs as mercury, antimony, and cinchona
+bark had met with now long-forgotten but stubborn
+opposition; and he reminded surgeons of the stern
+obstinacy with which the introduction of the ligature
+of arteries had been long objected to and the barbarous
+method of arresting bleeding with red-hot irons had
+been preferred. But in the history of the discovery
+and introduction of vaccination by Jenner he found a
+strong parallel; and he wrote a pregnant article to
+prove that mere opinion and prejudgments were not
+sufficient to settle the question of the propriety or
+impropriety of anæsthetic agents, illustrating it from
+the story of vaccination. The result of vaccination
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span>
+had been to save during the half century since its
+introduction a number of lives in England alone equal
+to the whole existing population of Wales; and in
+Europe during the same period it had preserved a
+number of lives greater than the whole existing
+population of Great Britain. And yet Jenner, when
+he first announced his discovery, had encountered the
+most determined opposition on the part of many of
+his professional brethren, who ridiculed and bitterly
+denounced both him and his discovery; whilst
+ignorant laymen announced that smallpox was
+ordained by heaven and vaccination was a daring and
+profane violation of holy religion. He pointed out
+that these objections had been slowly and surely
+crushed out of existence by accumulated facts, and
+predicted that the ultimate decision concerning anæsthesia
+would come to be based, not upon impressions,
+opinions, and prejudices, but upon the evidence of &#8220;a
+sufficient body of accurate and well-ascertained facts.&#8221;
+To these facts, as has been indicated, he subsequently
+successfully appealed.</p>
+<p>Those who objected to anæsthesia on <i>moral</i> grounds
+directed their attacks chiefly against its use in midwifery.
+They not only condemned that application
+as iniquitous, but went the length of asserting that
+the birth of past myriads without it proved how
+unnecessary it was, and that Nature conducted the
+whole process of birth unaided in a greatly superior
+manner. The pains associated with parturition
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span>
+were actually beneficial, they said. Simpson answered
+this by showing that the proper use of anæsthetics
+shortened parturition, and by diminishing the amount
+of pain led to more rapid and more perfect recoveries.
+The leading exponent of the Dublin School of Midwifery
+at that time foolishly wrote that he did not
+think any one in Dublin had as yet used anæesthetics
+in midwifery; that the feeling was very strong against
+its use in ordinary cases, merely to avert the ordinary
+amount of pain, which the Almighty had seen fit&mdash;and
+most wisely, no doubt&mdash;to allot to natural labour;
+and in this feeling he (the writer) most heartily concurred.
+Simpson&#8217;s private comment on this remarkable
+epistle at once showed his opinion of it, and ridiculed
+the objection out of existence. He skilfully parodied
+the letter thus:&mdash;&#8220;I do not believe that any one in
+Dublin has as yet used a carriage in locomotion; the
+feeling is very strong against its use in ordinary progression,
+merely to avert the ordinary amount of
+fatigue which the Almighty has seen fit&mdash;and most
+wisely, no doubt&mdash;to allot to natural walking; and in
+this feeling I heartily and entirely concur.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He twitted the surgeons who opposed him with
+their sudden discovery, now that anæsthetics were
+introduced, that there was something really beneficial
+in the pain and agony caused by their dreaded knife.
+Such a contention contraverted his cherished principle
+that the function of the medical man was not only to
+prolong life, but also to alleviate human sufferings.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span>
+He quoted authorities of all times to show that pain
+had been always abhorred by physicians and surgeons,
+commencing with a reference to Galen&#8217;s aphorism&mdash;&#8220;<i>Dolor
+dolentibus inutile est</i>&#8221; (&#8220;pain is useless to the
+pained&#8221;); citing Ambroise Paré, who said that pain
+ought to be assuaged because nothing so much dejected
+the powers of the patient; and, finally, reproducing
+the words of modern authors, who asserted
+that, far from being conducive to well-being, pain
+exhausted the principle of life, and in itself was frequently
+both dangerous and destructive. He brought
+forward a collection of cases where in former days
+patients had died on the operating-table, even before
+the surgeon had begun his work, so great was the
+influence of the mere fear of pain; and reminded those
+who attributed occasional deaths on the operating-table
+to the influence of the anæsthetic of the
+numerous cases in bygone days where death occurred
+whilst the surgeon was at work. He recalled also
+how the great surgeon of St. Thomas&#8217;s Hospital,
+Cheselden, had abhorred the pain which he caused in
+the process of his work, and longed for some means
+for its prevention. &#8220;No one,&#8221; said Cheselden, &#8220;ever
+endured more anxiety and sickness before an operation&#8221;
+than himself.</p>
+<p>Simpson did not forget to look at the subject from
+the patient&#8217;s point of view, and reproduced the letter
+from an old patient, which has been already quoted
+(Chapter VI.).</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span></div>
+<p>The soldier and sailor, brave unto heroism in
+facing the enemy, never fearing the death which
+stared them in the face in its most horrible form
+whilst answering the call of duty, would quail like
+children at the mere thought of submitting to the
+deliberate knife of the surgeon. Were quibbles
+about the efficacy of pain to stand in the way of the
+merciful prevention of such suffering by the process of
+anæsthetisation?</p>
+<p>Those who opposed him with this curious idea,
+that pain after all was beneficial, were some of
+them men of no mean standing in the profession.
+Gull, Bransby Cooper, and Nunn were amongst those
+whom he had to silence. After replying to their
+arguments <i>seriatim</i> with all his polemic power, he
+referred them once more to the evidence of facts
+and of facts alone as set forth by his statistics. Had
+he lived but a twelvemonth longer than he did he
+would have been able to conjure up a picture of the
+incalculable amount of suffering prevented by the
+eighteen hundred pounds of chloroform which were
+forwarded to the rival armies from one firm of
+chemists alone during the Franco-Prussian war; happily
+for the wounded within and around Paris, there was
+then no longer any doubt as to the propriety of
+employing anæsthetics.</p>
+<p>The <i>religious</i> objections to the use of anæsthetics
+could scarcely be met with statistics. Foolish as they
+now appear to us after the lapse of time, and with the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span>
+practice they attempted to repel universally adopted,
+they were nevertheless urged in good faith by clergy
+and laity of various denominations. The same kind
+of bigotry had met the introduction of vaccination,
+and Simpson himself remembered how many people
+had opposed the emancipation of the negroes on the
+ground that they were the lineal descendants of Ham,
+of whom it was said &#8220;a servant of servants shall he be
+unto his brethren.&#8221; Sir Walter Scott reminds us, in
+&#8220;Old Mortality,&#8221; of the spirit which met the introduction
+of fanners to separate the chaff from the corn,
+which displaced the ancient method of tossing the
+corn in the air upon broad shovels. Headrigg reproved
+Lady Bellenden for allowing the new process to
+be used on her farm, &#8220;thus impiously thwarting the
+will of Divine Providence by raising a wind for your
+leddyship&#8217;s ain particular use by human art, instead of
+soliciting it by prayer or waiting patiently for whatever
+dispensation of wind Providence was pleased to send
+upon the sheeling hill.&#8221;</p>
+<p>To-day in South Africa the same spirit is seen.
+Honest countryfolk of European descent are earnestly
+counselled by their spiritual advisers to submit patiently
+to the plague of locusts on the ground that it comes
+as a punishment from Providence. These worthy
+men stolidly witness their cornfields and their grass
+lands being eaten bare before their eyes in a few
+hours, whilst their more enlightened neighbours,
+brought up in another faith, resort with success to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span>
+all sorts of artifices to ward off the destructive little
+invaders.</p>
+<p>It is pleasant to be able to record that Dr. Chalmers,
+one of the heroes of Scots religious history, not only
+countenanced chloroform by witnessing operations
+performed under it in the Royal Infirmary, but when
+requested to deal in a magazine article with the
+theological aspect of anæesthesia refused on the ground
+that the question had no theological aspect, and advised
+Simpson and his friends to take no heed of the &#8220;small
+theologians&#8221; who advocated such views. This was
+futile advice to give to one of Professor Simpson&#8217;s
+controversial propensities; he entered with keen enjoyment
+into the fray with these &#8220;religious&#8221; opponents.
+His famous pamphlet, entitled, &#8220;Answer to the
+Religious Objections advanced against the employment
+of Anæesthetic Agents in Midwifery and Surgery,&#8221;
+fought his enemies with their own weapons by appealing
+with consummate skill to Scripture for authority
+for the practice. The paper was headed with two
+scriptural verses:&mdash;&#8220;For every creature of God is
+good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with
+thanksgiving&#8221; (1 Timothy iv. 4). &#8220;Therefore to
+him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him
+it is sin&#8221; (James iv. 17).</p>
+<p>The principal standpoint of the religious opponents
+was the primeval curse upon womanhood to be found
+in Genesis. Simpson swept the ground from under his
+opponents&#8217; feet by reference to and study of the original
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span>
+Hebrew text. The word translated&mdash;&#8220;sorrow&#8221; (&#8220;I
+will greatly multiply thy sorrow ... in sorrow shalt
+thou bring forth&#8221;)&mdash;was the same as that rendered as
+&#8220;sorrow&#8221; in the curse applied to man (&#8220;in sorrow
+shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life&#8221;). Not
+only did the Hebrew word thus translated sorrow
+really mean labour, toil, or physical exertion; but in
+other parts of the Bible an entirely different Hebrew
+word was used to express the actual pain incident to
+parturition. The contention, then, that sorrow in
+the curse meant pain was valueless. Chloroform relieved
+the real pain not referred to in the curse,
+whereas it had no effect upon the sorrow or physical
+exertion.</p>
+<p>If, however, the curse was to be taken literally in
+its application to woman as these persons averred, and
+granting for the moment that sorrow did mean
+pain, their position was entirely illogical. If one part
+of the curse was to be interpreted literally, so must be
+the other parts, and this would have a serious effect of
+a revolutionary nature upon man and the human race
+all over the face of the earth. Literally speaking, the
+curse condemned the farmer who pulled up his thorns
+and thistles, as well as the man who used horses or
+oxen, water-power, or steam-traction to perform the
+work by which he earned his bread; for was he not
+thereby saving the sweat of his face?</p>
+<p>Pushed further, the same argument rendered these
+contentions more absurd and untenable. Man was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span>
+condemned to die&mdash;&#8220;dust thou art and unto dust thou
+shalt return.&#8221; What right had the physician or
+surgeon to use his skill to prolong life, at the same
+time that he conscientiously abstained from the use
+of anæsthetics on the ground that they obviated pain
+sent by the Deity? Nay, more; sin itself was the
+result of the Fall; was not the Church herself
+erroneously labouring to turn mankind from sin?</p>
+<p>In a truer and more serious religious spirit he
+reminded his foolish opponents of the Christian dispensation,
+and pointed out how the employment of
+anæsthesia was in strict consonance with the glorious
+spirit thereof.</p>
+<p>Some persons broadly stated that the new process
+was unnatural; even these he condescended to
+answer. &#8220;How unnatural,&#8221; exclaimed an Irish lady,
+&#8220;for you doctors in Edinburgh to take away the
+pains of your patients.&#8221; &#8220;How unnatural,&#8221; said he,
+&#8220;it is for you to have swam over from Ireland to
+Scotland against wind and tide in a steam-boat.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A son of De Quincey in his graduation thesis
+humorously supported Professor Simpson. He argued
+that the unmarried woman who opposed anæsthetics
+on the ground that her sex was condemned by the
+curse to suffer pains, broke the command herself &#8220;in
+four several ways, according to the following tabular
+statement&#8221;:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;1. She has no conception.</p>
+<p>2. She brings forth no children.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span></p>
+<p>3. Her desire is not to her husband.</p>
+<p>4. The husband does not rule over her.&#8221;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>De Quincey himself supported his son in a letter
+appended to the thesis thus:&mdash;&#8220;If pain when carried
+to the stage which we call agony or intense struggle
+amongst vital functions brings with it some danger
+to life, then it will follow that knowingly to reject
+a means of mitigating or wholly cancelling the danger
+now that such means has been discovered and tested,
+travels on the road towards suicide. It is even worse
+than an ordinary movement in that direction, because
+it makes God an accomplice, through the Scriptures,
+in this suicidal movement, nay, the primal instigator
+to it, by means of a supposed curse interdicting the
+use of any means whatever (though revealed by Himself)
+for annulling that curse.&#8221;</p>
+<p>But the Bible furnished Simpson with the most
+powerful argument of all in Genesis ii. 21, where it is
+written: &#8220;And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to
+fall upon Adam; and he slept; and He took one of
+his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof.&#8221; He
+strengthened his position by explaining that the word
+rendered &#8220;deep sleep&#8221; might more correctly be
+translated &#8220;coma&#8221; or &#8220;lethargy.&#8221; He had taken
+the full measure of his opponents when he answered
+them with this quotation; it was a reply characteristic
+of the man, and completely defeated these self-constituted
+theologians with their own weapons. They
+had attacked him as a man of science, and found
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span>
+that his knowledge of the Scriptures excelled their own.
+He did not fail to read these people a lesson, and point
+out the harm done to true religion by such conduct
+and arguments as theirs, reminding them that if God
+had willed pain to be irremovable no possible device
+of man could ever have removed it.</p>
+<p>Such was the great fight&mdash;the fight for anæsthesia&mdash;which
+Simpson fought and won. He was the one
+man who by his own individual effort established the
+practice of anæsthesia, while Morton has the honour
+of being the one man without whom anæsthesia might
+have remained unknown. Such was the opposition encountered,
+and such was the timidity of his professional
+brethren, that but for Simpson&#8217;s courageous efforts it
+would have been the work of years to bring about what
+it was granted to him to accomplish in a brief period;
+if fear, ridicule, contempt, and bigotry had not perhaps
+sunk the new practice into oblivion. Of the hundreds
+who are daily mercifully brought under the influence
+of chloroform and ether, few are aware what they
+owe to Simpson, even if they know how great is the
+suffering which they are spared.</p>
+<p>Simpson felt that the victory was indeed complete
+when in April, 1853, he received a letter from Sir
+James Clark, physician in ordinary to Her Majesty,
+informing him that the Queen had been brought
+under the influence of chloroform, and had expressed
+herself as greatly pleased with the result. It was at
+the birth of the late Prince Leopold that Her Majesty
+set her subjects this judicious example.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span></div>
+<p>Much trouble to the cause was occasioned by
+enthusiasts who administered chloroform with more
+zeal than discretion, and without any study of the
+principles laid down by Simpson. As a result of
+imperfect trials, some persons went the length of
+saying that there were people whom it was impossible
+to anæsthetise at all, and others who could be only
+partially anæsthetised. Wrong methods of administration
+were used. Simpson patiently corrected these,
+and carefully instructed his students, so that the young
+graduates of Edinburgh University carried his teaching
+and practice into all parts of the world. Syme also
+took up the cause, and valuable work was done in
+London by Snow, and later by Clover. The teaching
+of Simpson and Syme led to such successful results
+that their methods are followed by the Edinburgh
+School to this day practically unaltered. So satisfactory
+an agent is chloroform in Edinburgh hands,
+that other anæsthetics are in that city but rarely called
+into requisition. All the world over it is the anæsthetic
+in which the general practitioner places his
+trust.</p>
+<p>Having seen what Simpson did for anæsthesia, we
+may briefly review what anæsthesia has done for
+humanity. That it has entirely abolished the pain
+attendant upon surgery is easily recognised by the
+profession and patients alike. The patient never begs
+for mercy nowadays; he dreads the anæsthetic more
+than the knife; he has no anxiety as to whether he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span>
+will feel pain or not, but rather as to whether he will
+come round when the operation is over; happily
+after one experience he realises that his fears were
+unfounded, and, if need be, will submit cheerfully
+to a second administration.</p>
+<p>The horrors of the operating-room referred to in
+the preceding chapter were vanquished with the pain;
+the surgeon has no longer to steel himself for the
+task as formerly, to wear a stern aspect and adopt a
+harsh manner. The patient has no longer to be held
+down by assistants; instead of having to be dragged
+unwillingly to the operating-table&mdash;a daily occurrence
+sickening to the hearts of fellow-patients and students,
+while it served only to harden the surgeon and the
+experienced old nurse of those days&mdash;he will walk
+quietly to the room, or submit patiently to be carried
+there, and at a word from the surgeon prepare</p>
+<div class='poem w20'><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='center'>&#8220;... to storm</p>
+<p>The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform,</p>
+<p>The drunken dark, the little death-in-life.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>The operation is no longer a race against time;
+order, method, cleanliness, and silence prevail, where
+there was formerly disorder, bustle, confusion, dirt,
+and long-drawn shrieks. Nothing illustrates better
+the progress of surgery than a picture of the operating-room
+in the first decade placed beside that of an
+operating theatre in one of our leading hospitals in
+this the last decade of the nineteenth century. In
+the quiet of the patient, in the painlessness of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span>
+operation, in the calm deliberation of the operator,
+and the methodical order of all around him, in the
+respectful silence that prevails in the room so soon
+as the patient is laid on the table, we see the direct
+results of the introduction of anæsthetics. But there
+are other great, if less direct, results, each making its
+presence known to the professional spectator. By
+anæsthesia successful operations previously unheard of
+and unthought of were made possible after the
+principle of antiseptic surgery had been established; by
+anæsthesia experimental research, which has led to
+numerous beneficent results in practical surgery and
+medicine, was made possible. Its introduction is an
+achievement of which the Anglo-Saxon race may well
+be proud. Wells, Morton, and Simpson are its heroes.
+The United States has by far the greater share of the
+honour of its discovery; but to Scotland is due the
+glory which comes from the victorious fight. No
+event in surgery up to 1847 had had such far-reaching
+effects. Simpson himself looked forward to the discovery
+of some agent, better than both chloroform
+and ether; and it is still possible that there may be an
+even greater future in store for anæsthesia than was
+ever dreamt of in his philosophy.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_VIII_HOME_LIFECONTROVERSIES' id='CHAPTER_VIII_HOME_LIFECONTROVERSIES'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>Home Life&mdash;Controversies</span></span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>The foundations of his fame; Comparison with Boerhaave&mdash;Family
+letters&mdash;Home amusements&mdash;Affection for children&mdash;And for
+animals&mdash;Puck&mdash;Holidays&mdash;Wide area of practice&mdash;&#8220;The arrows
+of malignancy&#8221;&mdash;Squabbles&mdash;Hom&oelig;opathy&mdash;Mesmerism&mdash;Refuses
+to leave Edinburgh.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Great as was Simpson&#8217;s contemporary fame,
+the chief part of it had its origin in his
+indescribable personal power over his fellows, and in
+his inexhaustible energy. When to these was added
+the reputation won by the discovery of chloroform&#8217;s
+anæsthetic properties, he stood not only as the most
+famous physician of his day, but also as a man marked
+out for posthumous fame. The personal characteristics
+of the man were speedily forgotten after his
+death, save by those who had been brought under
+their influence; the marked prominence given to
+Simpson and the &#8220;discovery of chloroform&#8221; in the
+numerous recent reviews of Queen Victoria&#8217;s reign on
+the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, indicates that it
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span>
+is by chloroform that Simpson will ever be remembered.
+His lasting reputation depends on this
+work, not upon the characteristics which made him
+famous in the judgment of his contemporaries. The
+only physician in comparatively modern times, whose
+reputation approached Simpson&#8217;s in magnitude was
+Hermann Boerhaave (1668 to 1738), the Dutch
+physician, whose fame and influence during his
+own lifetime were immense. Boerhaave&#8217;s leading
+characteristics greatly resembled Simpson&#8217;s: he had
+an enormous capacity for acquiring information,
+and a wonderful facility for imparting instruction to
+others; his energy and industry were indefatigable,
+and his memory prodigious. He taught from separate
+chairs in Leyden the Theory of Medicine, the Practice
+of Medicine, Botany, Chemistry, and Clinical Medicine,
+and at the same time carried on his large practice.
+Patients of both sexes flocked to him from all quarters
+of the globe, and he is said to have accumulated from
+his practice a fortune of £200,000 in five and thirty
+years. Although his treatment and method were,
+according to our modern knowledge, unscientific,
+his success in practice was as great as Simpson&#8217;s; it
+sprang from the same cause; a wonderful magnetic
+personal influence, which commanded confidence and
+faith, so that he succeeded with the same possibly quite
+simple means which were fruitless in the hands of
+others. In his day all Europe rang with Boerhaave&#8217;s
+name. To-day he is practically unknown. His books
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span>
+are antiquated, and if known, are neglected by
+modern physicians. He achieved nothing of lasting
+benefit to humanity. His fate, at least so far as the
+public is concerned, would undoubtedly have been
+Simpson&#8217;s, in spite of his obstetric and gynæcological
+work, had it not been for the discovery of
+chloroform.</p>
+<p>The increased fame and greatly increased professional
+income which followed the successful struggle
+for anæsthesia did not affect Simpson&#8217;s homely
+characteristics. He found time in the midst of it
+all to enjoy the pleasures of home in the society of
+those he loved best, and of intimate friends. He
+took a keen delight in quite the smallest enjoyments
+of the home circle. A characteristic letter was
+written to his wife in the summer of 1849; she had
+gone with the children to the Isle of Man; he told
+her the great and small events of his daily life:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;Delighted to hear from you that all were so well.
+Everything goes on nicely here. I have been looking
+out for a headache (but keep excellently well), for I
+have been working very busily, and scarcely with
+enough of sleep. Yesterday <i>beat</i> (as Clark writes it)
+any day I ever yet saw in the house. Did not get out
+till half-past four, and the drawing-room actually filled
+beyond the number of chairs and seats! Have had a
+capital sleep, and got up to look at the ducks; but
+none laying this morning, so I write instead. To-day
+I have a fancy to run out to Bathgate, and I think I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span>
+will.... Yesterday dined with Miller, and Williamson,
+the Duke of Buccleuch&#8217;s huntsman, enlightened us
+about dogs. Miller and I go to Hamilton Palace on
+Saturday.... My ducks won&#8217;t lay any more eggs,
+at which I feel very chagrined.... Two salmon
+came as presents last week. I gave one to Mrs.
+Bennet. We are beginning a new batch of examinations
+at the college. <i>Such</i> a sleep as I had yesterday
+morning! I came home by the last Glasgow train,
+<i>very</i> tired. Tom came to waken me at eight, but I
+snored so that he didn&#8217;t. He called me at half-past
+nine. I don&#8217;t think I had stirred from the moment I
+lay down. This morning I have been reading in bed
+since six. I did not rise till now (half-past seven),
+because there was no duck laying.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In another letter written on the same occasion he
+says:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&#8220;... Tell Davie I expect a letter from him.
+Say to Walter that yesterday Carlo jumped into the
+carriage after me and saw with me several patients.
+He usually mounted a chair at the side of each bed
+and looked in. But Mrs. S. gave him too much
+encouragement. He leaped into bed altogether and
+tramped upon a blister! which was very painful.&#8221;</p>
+<p>It was his custom to keep open house at breakfast
+and luncheon time; but the evening meal was, as a
+rule, reserved so that he might see and enjoy his own
+family and intimates. He lived exceedingly plainly
+himself; he did not smoke; his drink was water:
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span>
+but he delighted in setting a goodly repast before his
+guests. He loved a romp with his children, and
+spared an occasional hour from the afternoon for that
+enjoyment. The same energy entered into his play
+that was seen in his work. A craze ran through
+fashionable circles in the fifties for <i>tableaux vivants</i>,
+and was taken up by the Simpson household. He
+entered with spirit into the new amusement, perhaps
+more keenly because he saw an opportunity of combining
+in such representations instruction with amusement.
+Historical personages and scenes were represented,
+as well as illustrations of poetry and fiction.
+With his infective enthusiasm he pressed poets and
+painters, grave and gay, into service, and there is a
+record of one highly successful entertainment at 52,
+Queen Street, in 1854, to which young and old alike
+were invited. On this occasion most of the scenes
+represented serious events in Scots history, but Simpson
+himself seems to have supplied a little comedy.
+Sandwiched between a scene of &#8220;Flora Macdonald
+watching Prince Charlie&#8221; and one of &#8220;Rebecca and
+Eleazar at the Well&#8221; came that of &#8220;The Babes in
+the Wood.&#8221; Simpson and a professional colleague
+disported themselves as the Babes, and appeared sucking
+oranges and dressed as children&mdash;short dresses,
+pinafores, frilled drawers, white socks, and children&#8217;s
+shoes. They wandered about a while, and then lay
+weeping down to die to an accompaniment of roars of
+laughter and to the great delight of the juveniles. It
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span>
+is but a small incident to chronicle, but it shows in his
+home life the great physician who was beloved by
+thousands. His deep sympathies made him delight
+in the society of children. As years increased, and
+with them work became overwhelming and worries
+and troubles persistent, he appreciated more and more
+the refreshment of a frolic with his children. He
+echoed Longfellow&#8217;s pure words:&mdash;</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Come to me, oh ye children,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>For I hear you at your play,</p>
+<p>And the questions that perplexed me</p>
+<p class='indent2'>Have vanished quite away.</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='dotwide'>. . . . . . . . . .</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>For what are all our contrivings,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>And the wisdom of our books,</p>
+<p>When compared with your caresses</p>
+<p class='indent2'>And the gladness of your looks.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>His affectionate disposition and kindly manner gained
+the devotion of his many child patients; and his own
+family bereavements made him a sympathetic physician
+and friend to many a sorrowing mother. There was
+no cant or affectation in his sympathy; it grew out of
+his large heart.</p>
+<p>Animals also he was fond of and gentle to, as we
+know from the history of the dogs who successively
+reigned in the household, so charmingly given to us
+by his daughter. One episode in the life of Puck, a
+black and tan terrier more intelligent than &#8220;breedy,&#8221;
+deserves repetition. The dog had accompanied the
+Professor and some of his children into the country
+one afternoon on an expedition to dig for antiquarian
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span>
+relics. &#8220;After tea Puck, seeing every one carrying
+something to the station, demanded the honour of
+relieving his master of a <i>Lancet</i>, and went off with
+his small burden looking very important.... At the
+station the dog was missing. All got into their places
+but Puck. &#8216;I will follow in the next train,&#8217; said
+the Professor; &#8216;Puck is too dear a little friend to
+lose....&#8217; All he found of Puck was a muddy
+<i>Lancet</i>, and the last that had been seen of the old dog
+was that he was pushing his way through a crowd of
+idle colliers, where it was supposed his energies had
+been so engrossed in guarding the <i>Lancet</i> that he had
+lost sight of his party.... His master stayed there
+until next morning, and some remembered afterwards
+how Puck&#8217;s loss gave them another evening&#8217;s talk with
+one they loved, though he broke in on the reminiscences
+with &#8216;I wonder where little Puck is,&#8217; or &#8216;Is
+that his bark?&#8217; No Puck came to demand entrance,
+and hope of his return was given up after three days
+passing without news of him. His master was thinking
+of the sorrowful letter he would have to write to
+Puck&#8217;s companions when late one night, as he paced
+wearily up and down the room, he thought he heard a
+faint bark. There had been a great deal of listening
+of late for the little dog&#8217;s bark; but it seemed vain to
+think of Puck&#8217;s retracing his steps through an unknown
+country for so many miles. Still the Professor
+opened the door and called. Up the area steps something
+did limp into the hall. That it was Puck
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span>
+seemed doubtful at first, for he was quick and bright,
+and this animal was a lame ball of mud hardly able
+to crawl. The bright eyes, however, were Puck&#8217;s;
+and he confirmed his identity by exerting his remaining
+energies to give one leap gratefully to kiss the
+friendly face that bent over him.... His truant play-fellows
+received a long letter from their father telling
+them of Puck&#8217;s adventure and imagining Puck&#8217;s feelings
+and trials through his long wanderings....
+That letter always recalls Puck and his never-resting
+master bending over his desk, despite press of business,
+to send the news to Puck&#8217;s companions.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Simpson looked no further than his own nursery
+and circle of close friends for the refreshment and
+recreation which nature demanded in the course of
+his busy daily life. But holidays were necessary
+sometimes. He exhibited all the aversion of an
+enthusiastically busy man to leaving his work, but
+would yield sometimes to the solicitations of friends
+and would more readily leave his patients for a
+time if a prospect was held out of some interesting
+archæological research to be indulged in. In 1850 he
+suffered from an abscess, caused by blood-poisoning
+contracted during professional work. At the request
+of his friends Professor Syme was called in, somewhat
+to the chagrin of Simpson&#8217;s old friend and colleague,
+Miller. It is interesting to note that in spite of the
+recent controversy on anæsthetics, Montgomery of
+Dublin, who had keenly opposed him, was amongst
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span>
+the first to write a sympathetic note on hearing of his
+illness; although dissenting from some of Simpson&#8217;s
+professional utterances, Montgomery was influenced
+by the Professor&#8217;s personality to respect him as a man
+and a worker.</p>
+<p>After this illness Simpson took a rapid run round
+the Continent, visiting those cities where anything
+professional was to be picked up. As he expressed
+it himself he &#8220;scampered&#8221; round the Universities,
+Museums, and Hospitals, seeing and hearing all that
+was to be seen and heard. He stowed away the
+newly acquired knowledge in the recesses of his
+mighty brain, and hastened on to the next place of
+interest before his companions had gained their breath
+sufficiently to regard with intelligent interest the
+objects he had already left behind. In Paris, on
+the occasion of one of his flying visits into a
+hospital, he was present at an operation, unknown
+to the surgeon, in which chloroform was used not
+only as a preventive of pain, but also for its remedial
+effect; after the operation the surgeon addressed
+his students upon the subject of chloroform, and
+Simpson had the pleasure of listening to a hearty
+eulogy of it. When, at the end, he handed in his
+card, the operator&#8217;s delight was genuine and effusive,
+and the students enthusiastically appreciated the somewhat
+dramatic scene. On such occasions when he
+had to submit to the embraces of delighted foreign
+scientists, the exuberant manner in which they kissed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span>
+him was not to his liking; even the remote strain of
+French blood in his own veins did not help him to
+enjoy the Continental mode of salutation. All over
+Europe his name was honoured and revered. It is
+said that when in later years an Edinburgh citizen
+was presented at the Court of Denmark the King
+remarked, &#8220;You come from Edinburgh? Ah! Sir
+Simpson was of Edinburgh!&#8221;</p>
+<p>The last trip to the Continent, indeed his last real
+holiday, was taken in 1868, when he ran over to
+Rome. So public was the life he led, such matters
+of interest to his fellow-countrymen were his comings
+and goings, that the <i>Scotsman</i> newspaper chronicled
+his doings, relating the sights and places of interest
+which he visited, and noting that his professional
+services were taken advantage of by many Roman
+citizens during the few days that he was there; and
+that if time had permitted a public reception would
+have been given to him. In all his foreign trips his
+object was to learn, not to teach; he followed Sir
+Isaac Newton&#8217;s advice to Ashton, and let his discourse
+be more in queries than in assertions or disputings.
+He took care neither to seem much wiser nor much
+more ignorant than his company.</p>
+<p>Sometimes feeling the need of rest himself he would
+take one or perhaps three days for a rapid run to the
+Lakes, or would spend another in the country unearthing
+some antiquarian object. It was always a pleasure
+to him to visit Bathgate, where his uncle and friend
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span>
+Alexander had latterly resigned the baker&#8217;s business and
+taken up the <i>rôle</i> of banker. One of his favourite resorts
+was a small house called Viewbank which he had taken,
+situated on the shores of the Firth of Forth. Here
+he was close to the fishing village of Newhaven; the
+fisher folks&mdash;the men and the picturesquely attired
+&#8220;fish-wives&#8221;&mdash;a sturdy and original set of people,
+were a great interest to him. They knew him
+well both as an occasional visitor and as the good
+physician.</p>
+<p>One of his letters written in 1856 gives an indication
+of the wide area over which his services were requisitioned
+and rendered.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p class='ralign'>&#8220;<i>Sunday.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;I write this at Viewbank, which is very pretty
+this afternoon, but where I have not been for a week
+or more. This year I have not yet had one single
+holiday, and scarcely expect one now. I have had
+many long runs during the past few months. I have
+been often up in England, professionally, during the
+summer; once as far as Brighton seeing a consumptive
+case; once at Scarboro&#8217; where my wife went with
+me; once or twice in London where I saw the
+Queen; once at Ambleside. I long and weary for
+a <i>real</i> jaunt without a sick patient lying at the end of
+it. And I had a great fancy to run from Manchester
+to Douglas and send all the patients far enough; I
+have been too hard worked to write, but I <i>must</i> write
+one or two papers now. Queen Street has been a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span>
+little hotel during the summer&mdash;always some sick
+lady or another sleeping in it, sometimes several at
+night.&#8221;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Even on these professional journeys he found time
+to examine objects of interest in the neighbourhood;
+or if he was unable to leave the immediate proximity
+of his patient, he brought pen and paper to the
+bedside and worked while he waited; thus he
+economised time as he advised his students always
+to do. It is doubtful if any one less great than
+Simpson would have ever been allowed to labour thus
+by a sufferer&#8217;s bedside; indeed even he was not always
+permitted to do so. It is recorded that, at least, one
+lady rose hastily and seized his pen so that he was
+obliged to desist.</p>
+<p>The striking form with which Nature had endowed
+him, became more remarkable when affected by years,
+work, and domestic afflictions. Though of medium
+height his presence, even beside typically large-built
+and large-boned fellow-countrymen, was never insignificant.
+His features, overhung by his massive
+forehead, surrounded by the long and thick hair,
+spoke his character. Firm, concentrated mouth
+and piercing eyes, when his mind was fixed on a
+scientific or practical object. A soft, womanly tenderness
+about the lips, and a genial, sympathetic emotion
+in his deep-set eyes when aroused by an object of pity
+or pleasure. His hand was &#8220;broad and powerful, but
+the fingers were pointed and specially sensitive of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span>
+touch.&#8221; To see him was to see one of the sights of
+the modern Athens. His features are familiar to us
+to-day as one of the ring of brilliant, intellectual faces
+forming a frame to the picture of Queen Victoria
+in this the year of her Diamond Jubilee&mdash;a year of
+triumphant retrospection, unprecedented in the history
+of nations.</p>
+<p>It was impossible that a man holding Simpson&#8217;s
+position, engaged in his work, and possessed of
+distinct fighting characteristics, should not make
+enemies. He could say, as Jenner said before him,
+&#8220;As for fame, what is it? A gilded butt for ever
+pierced by the arrows of malignancy. The name
+of John Hunter stamps this observation with the
+signature of truth.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The arrows of malignancy did not hurt Simpson.
+He was very little, if at all, affected by them; but he
+paid, perhaps, more attention to them than we might
+have expected him to pay; certainly more than they
+deserved. His love of the fray led him oftentimes
+to answer what had better have been left unnoticed,
+and dragged him into prolonged, sometimes bitter, and,
+it is to be regretted, often unworthy, controversies.
+There was so much valuable work to be done, and
+his efforts were always so fruitful in result that we
+grudge the time spent in these squabbles; there arises
+an instinctive feeling that had he devoted the energy
+wasted in these contests to furthering some single
+branch of science, he would have made distinct
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span>
+advances therein. There was nothing superficial
+about his work; whatever the object it was thoroughly
+entered into; his writings convey to one a
+sense of the power he had of seeing all round and
+through a question, and of weighing and judging
+evidence. There was likewise no scamping in his
+mode of treating his opponents in these squabbles;
+he used his weapons fearlessly and administered many
+a trouncing to weak opponents.</p>
+<p>It was a time of upheaval in things medical. The
+microscope and stethoscope had been introduced into
+the science and practice of the healing art. Scientific
+experiment and research were beginning to lay the
+foundations of rational medicine and surgery. Edinburgh
+was in the front rank of modern progress, as
+she has ever been. Men like Simpson, Syme, Miller,
+Alison, and Christison, were not likely to lag behind.
+But, unfortunately, it was equally unlikely that such
+great minds could all think alike in matters concerning
+the principles of the science and art which they
+taught and practised. Thus it happened that the
+Edinburgh School became notorious for its internal
+quarrels, and in these Simpson was, as a rule, to be
+found busy.</p>
+<p>Quite apart from these professional differences were
+the disputes arising from attacks made upon Simpson
+by professional brethren and laymen, who accused
+him of wrong treatment or neglect of patients. His
+fame endowed him with almost superhuman powers
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span>
+in the minds of patients and their friends. When all
+other means had failed Simpson was hastened to as
+a last but sure resource; bitter the disappointment,
+bitter was the grief, and also sometimes bitter the
+things said of him when the anxious friends of a
+sufferer found that even Simpson&#8217;s powers of healing
+were limited. These attacks were some of the
+&#8220;arrows of malignancy,&#8221; which naturally fell about
+the over-busy man. He thought it necessary to stop,
+pick up these arrows, and challenge the assailants;
+we may regret that he stooped so often to this action,
+but we feel that it sprang as much from the love of
+truth and justice as from the dictates of a disposition
+inclined towards quarrel.</p>
+<p>It is impossible to pass over the great controversy
+which raged in Edinburgh about 1850 on the merits
+of hom&oelig;opathy, in which Simpson, of course, took a
+leading part. About the beginning of the century
+the practice of medicine by the apothecaries, as the
+general practitioners were then called, consisted in
+the most unscientific, nay, haphazard administration
+of drugs in large quantities and combinations. It
+was an age of drugging doctors, and the custom had
+become so thoroughly established that it is doubtful
+whether any less completely opposite system than that
+introduced by Hahnemann would have convinced the
+public that after all so many drugs were not required,
+nor such large quantities of them. Hom&oelig;opathic
+practice was founded on facts improperly interpreted,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span>
+and laid down for general use a procedure that was
+applicable in only a limited number of cases. As Dr.
+Lauder Brunton has recently pointed out, it is in many
+instances only a method of faith-cure, and as such has
+its value. The success which its practitioners certainly
+obtained in many cases where the ordinary
+wholesale drugging of the day had proved futile, at
+once made men pause ere allowing their bodies to
+be made receptacles for the complicated preparations
+of the physician. In Edinburgh at this time the
+influence of hom&oelig;opathy had been felt. Alison, a
+physician of great renown, was to the end a pronounced
+polypharmacist, and was said scarcely ever
+to leave a patient without a new bottle or prescription.
+Graham, another university professor, was also
+a thorough-going old school therapeutist. On the
+other hand, Syme treated all medicine except rhubarb
+and soda with disdain; and Henderson, the professor
+of Pathology, and also a practising physician, after
+professing to consider no medicine of very much value,
+became a pronounced sceptic, and finally horrified his
+colleagues by making trials of hom&oelig;opathy, and
+gradually becoming enamoured of it until he confessed
+himself a full follower of Hahnemann&#8217;s doctrines.
+Christison was leading the school which
+urged that the action of medicines should be studied
+experimentally if their administration was to be
+founded on scientific grounds. The behaviour of
+Henderson, who so greatly owed his position as professor
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span>
+to Simpson, stirred the wrath of the latter. He
+examined and condemned the irrational system of
+Hahnemann, and threw himself into an attitude of
+strong opposition. Syme and Christison ably seconded
+him in strong public action. Henderson was obliged
+to resign his chair owing to &#8220;loss of health.&#8221; Hom&oelig;opathy
+was thoroughly crushed in Edinburgh. The
+contest between the old system of drugging with large
+complicated doses of powerful remedies, and the new
+one of giving on principle infinitesimal doses of the
+same medicines, served a good purpose. It gave an
+opportunity for establishing rational therapeutics, a
+science which is making daily progress, and in the
+presence of which neither the old system nor hom&oelig;opathy
+can stand.</p>
+<p>About this same period mesmerism was again
+coming to the front, this time cloaked as a science
+termed electro-biology. Simpson acknowledged that
+there was a great deal in mesmerism demanding
+scientific investigation; but with his reasoning powers
+he could not realise the existence of the mystically-termed
+higher phenomena of animal magnetism, <i>e.g.</i>,
+lucidity, transference of the senses, and, above all,
+clairvoyance. It happened that a professional mesmerist
+gave a performance in Edinburgh; learning
+that the &#8220;professor&#8217;s&#8221; daughter was stated to be able
+to read anything written on paper, or to divine
+any object enclosed in a sealed box while under her
+father&#8217;s mesmeric power, Simpson attended the performance.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span>
+He took with him a specially-prepared
+test&mdash;a sealed box with certain unknown contents;
+this he presented at a suitable opportunity. Against
+their own wishes, but on the insistence of the audience,
+the performers made an attempt by their
+methods to detect the nature of the contents of this
+test-box. They pronounced it to be money; on
+opening it millet seed was found, and a piece of
+paper, on which was written, &#8220;humbug.&#8221;</p>
+<p>An accusation, couched in bitter terms, that Simpson
+was really a supporter of mesmerism as it was then
+known, was published in one of the leading professional
+journals in London. He indignantly repudiated
+the suggestion and proposed to settle the matter
+finally by a simple expedient. He offered to place five
+sealed boxes each containing a line from Shakspeare
+written by himself on paper, in the hands of the editor
+of the journal who had permitted the attack to appear
+in his columns. To any clairvoyant who read these
+lines according to the professed method, and to the
+satisfaction of a committee of eminent medical men,
+he promised the sum of five hundred pounds. The
+offer, however, was not accepted.</p>
+<p>The brilliant attainments of many of its teachers at
+this period not only placed the Edinburgh school at
+the head of the British schools of medicine, but
+also led to tempting offers being made to individual
+professors by rival schools anxious to secure their
+services.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span></div>
+<p>London was a much more lucrative field for practice
+than the Scots metropolis, and several of the most
+eminent Edinburgh men had from time to time
+yielded to the temptation to migrate southwards. Indeed,
+London as a medical school owes a great deal to
+the Scotsmen whom she imported. Liston had left
+for London in 1834, and Syme followed, for a brief
+period, on Liston&#8217;s death. In 1848 a strong effort was
+made to secure Simpson as a lecturer on midwifery at
+St. Bartholomew&#8217;s Hospital; without any hesitation
+he decided to remain in the city where he had fought
+his way to fame, and where he enjoyed popularity,
+and a practice sufficiently lucrative to satisfy the most
+ambitious man. Every patriotic Scot applauded the
+decision.</p>
+<p>During these years of fame and prosperity Simpson
+concerned himself in schemes for the improvement of
+the surroundings of the working classes, and helped
+with speech and purse those who worked among the
+poor. He strongly supported the establishment of
+improved dwellings for workpeople and gave much
+attention to the subject of Cottage Hospitals. He did
+not neglect the poor amongst whom he had laboured
+in his early days. He loved old Edinburgh, and the
+poor inhabitants of it were near his heart. &#8220;The
+Professor&#8221; was known in many a &#8220;wynd&#8221; and &#8220;stair,&#8221;
+where his services were rendered willingly and without
+reward.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_IX_ARCHOLOGYPRACTICE' id='CHAPTER_IX_ARCHOLOGYPRACTICE'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br /><span class='smcap'>Archæology&mdash;Practice</span></span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>His versatility&mdash;The Lycium of the Muses&mdash;The Catstane&mdash;Was the
+Roman Army provided with medical officers?&mdash;Weems&mdash;His lack
+of business method&mdash;Fees and no fees&mdash;Generosity often imposed
+upon&mdash;His unusual method of conducting private practice&mdash;The
+ten-pound note&mdash;Simpson and the hotel proprietors.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Professor Simpson&#8217;s versatility was remarkable.
+He turned from one subject to
+another and displayed a mastery over each; it was
+not merely the knowledge of principles which astonished
+but the intimate familiarity with details. He
+was able to discuss almost any subject in literature,
+science, politics, or theology with its leading exponent
+on equal terms. He had the power of patient listening
+as well as the gift of speech; more than that he
+had the ability to charm speech from others, of making
+each man reveal his inmost thoughts, betray his most
+cherished theories, or narrate his most stirring experiences;
+the most reticent man would not realise
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span>
+until he had left Simpson&#8217;s presence, that in a brief
+interview, perhaps the first, he had told his greatest
+adventures, or laid bare his wildest aspirations before
+this student of mankind who was summarising his
+life and character as he spoke. Simpson built up
+his knowledge not so much from books as by the
+exercise of his highly developed faculty of observation
+aided by his memory. He enjoyed the study of his
+fellowmen and extracted all that was worth knowing
+from those with whom he came into contact. He
+never undertook work without a definite object in
+view, and rarely abandoned his task before that object
+was accomplished. Quite small researches would lead
+to considerable and unexpected labour. He preserved
+his scientific method, his desire to appeal only to the
+evidence of facts&mdash;not to other men&#8217;s fancies&mdash;through
+his archæological work as well as in more professional
+lines of study. He laboured long and carefully over
+such an object as the study of old skulls dug up in
+antiquarian excursions; setting before himself the
+object of finding out by the condition and wear of the
+teeth what kind of food had been consumed by the
+owners, probably primeval inhabitants of some district.
+He impressed his methods upon those who worked for
+him or with him. We find him writing to his
+nephew, who was about to visit Egypt, telling him
+when there to gather information as to the suitability
+of the country for invalids, and directing him how to
+employ his leisure in furthering this object. He was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span>
+to study German on the voyage thither, and to take
+with him as models Clarke&#8217;s book on Climate and
+Mitchell&#8217;s on Algiers, and any French or German
+books on the subject he might hear of. He would
+require to collect (1) The average daily temperature;
+(2) The hygrometric and barometric states daily; (3)
+The temperature of the Nile; (4) The temperature
+of any mineral springs; (5) The general character of
+the geology; (6) The general character of the botany
+of the country. He asked him to inquire specially as
+to the effect of the climate on consumption, and
+pointed out that Pliny described Egypt seventeen
+centuries ago as the best climate for phthisical patients.
+For amusement he was to take some good general
+book on Egypt and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The
+serious study of a succession of inquirers was to be
+the young man&#8217;s holiday amusement!</p>
+<p>Simpson&#8217;s most notable contributions to archæology
+were made when his time was most occupied professionally.
+The researches on Leprosy were first enlarged
+and improved. In 1852, when in the British Museum,
+his eye was attracted by a small leaden vase bearing
+a Greek inscription signifying the <i>Lycium of the
+Muses</i>. By a painstaking inquiry he established that
+this lycium was the <i>Lykion indikon</i> of Dioscorides,
+drug used by ancient Greeks as an application to the
+eyes in various kinds of ophthalmia. It was obtained
+from India, and is still used for these purposes in that
+country. He discovered that there were three other
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span>
+examples of this ancient receptable for the valued eye-medicine
+in modern museums.</p>
+<p>He had correspondents in different parts of Scotland
+engaged in making researches into antiquities, which
+he encouraged and directed. Among such were inquiries
+into the whereabouts of a church said to
+possess holy earth brought from Rome; and a hunt
+for ancient cupping-vessels. The work on the Catstane
+of Kirkliston was elaborate, and a perfect example
+of his method. Probably this stone, a massive unhewn
+block of greenstone-trap, had been a familiar
+object to him in his youth, for it lay alone in a field
+close to the Linlithgow road. In his monograph he
+endeavoured to show by close reasoning, with profuse
+references to forgotten authorities and ancient
+history, that the stone was the tomb of one Vetta, the
+grandfather of Hengist and Horsa. His argument
+ran as follows: The surname Vetta, which figured on
+the inscription carved upon the stone, was the name of
+the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa, as given by the
+oldest genealogists, who described him as the son of
+Victa. The inscription ran thus: VETTA F(ilius)
+VICTI. Vetta was an uncommon Saxon name, and
+no other Vetta, son of Victa, was known in history.
+Two generations before Hengist and Horsa arrived in
+England a Saxon host was leagued with the Picts,
+Scots, and Attacots in fighting a Roman army, and
+these Saxons were probably commanded by an ancestor
+of Hengist and Horsa. The battlefield was situated
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span>
+between the two Roman walls, and consequently
+included the tract where the stone is now placed.
+The palæographic characters of the inscription indicated
+that it was carved about the end of the fourth century.
+Latin (with a very few exceptions in Greek) was the
+only language known to have been used at that time
+by Romanised Britons and foreign conquerors for the
+purpose of inscriptions. The occasional erection of
+monuments to Saxon leaders is proved by the fact
+mentioned by Bede that in his time, the eighth
+century, there stood in Kent a monument commemorating
+the death of Horsa. In 1659 a writer
+had described this tomb of Horsa as having been
+destroyed by &#8220;storms and tempests under the conduct
+of time.&#8221;</p>
+<p>In 1861 Simpson was president of the Society of
+Antiquaries of Scotland, and delivered an address on
+the past and present work of archæology which greatly
+stimulated antiquarian study in his country. Amongst
+the honours which his antiquarian achievements brought
+upon him was that of being appointed Professor of
+Antiquities to the Royal Academy of Scotland; he
+was also elected a member of the Archæological
+Societies of Athens, Nassau, and Copenhagen.</p>
+<p>He <ins title='Was make'>made</ins> researches into the subjects of lake
+dwellings, primeval pottery, and burial urns. One
+of his most valuable writings was upon the subject,
+&#8220;Was the Roman Army provided with Medical
+Officers?&#8221; He answered the question in the affirmative
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span>
+after a laborious hunt amongst votive and mortuary
+tablets; no Roman historians had left clear indications
+of the existence of any army medical department. He
+found that several tablets were preserved bearing
+inscriptions referring to army surgeons, which
+suggested that although they were all known as
+<i>medicus</i> there were degrees of rank amongst them,
+notably the <i>medicus legionis</i> and the <i>medicus cohortis</i>.
+There is a well-preserved tablet in the Newcastle
+Museum found in that neighbourhood, commemorating
+a surgeon of the first Tungrian cohort, and
+one in Dresden, referring to a <i>medicus duplicatorius</i>, a
+term which indicates that the surgeon had been
+fortunate enough by his attainments to merit, and,
+we hope, receive double fees for his services.</p>
+<p>All his antiquarian study was looked upon by
+Simpson himself as no more than a relaxation.
+Fatigued by days and nights of anxious consecutive
+professional work, he would suddenly dash off
+for a day into some part of the country where he
+knew there was a likely &#8220;find,&#8221; leaving patients
+and students to the care of his assistants. Here he
+would press into service and infect with his spirit
+all sorts of local worthies from the squire or laird
+down to the labourer, who woke up at his stimulation
+to find that what had been of no concern
+to them and their fathers before them&mdash;perhaps
+objects of vituperation or superstitious dread&mdash;were
+objects of keen delight and interest, and actually
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span>
+valuable to this astonishing man. Once on a professional
+visit to Fifeshire he quite casually discovered
+some remarkable though rough carvings in caves,
+representing various animals and curious emblems,
+and he was able to show that they presented features
+hitherto unnoticed. Fifeshire was famous for its
+underground dwellings, or, as they are locally called,
+&#8220;weems&#8221;&mdash;a term which gave origin to the title
+of the Earldom of Wemyss. After such an excursion
+he would return to Queen Street full of boyish
+spirits, eager to narrate his discoveries to interested
+friends, and refreshed ready to resume the daily round
+of work. Archæology was his hobby&mdash;the hobby on
+which he rode away for refreshment and relief from
+the monotony of his life&#8217;s work; not only did the
+hobby constantly restore his flagging energies, but as
+it is given to few men to do, he put new life into his
+hobby whenever he bestrode it.</p>
+<p>In the conduct of his practice he was somewhat
+negligent. He was one of the old school in these
+matters; he trusted his head rather than paper, and
+his head had had such a careful self-imposed training
+since childhood that it was a good servant. But
+where the brain has such enormous duties to perform,
+those which appear to it unimportant must of necessity
+be comparatively neglected.</p>
+<p>Had he been more careful of pounds, shillings, and
+pence, he would have been more attentive to the
+details of practice. To Simpson, provided he had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span>
+sufficient money for all his wants&mdash;and his wants
+were wide, for they included those of many others&mdash;pecuniary
+and business matters were of secondary
+consideration. In his student days he had lived
+carefully, accounting, as has been seen, for every
+trivial expenditure to those to whom he was indebted.
+But now he was free from the harassing necessity
+of exercising rigid economy, he cast aside the
+drudgery of business methods and disdained commercial
+considerations. He certainly received some
+very large fees, but the curious mixture of human
+beings who crowded his waiting-rooms were treated
+all alike whether they paid princely fees or no fee at
+all; lots were drawn daily for precedence, and they
+entered his presence according as they drew. His
+valet seems to have attained considerable skill in
+estimating the probable remunerative value of a
+roomful of waiting patients, and would grumble at
+night if on emptying the professor&#8217;s pockets, as was
+his duty, the result fell short of his calculated anticipations.
+The man did not approve of the master&#8217;s
+habit of giving gratuitous service. There were many
+who were never asked for a fee, and many others
+whose proffered guineas were refused. Simpson would
+not ask for money from those to whom he thought it
+was a struggle to pay him; the magnitude of his
+profit-yielding practice rendered this form of charity
+possible for him; from the really poor he always
+refused remuneration. His house was filled with all
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span>
+sorts of presents from patients, grateful for benefit
+conferred, grateful for generosity and consideration.
+He was also a free giver, and besides supporting
+orthodox charities made many gifts of goodly sums to
+persons who appeared to him to be in want, or who
+succeeded in impressing on him their need for help.
+He was imposed upon often enough; not seldom by
+pseudo-scientists full of some great discovery which a
+little more capital might enable them to complete.
+Once he corresponded with an enthusiast of this
+description who confessed that he had been breakfasting
+on a waistcoat, dining on a shirt, and supping
+on a pair of tough old leather boots, with the object
+of finding a solid substance, which combined with
+lead or tin would form gold&mdash;nothing more or less
+than the time-honoured philosopher&#8217;s stone! To such
+a man Simpson gave freely not only once.</p>
+<p>To young students entering upon professional life
+with no other capital than their newly acquired
+qualifications to practice, he was ever generous. The
+Scots Universities sent forth many such youths, sturdy
+and independent, and with feelings that would be
+easily wounded by any attempt to patronise. But his
+gentleness, and the sympathy born of his own early
+experiences and shining in his eyes, made help from
+him something to be proud of.</p>
+<p>It could never be urged against Simpson that he
+was avaricious. Just as when honours were showered
+upon him he accepted them with less thought of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span>
+the personal honour than of the appreciation of his
+friends and the public, and rejoiced that they were
+pleased; so he rejoiced in the acquisition of ample
+means chiefly because of the pleasure he might derive
+therefrom by helping others.</p>
+<p>His method of seeing patients was boldly haphazard;
+we learn with astonishment that he kept no list of his
+visits to be made, and started a day&#8217;s round with only
+his prodigious memory to guide him as to where he
+should go. Such a method must have had the result
+that only cases of interest or urgency were seen.
+No doubt the able staff of assistants attended to the
+others, but these comprised not only sufferers from
+trivial complaints but those afflicted with imaginary
+ills who had come to see Simpson, not his assistant.
+Possibly they had already suffered many things of
+many physicians and were none the better. Such
+persons blamed Simpson with some reason. In the
+case of neurotic persons only was his method not
+reprehensible; continued attendance might have
+undone the benefit of the one application, if we
+may so term it, of his strong personality, which
+sometimes was all that was required, so superstitious
+was the reverence for his powers. A precise system
+of registration of engagements and visits ought certainly
+to have been adopted. We can sympathise with
+those who felt aggrieved that they could not obtain
+more attention from the great man, but it must be
+remembered that by his own method he saw a great
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span>
+number of difficult and dangerous cases, and was able
+to originate out of his wide and unprecedented experience,
+modes of treatment which are to-day valued
+highly and successfully made use of by his professional
+successors. He never wittingly left a fellow-creature&#8217;s
+life in danger, but would hasten at all hours to cases
+of real urgency.</p>
+<p>As is usual where large numbers are striving after
+the same object some were highly careless in their
+communications with him. Fees were sent to him
+with a request for a receipt, but no address was given.
+Engagements were asked for by persons who neglected
+to say at what hotel they were staying; and others
+worried him for letters on quite trivial subjects. On
+one occasion, it is authentically related, a ten-pound
+note was forwarded to him by a man who might more
+reasonably have paid one hundred pounds. The note
+was somewhat carelessly not acknowledged, and the
+sender kept writing letters demanding an answer in
+increasing severity of tone. But he was left to rage
+in vain. A few nights later Simpson&#8217;s sleep was
+disturbed by a rattling window; in the dark he rose
+and groped for a piece of paper wherewith to stuff the
+chink and stop the irritating noise. His only comment
+next morning when his wife, having removed
+the paper and discovered its nature came to him with
+it, was, &#8220;Oh! it&#8217;s <i>that</i> ten pounds!&#8221;</p>
+<p>There was a great want of method in all his
+arrangements, and Dr. Duns confesses to having had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span>
+considerable difficulty in arranging Simpson&#8217;s letters
+and papers, so carelessly were they kept.</p>
+<p>The leading hotels in the city benefited by Simpson&#8217;s
+reputation. Patients and pilgrims filled their rooms
+long before tourists began to crowd Scotland as they
+do to-day. When Simpson was elected to the Chair of
+Midwifery loud complaints were uttered by the hotel
+proprietors. His predecessor, Professor Hamilton, had
+been a man of such wide reputation that they derived
+much profit from the patients sent in from the surrounding
+country to be attended by him. How
+could a young man like Simpson equal this? And
+yet when he died there was more than one hotel
+proprietor who could attribute no small measure of
+his own success to the patients and visitors who
+crowded not only from the country districts of
+Scotland but from the most remote parts of the
+British Empire, as well as from the great cities
+of Europe and America, to gain help or speech from
+or perhaps only to see this same Simpson. And his
+fame had reached the high point it ever after maintained
+when he was but a young man&mdash;before he was
+forty years of age. It was estimated that no less than
+eighty thousand pounds per annum was lost to the
+hotel, lodging, and boarding-house keepers of Edinburgh
+when he died.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_X_PERSONALPROFESSORIALPROFESSIONAL' id='CHAPTER_X_PERSONALPROFESSORIALPROFESSIONAL'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER X
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br />PERSONAL&mdash;PROFESSORIAL&mdash;PROFESSIONAL</span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>His genius&mdash;Fertility of resource&mdash;Personal influence&mdash;Work in
+obstetrics and gynæcology and surgery&mdash;His lecturing and teaching&mdash;The
+healing of wounds&mdash;Acupressure&mdash;Hospitalism&mdash;Proposal
+to stamp out infectious diseases.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Professor A. R. Simpson has said that his
+uncle Sir James Simpson&#8217;s genius showed itself
+in his power of seeing things, in his power of adapting
+means to ends, and in his power of making others see
+what he had seen and do what he had done. We
+have seen these characteristics displayed in his work
+upon anæsthesia; it is literally true that he left no
+stone unturned to gain his end and to make others
+look upon anæsthesia in the same light as he regarded
+it. He declared all the while that if he found the
+opposition to the administration of chloroform in
+midwifery practice too powerful to conquer alone, he
+would finally overcome it by bringing about such a
+state of public opinion on the subject as would compel
+the profession to adopt his methods.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span></div>
+<p>Whether we regard Simpson as a physician or as a
+surgeon, as a gynæcologist or as an accoucheur, we
+find that his success was always due to the same
+causes. He possessed no secret remedies such as an
+ignorant and imaginative section of the public often
+credit to successful medical men. He performed no
+operations with which other surgeons were not
+equally familiar and equally capable of performing;
+indeed he frequently sent his surgical cases to operators
+in whose hands he considered they would be more
+skilfully treated than in his. In obstetrics and
+gynæcology his skill arose not only from his unrivalled
+experience, but also from his power of rapid diagnosis,
+and his promptness and boldness in treatment.</p>
+<p>His readiness in resource was unfailing. On
+one occasion, it is related, during an operation the
+bottle of chloroform was knocked over and its contents
+were spilled upon the carpet before the surgeon had
+completed his work; whilst his colleagues were
+wondering what was to be done or how a further
+supply of the anæsthetic could be obtained with
+sufficient speed, Simpson was on his knees hacking
+out with his knife the portion of carpet on which
+the chloroform had just fallen; and by means of
+this extemporised inhaler the operation proceeded
+uninterrupted to the end.</p>
+<p>He carried his distinguishing energy and thoroughness
+into every branch of his work; even in extempore
+speeches made at meetings of professional societies, he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span>
+placed facts before his listeners in so convincing and
+lucid a manner out of the extensive variety of his
+knowledge, and aided by his great memory, that if he
+did not in reality gain the point he argued in favour
+of he generally appeared to do so. On such occasions
+too his imperturbable temper was a valuable weapon.</p>
+<p>There is no doubt that the genial professor availed
+himself fully of the unbounded confidence placed in
+him by his patients. Those of us who did not know
+him cannot appreciate what we have already said, that
+the charm of his personality was one of the greatest
+factors of his success in practice, and of his social
+success; there is the risk of the appearance of
+exaggeration in any description of this personal
+influence. The sympathy of his heart, a real sympathy,
+not a thin professional veneer, was made
+manifest by deed as well as word. It aroused in
+his patient, quite unconsciously to both, a feeling
+that this man, above all other men, understood his
+complaint; that he, the sufferer was the chief, if not
+the only object of his thought and care. It was said
+over and over again of him that his words and look
+did more good than all his physic, so able a wielder
+was he of that healing power which reaches the
+body through the mind. Those who knew him not,
+but falling sick hastened to Edinburgh to be healed
+by him, were oftentimes cured simply because they
+felt beforehand that he would cure them. They
+followed unconsciously the ancient command of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span>
+Talmud, where it says, &#8220;Honour your physician
+before you have need of him,&#8221; and went to him full
+of respect and fired by faith. Wise men have striven
+through all ages to take advantage of this influence of
+the mind over the body, and the necessity of possessing
+a healthy mind if the body is also to be healthy. A
+striking proof of the antiquity of the thought has
+been recently furnished in a fashion that would have
+delighted Simpson. On a papyrus, dated <span class='smcaplc'>A.D.</span> 200,
+brought to light by Egyptian explorers, it is written
+that Christ said: &#8220;A prophet is not acceptable in his
+own country, neither doth a physician work cures
+upon them that know him.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The advances which Simpson made in the science
+and practice of both midwifery and gynæcology were
+due to the magnitude of his experience and the
+readiness of his genius to profit by experience. His
+one thought being the relief of suffering and the
+prolongation of life, he approached the bedside as
+a man with less high aspirations would fail to do.
+He considered only the patient&#8217;s interest, and gave
+his genius free play. He took midwifery and gynæcology
+by storm, and urged them on to great developments;
+he believed in observing, helping, or imitating nature
+rather than acting, as his predecessors had done, upon
+preconceived ideas which oftener than not ran contrary
+to nature&#8217;s commands. He avoided meddlesomeness,
+and stepped in only as the ally of nature. He
+took numerous hints from bygone practitioners and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span>
+writers, and developed them. To-day we are profiting
+by his teaching, and the instruments which he devised
+or perfected.</p>
+<p>To mention all his suggestions and all his contributions
+to the arts which he specially practised would
+here be obviously impossible as well as out of place;
+but to medical readers the mention of one instrument
+associated with his name, and known as <i>the sound</i>, will
+give a small indication of how much we are in his
+debt. The principle of this instrument had been
+known long before he took it in hand, but it was left
+for him to introduce it into practice, perfect it, and
+preach its value in diagnosis and treatment. So
+thorough was his work, so farseeing his science, that
+our knowledge of its utility has scarcely been added
+to since he first drew attention to it in 1843.</p>
+<p>Towards operative work his attitude was characteristically
+conscientious. We are told that he habitually
+put the following question to himself when contemplating
+a serious operation: &#8220;Am I conscientiously
+entitled to inflict deliberately upon my fellow-creature
+with my own hands the imminent and immediate
+chance of death for the problematic and prospective
+chance of his future improved health and prolonged
+life?&#8221; The fact that he habitually thus questioned
+himself is an evidence of the state of surgery at that
+time. Operations were undertaken only as a last
+resource to save life; the surgeon knew full well that
+he placed his patient in further peril merely by cutting
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span>
+through the skin, in a manner which has now happily
+become a thing of the past.</p>
+<p>His work was so pre-eminently practical that he
+never stopped to collect together his experiences
+into a scientific treatise. Although he revivified
+midwifery, and was one of the original founders
+of gynæcology, he left to aftercomers the labour of
+studying what he had done, and drawing the conclusions
+on which to strengthen the fabric of the science.
+His pamphlets, papers, and reports are very numerous.
+It would be wrong to say that modern thought has
+approved all that he wrote; but however much time
+and increased knowledge may have modified his teaching,
+they have not detracted from the value of his
+researches, discoveries, and suggestions, or from the
+stimulating influence of his work upon contemporary
+practice and thought.</p>
+<p>As a lecturer and teacher Simpson succeeded as in
+the other branches of his work. His brilliant exposition
+of his subjects and his careful practical manner of
+teaching his young listeners doubled the fame which
+had begun with his predecessor, Professor Hamilton,
+and has ever since belonged to the Edinburgh school
+of obstetricians. But here again his personal attractiveness
+and power gained for him the greater part
+of his success. In the words of the <i>Lancet</i>, written
+when reviewing a posthumous collection of some of
+his writings, his lectures used to brighten the gloomy
+days of the Edinburgh winter; in perusing the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span>
+publication under review, Edinburgh men would
+&#8220;almost think they saw the big head and face of the
+great obstetrician, as they used to see him beaming
+with satisfaction or twinkling with genial humour as
+he told a good story, or related a happy case, illustrative
+of his own bold and original practice.&#8221; Both as a
+lecturer and as a bedside teacher he captured his
+students by the charm of his diction, the wide range
+of his knowledge, and as Professor Gusserow has
+pointed out in his masterly memoir, by his peculiar
+talent of having his knowledge at his fingers&#8217; ends,
+and that often in very remote details.</p>
+<p>Year by year he never failed to obtain the affection
+of his students; scarcely a man that had been taught
+by him but would proudly boast that he was his
+friend as well as his teacher. He treated his large
+class in a confiding spirit&mdash;not as the superior person
+delivering <i>ex cathedrâ</i> utterances, but as the friend
+rejoicing in his function of admitting those around
+him into the knowledge in which he seemed to
+revel. He had a happy method of getting on good
+terms with his audience before proceeding to the
+serious business of the lecture. When his health
+began to fail he was sometimes unwillingly laid aside,
+and the lectures were delivered by a substitute. On
+one occasion he re-appeared pale, weak, and lame,
+after such an enforced holiday, and was greeted
+enthusiastically by a crowded class. He told them
+that his servant had said to him that a rumour was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span>
+abroad that he was in Morningside Asylum. He had
+asked what answer he had made, and heard that he
+had replied that so far from being wrong in his mind
+his master was writing a book in bed. While he did
+not say that this answer was strictly correct, he was
+happy to assure them, his pupils, that he was quite right
+in his mind, although a friend had hinted that morning
+that he was rather weak in his <i>understanding</i>!</p>
+<p>Old fellow-students meeting each other in after life
+as staid practitioners take pleasure in recalling the
+idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of their teachers; it is
+probable that no professor has ever been talked over
+with the appreciation which breathes through the
+reminiscences of Simpson conjured up by those whom
+he taught.</p>
+<p>Simpson left his mark in other departments besides
+those of the subject of his professorial chair and of
+anæsthesia. About ten years after the introduction of
+chloroform he turned his attention to the process of
+wound-healing&mdash;the repair of necessary wounds inflicted
+by surgeons in the course of their work&mdash;and
+although he was promptly told to go back to his
+midwifery, he worked persistently at the subject. In
+those days the subject was the most burning one in
+surgery and the methods employed to bring about successful
+results varied in different schools. The object
+of all methods was the same, viz., to obtain a healthy,
+clean, and sightly result after an operation; to leave
+the part which had been of necessity cut in a condition
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span>
+as nearly as possible approaching that in which it
+had been found, without the incidence of any of the too
+frequent grave complications. Surgeons did not recognise
+at first the power of nature to effect for them
+what they strove after; they thought to attain their
+object by compelling the tissues to heal as they desired
+by complicated applications, and many were the layers
+of ointments and masses of dressings heaped on wounds
+for this purpose. For a long time all efforts were
+directed to the discovery of some specific substance,
+the application of which would give the necessary impulse
+towards healing in the desired manner. Before
+Simpson&#8217;s day it had been generally recognised that the
+cause&mdash;but its nature was quite undreamt of&mdash;of the
+trouble lay in the air surrounding the wound, and more
+dressings were piled on to keep out the air. But at the
+same time bleeding was arrested by tying the cut
+arteries with ligatures&mdash;chiefly silken&mdash;and these were
+left with long ends hanging out of the wound to work
+their way out by a process of ulceration, or irritation of
+the tissues until liberty was obtained. This process was
+practically incompatible with the ideal form of healing,
+known as healing by <i>first intention</i>, <i>i.e.</i>, union without
+appreciable loss of substance or the formation of <i>pus</i> or
+matter. So-called &#8220;surgical fever,&#8221; secondary hæmorrhage,
+and blood-poisoning were the frequent fatal
+results of operation wounds treated in this manner.
+Simpson and others thought to prevent these alarming
+diseases by devising other means of closing the arteries;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span>
+thinking that if some method or material were used,
+which nature resented less, the wound would more
+readily close by first intention. In 1858 Simpson
+stated that he had for some time past been experimenting
+with substitutes for the ordinary silk and
+thread ligatures, and in the course of his experiments
+had made use of iron, silver, and platinum wires. In
+his usual way he hunted up old authorities, and found
+a record of both silver and gold threads having been
+experimentally used by bygone practitioners. He
+seems to have been pleased with his results, stating
+that he found the tissues much more tolerant of these
+metallic ligatures than they were of the ordinary
+organic ones; that only &#8220;adhesive inflammation,&#8221; not
+ulcerative suppurative inflammation, was excited. This
+success, however, was probably due to the superior
+cleanliness of the metal, but this he did not recognise;
+had he done so he might have been led to strive after
+surgical cleanliness, and have partly anticipated the
+great work done subsequently by others. He went off,
+however, on a different line, and searched for some
+readier method of using metallic means of closing the
+blood vessels, being stimulated by the desire to abolish
+ligatures altogether. Thus he was led, after ten years&#8217;
+careful research, to the introduction of a method entirely
+original&mdash;that of <i>Acupressure</i>. This consisted in
+the introduction of a fine needle through the tissues
+across the course of the artery, so that while the needle
+pressed upon one side of the artery the resisting tissues
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span>
+of the body exerted counter-pressure on the opposite
+side. He claimed for his method the merits of simplicity,
+elegance, and cleanliness, and urged that not
+only did the tissues tolerate the needle as they did not
+tolerate silk or hemp, but that unlike the ligature the
+needle could be withdrawn as soon as nature had
+closed the blood vessel by the process of coagulation of
+the blood within it set up by the pressure; thus the
+prolonged irritating presence of a body within the
+wound which delayed healing until it had ulcerated its
+way out was rendered unnecessary, and a better and
+more rapid result was attained. He verified his theoretical
+considerations by experiments on animals and
+in one or two operations on the human subject, and
+in 1859 read a communication on the subject to the
+Royal Society of Edinburgh.</p>
+<p>The paper was written under great pressure of
+work, indeed he stated that at that time he was
+hardly ever able to write except when himself &#8220;confined&#8221;;
+it was hastily prepared to take the place
+of that of another Fellow which had failed to be
+forthcoming a few days before the appointed meeting.
+It was composed at a country house where
+he had to sleep for two or three nights watching
+a case of diphtheria. It was headed as usual by a
+Shakspearian quotation, this time briefly in Justice
+Shallow&#8217;s words, thus:&mdash;&#8220;Tut, a pin!&#8221; On the
+evening of its delivery an abstract of the paper was
+forwarded to the leading surgeons in England, Europe,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span>
+and America, and diverse were the opinions expressed.</p>
+<p>In Scotland the new method met with the greatest
+favour and the strongest opposition at one and the
+same time. Throughout Europe and America it
+was everywhere received with applause and support.
+Excellent results were obtained when the method was
+properly applied, but technical considerations, particularly
+the difficulty of using it upon blood vessels far
+removed from the surface, rendered it unsuitable for
+universal application.</p>
+<p>Professor Syme met the innovation with vehement
+opposition; possibly he resented this intrusion of the
+gynæcologist into the regions of general surgery.
+He took into his class-room one pamphlet on the
+subject by Simpson, which had especially aroused his
+wrath; he stormed at the author before his students
+for &#8220;his vulgar insolence,&#8221; and then, in a dramatic
+scene, expressed the violence of his contempt by
+savagely tearing the pamphlet into pieces and casting
+it away. In a subsequent controversy between these
+two old opponents, who had been temporarily united
+by Simpson&#8217;s conduct in consulting Syme professionally,
+by their joint action against hom&oelig;opathy,
+and by Simpson&#8217;s defence of Syme when publicly
+attacked by an English surgeon, the feud was renewed.</p>
+<p>Simpson persisted for years in collecting reports of
+operations in which acupressure was employed, and
+published them from time to time in the <i>British
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span>
+Medical Journal</i> and elsewhere. In 1864 his work
+on the subject took the form of a volume containing
+580 quarto pages. His friends endeavoured to
+rank acupressure with chloroform as one of the blessings
+to humanity made manifest by him. He himself
+recognised that he had failed to gain for acupressure a
+place in practice such as he had gained for chloroform,
+but he looked forward to a time, perhaps a quarter of
+a century distant, when his method would be beginning
+to be thought about. In this he was mistaken for,
+on the contrary, acupressure was beginning to be
+forgotten long before twenty-five years had elapsed.
+Another worker on more strictly scientific lines had
+by that time made healing by first intention, without
+complications, the rule instead of the exception, and
+conferred a benefit on humanity as great if not greater
+than that of anæsthesia. In 1867, while Simpson was
+still alive, Mr. (now Lord) Lister (then a hospital
+surgeon in Glasgow, and subsequently Syme&#8217;s successor
+in Edinburgh) enunciated the new principle of &#8220;antiseptic
+surgery,&#8221; which recognised the living infective
+micro-organisms of the air as the cause of the trouble
+in wounds. He directed that as these invisible organisms
+(known only by means of the microscope) were
+present everywhere in the air, found their way into
+all sorts of wounds, and set up the decomposition
+which led to disastrous results, they were to be destroyed
+or excluded from wounds; and he suggested effective
+means of accomplishing this end. He further abolished
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span>
+the long ligatures which irritated by their presence,
+and by the organisms they conveyed into the wound
+when imperfectly cleansed as they usually were; and
+substituted non-irritating ligatures which nature herself
+was able to remove by the process of absorption. The
+recognition of this antiseptic principle effected a much
+needed revolution in surgery, and in this revolution
+acupressure was practically annihilated. Simpson did
+not live long enough to see the complete establishment
+of the Listerian principle; at first he vigorously opposed
+what he considered to be an attempt to retain
+the old-fashioned ligatures in preference to his new
+acupressure; but with his penetrative eye he must
+have foreseen that should the new practice prevail and
+short absorbable ligatures be made possible, acupressure
+would be completely superseded.</p>
+<p>In the estimation of the writer of the obituary
+notice of Professor Simpson in the <i>British Medical
+Journal</i>, the greatest of all his works was that
+undertaken in the subject of Hospitalism. As early as
+1847 he had been horrified to read in a report of the
+work done in the Edinburgh Infirmary, that out of
+eighteen cases of primary amputation performed during
+a period of four years only two survived. He faced
+this fact with the courage of the reformer, and sought
+far and near for other facts to support the theory
+which he gradually evolved, that this melancholy
+failure of surgeons to save their patients&#8217; lives was
+due not so much to the operation or the operator
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span>
+as to the environment of the patient. In later years
+he himself often shrank, on account of unfortunate
+experiences, from performing capital operations which
+he had formerly unhesitatingly undertaken. The
+unhealthiness of hospitals had long been recognised;
+and was especially observed at times when they were
+overcrowded, as happened during war time. When
+the public had thoroughly grasped the utility of anæsthetics,
+and recognised that operations could be
+performed painlessly, there were fewer refusals to
+submit to the knife; there was a rush to the hospitals,
+and the surgical wards throughout the length and
+breadth of the land became crowded with men and
+women actually longing for operation. Amongst
+these all the dreaded sequelæ of surgical interference,
+which no power seemed able to check, ravaged with
+alarming severity.</p>
+<p>It is to Simpson&#8217;s credit that he perceived how the
+introduction of anæsthesia had taxed the hospitals and
+bewildered the operators, who sought diligently but
+unsuccessfully in every direction for some means of
+reducing hospital mortality. He was one of the first
+to set to work with method to investigate this question
+of Hospitalism.</p>
+<p>It was towards the end of his career, when the old
+Edinburgh Infirmary stood condemned, and various
+proposals for rebuilding it on a new site and improved
+plan were under discussion, that his voice was most
+loudly heard. For many years he had thought and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span>
+taught that the great mortality after operations in
+hospitals was due to the impure state of the air therein,
+derived from the congregation of a large number of
+sick persons under one roof. He picturesquely stated
+that the man laid on a hospital operating table was
+exposed to more chances of death than the English
+soldier was on the field of Waterloo. His original
+suggestion was that hospitals might be changed from
+being crowded palaces, with a layer of sick on each
+floor, into villages or cottages, with one, or at most
+two, patients in each room; the building to be of
+iron, so that it could be periodically taken down and
+reconstructed, and presumably thoroughly renovated.
+This drastic proposal brings nowadays a smile to the
+lips, for we see now how he was groping in the
+dark; but the magnitude of it is but the shadow of
+the evil it was designed to cure. The change was
+so great as to be impracticable in the eyes of most
+men; he, on the other hand, contended that it was to
+be of incalculable benefit to humanity, and, therefore,
+no difficulty, however great, should be allowed to
+stand in the way. He did not understand that the
+evils arose not from the air itself but from what was
+in the air, known to us now as the micro-organisms.
+His remedy was a proposal to run away from the evils
+without receiving any guarantee that they could not
+and would not successfully pursue. Had Lister not
+arisen, Simpson&#8217;s proposals might have possibly prevailed,
+for he laboured with all his persistent energy.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span></div>
+<p>The general belief of the profession&mdash;but it was no
+more than a belief&mdash;was that operations performed in
+country practice were not so frightfully fatal as those
+performed in town hospitals. This was Simpson&#8217;s
+opinion, and he determined to test its truth by appeal
+to facts. He drew up a circular with a schedule for
+the insertion of results in a statistical form, and sent
+it far and wide amongst country practitioners. He
+awaited the result with anxious expectation; the
+circular asked for a plain statement of facts only, and
+for all he knew the facts might be against his theory;
+but they were not. From all over England and
+Scotland, particularly from mining districts, where
+severe operations after accidents were common, the
+filled-up schedules flowed in, to the number of 374.
+These were collected, carefully classified and summarised.
+The operations selected were amputations,
+and the result briefly was this:&mdash;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Mortality Summary">
+<tr><td align="left">Total number of cases</td><td align="right">2,098</td><td rowspan="2" style="font-size: 200%">}</td><td align="left" rowspan="2">Mortality,<br />10.8 per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Total number of deaths</td><td align="right">226</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>The relative mortality of the different amputations
+was also shown:&mdash;</p>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Amputation Mortalities">
+<tr class='bolder'><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Cases.</td><td align="center">Deaths.</td><td align="center">Mortality.<br />per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Thigh</td><td align="right">669</td><td align="right">123</td><td align="right">18.3</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Leg</td><td align="right">618</td><td align="right">82</td><td align="right">13.2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Arm</td><td align="right">433</td><td align="right">19</td><td align="right">4.3</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Forearm</td><td align="right">378</td><td align="right">2</td><td align="right">0.5</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>The table on the next page compared the results of
+operations for injury with those performed for disease.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span></div>
+<h3><span class='smcap'>For Injury.</span></h3>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr class='bolder'><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Cases.</td><td align="center">Deaths.</td><td align="center">Mortality.<br />per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Thigh</td><td align="right">313</td><td align="right">80</td><td align="right">25.5</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Leg</td><td align="right">409</td><td align="right">57</td><td align="right">13.4</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Arm</td><td align="right">344</td><td align="right">14</td><td align="right">4.0</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Forearm</td><td align="right">313</td><td align="right">2</td><td align="right">0.6</td></tr>
+</table>
+<h3><span class='smcap'>For Disease.</span></h3>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr class='bolder'><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Cases.</td><td align="center">Deaths.</td><td align="center">Mortality.<br />per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Thigh</td><td align="right">356</td><td align="right">43</td><td align="right">12.0</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Leg</td><td align="right">209</td><td align="right">25</td><td align="right">12.0</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Arm</td><td align="right">89</td><td align="right">5</td><td align="right">5.6</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Forearm</td><td align="right">60</td><td align="right">0</td><td align="right">&mdash;</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>These statistics were accompanied by an exhaustive
+detailed examination and explanation; every possible
+point of attack was considered and protected. &#8220;I
+doubt not,&#8221; he said, &#8220;that the segregation of the sick
+from the sick&mdash;every diseased man being a focus of
+more or less danger to the diseased around him&mdash;is a
+principle of no small moment and value.&#8221; He attributed
+the comparative brilliancy of these statistical
+results to the <i>isolation</i> of the patients only; he
+endeavoured to show that the operations were often
+performed amidst dirty and squalid surroundings, on
+dirty and squalid persons. He did not attribute
+sufficient importance to the fact urged by many of
+his correspondents, who supported his general contentions
+almost to a man out of their own experience,
+that where fresh air, ventilation, and cleanliness prevailed,
+the results were always the most satisfactory.</p>
+<p>The next step was to take hospital statistics of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span>
+similar operations, and the general result appears in
+the table on <a href='#page_183'>page 183</a>.</p>
+<p>This testimony to the truth of Simpson&#8217;s opinion
+was more pronounced than even he himself had
+anticipated. &#8220;Shall this pitiless and deliberate sacrifice
+of human life to conditions which are more or
+less preventable be continued, or arrested? Do not
+these terrible figures plead eloquently and clamantly
+for a revision and reform of our existing hospital
+system?&#8221; This was his cry until at length breath
+failed him. The opposition was not strong, but the
+support was weak. Although there was much criticism,
+his conclusions were scarcely called in question
+at all; trifling holes were picked in his statistics, but
+his contentions were universally acknowledged to be
+correct; a few reformers only, persuaded as he was of
+the evils of hospitalism and working at the subject,
+lent him their advocacy. But he alone stood unperturbed
+at the extent of the evils and the magnitude
+of the change which he proposed in order to uproot
+them; death laid him low as he stood, but not
+before he had modified his proposals by suggesting
+that existing hospitals might be reconstructed, and
+new hospitals built on the now almost universally
+adopted pavilion system on which the new Edinburgh
+Royal Infirmary was one of the first to be built.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span></div>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr class='bolder'><td align="right">HOSPITAL.</td><td align="center" colspan="8">FOR INJURY.</td><td align="center" colspan="8">FOR DISEASE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Thigh.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Leg.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Arm.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Forearm.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Thigh.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Leg.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Arm.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">Forearm.</td></tr>
+<tr class='smaller'><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td><td align="center">Cases</td><td align="center">Deaths</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Edinburgh Infirmary</td><td align="right">65</td><td align="right">48</td><td align="right">58</td><td align="right">29</td><td align="right">21</td><td align="right">12</td><td align="right">39</td><td align="right">5</td><td align="right">134</td><td align="right">48</td><td align="right">28</td><td align="right">9</td><td align="right">7</td><td align="right">3</td><td align="right">19</td><td align="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Glasgow Infirmary</td><td align="right">100</td><td align="right">60</td><td align="right">93</td><td align="right">50</td><td align="right">101</td><td align="right">38</td><td align="right">66</td><td align="right">9</td><td align="right">177</td><td align="right">68</td><td align="right">82</td><td align="right">27</td><td align="right">23</td><td align="right">6</td><td align="right">19</td><td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Nine London Hospitals</td><td align="right">139</td><td align="right">88</td><td align="right">179</td><td align="right">102</td><td align="right">97</td><td align="right">33</td><td align="right">64</td><td align="right">11</td><td align="right">320</td><td align="right">123</td><td align="right">173</td><td align="right">53</td><td align="right">48</td><td align="right">13</td><td align="right">37</td><td align="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Total</td><td align="right">304</td><td align="right">196</td><td align="right">330</td><td align="right">181</td><td align="right">219</td><td align="right">88</td><td align="right">169</td><td align="right">25</td><td align="right">631</td><td align="right">239</td><td align="right">283</td><td align="right">89</td><td align="right">78</td><td align="right">22</td><td align="right">75</td><td align="right">15</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Mortality per cent.</td><td align="center" colspan="2">64.4</td><td align="center" colspan="2">54.8</td><td align="center" colspan="2">40.1</td><td align="center" colspan="2">14.8</td><td align="center" colspan="2">37.8</td><td align="center" colspan="2">31.4</td><td align="center" colspan="2">28.2</td><td align="center" colspan="2">2.O</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="17">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Town vs. Country">
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">The total number of cases</td><td align="right">2,089</td><td align="center" rowspan="2" style="font-size: 200%">}</td><td align="left" rowspan="2" colspan="5">mortality 41 per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">The total number of deaths</td><td align="right">855</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="6">Placed side by side the Town (hospital only) and Country (private
+ practice only) figures compared as follows:&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>Hospital</i></td><td align="center" colspan="2">2,089 cases</td><td align="center" colspan="2">855 deaths</td><td align="left">41 per cent. mortality or 1 in 2.4</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><i>Country</i></td><td align="center" colspan="2">2,098 cases</td><td align="center" colspan="2">226 deaths</td><td align="left">10.8 per cent. mortality or 1 in 9.2</td></tr>
+</table>
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>The steady advance of aseptic surgery has slowly
+but surely brought about the results which Simpson
+strove to attain by a radical measure. The enemy
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span>
+which had baffled surgeons for centuries was revealed
+by Lister. He sent surgeons smiling into the operating-room
+practically certain of success instead of
+dreading the terrible onslaught upon their own
+handiwork of the formerly unseen and unknown
+destroyer. The death rate of operations is being
+daily brought nearer and nearer to vanishing point.
+In his review of the progress of wound treatment
+during the Victorian Era published in the Diamond
+Jubilee number of <i>The Practitioner</i>, Mr. Watson
+Cheyne says the mortality of major operations does
+not now exceed in hospitals more than three or four
+per cent., and this is made up practically entirely by
+cases admitted almost moribund and operated on <i>in
+extremis</i> with faint hope of survival. The field of surgery,
+too, has been vastly enlarged, and the term &#8220;major
+operation&#8221; includes not merely operations of necessity,
+undertaken through ages past as the only possible
+means of saving life, but also operations which have
+become possible only in recent years&mdash;some of them
+performed merely to make the patient &#8220;more comfortable,&#8221;
+or even only &#8220;more beautiful.&#8221; And this
+glorious result is due, as Mr. Cheyne truly says, to
+the immortal genius of Lister.</p>
+<p>In 1867 Simpson propounded in the <i>Medical Times
+and Gazette</i> a proposal for stamping out smallpox and
+other infectious diseases such as scarlet fever and
+measles. In spite of vaccination, which, however, was
+imperfectly carried out, smallpox alone carried off five
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span>
+thousand lives annually in Great Britain. A serious
+outbreak of rinderpest in the British Islands amongst
+cattle had recently been arrested and exterminated by
+the slaughter of all affected animals. The disease
+spread as smallpox did by contagion, and Simpson fell
+to wondering why smallpox could not also be exterminated.
+His paper was a noteworthy contribution
+to the then infant science of Public Health, and his
+proposal, which was, however, universally regarded as
+impracticable, sprang from his courageous enthusiasm
+as did that concerning hospitals. He suggested that
+the place of the pole-axe in the extermination of
+rinderpest might in the arrest of smallpox be taken by
+complete isolation, and he laid down simple but rigid
+rules for its enforcement. An attempt was made to
+utilise these a few years after when an epidemic of
+fatal violence broke out in Edinburgh. He was in no
+way an anti-vaccinationist, but his isolation measures
+were too strong for the people in those days. We are
+not surprised that he boldly proposed this measure, for
+he related glaring instances of neglect of the simplest
+precautions. Beggars held up infants with faces
+encrusted with active smallpox into the very faces of
+passers-by in the streets of Edinburgh; and on one
+occasion a woman was found in Glasgow serving out
+sweetmeats to the children of a school with her hands
+and face covered by the disease. He cried aloud for
+legislation to prevent such gross abuses, which he did
+not hesitate to stigmatise as little short of criminal.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_XI_FURTHER_REFORMSHONOURS' id='CHAPTER_XI_FURTHER_REFORMSHONOURS'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br />FURTHER REFORMS&mdash;HONOURS</span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Professional and University Reform&mdash;Medical women&mdash;Honours&mdash;The
+Imperial Academy of Medicine of France&mdash;Baronetcy&mdash;Domestic
+bereavement&mdash;The University Principalship&mdash;Freedom of the City
+of Edinburgh&mdash;Bigelow of Boston&mdash;Views on education&mdash;Graduation
+addresses.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Professor Simpson took a warm interest
+in medical politics, and made himself heard as
+a member of the Senatus of the University. That
+body was not renowned for any spirit of harmony
+prevailing in its midst; it included the medical professors
+many of whom were in professional opposition
+to each other and were actuated by conflicting interests.
+The rivalry prevailing amongst the leaders of the profession
+in the Scots capital was amusingly shown in
+one of Sir James&#8217;s letters, where he related how
+Professor Miller had just given a capital address to the
+young graduates and recommended them to marry
+chiefly because Mr. Syme had advised the reverse two
+years before. &#8220;At least,&#8221; he said, &#8220;so Mr. Syme
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span>
+whispered to me, and so, indeed, did Miller himself
+state to Dr. Laycock!&#8221;</p>
+<p>On the principles of Medical Reform and University
+Reform the professors were, however, practically
+unanimous, but their interests came into conflict with
+those of the extra-academical school. The two
+opposing bodies worked hard to gain their own ends
+when a Parliamentary Committee was appointed in
+1852 to inquire into medical reform. The modern
+Athens became once more disturbed by wordy warfare.
+The general ends aimed at by the reformers
+were the obtaining of a proper standing for qualified
+practitioners; some satisfactory means of enabling the
+public to distinguish between regular and irregular,
+quack, practitioners; and to define the amount of
+general and professional knowledge necessary for
+degrees and qualifications. It was also desired to
+remove the absurd anomaly whereby, although Scots
+medical education was then ahead of English, Scots
+graduates had no legal standing in England. The
+Medical Act which was passed in 1858 carried out
+many of the best suggestions made before the Committee,
+and effected desirable improvements both in
+the status of practitioners and in medical education;
+but it was inadequate, as time has shown, and the
+question of reform still burns. Simpson took an
+active interest in the proceedings before the Committee,
+and made several dashes up to London to
+further the projects which he had at heart. The
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span>
+annual meeting of the British Medical Association
+was held in Edinburgh in July, 1858, at the moment
+when the fate of the Bill hung in the balance. As
+the journal of the Association said at the time the fruit
+of a quarter of a century&#8217;s growth was plucked in the
+midst of the rejoicings. Sir Robert Christison publicly
+stated that owing to Simpson&#8217;s energetic efforts certain
+far-reaching and objectionable clauses, which had
+been allowed to creep into the Bill, were expunged
+at the last moment. Simpson went up to London
+by the night train, employed the following day in
+effecting his purpose, and returned the next night;
+this was when the journey took nearly twice as many
+hours as now.</p>
+<p>The Universities (Scotland) Act was also passed in
+1858; by it the complete control of the University,
+and with it the patronage of many of the Chairs, was
+lost to its original founders, the Town Council, who
+had so carefully and successfully guided it through
+nearly three centuries. The Council did not part
+from their charge without a struggle; in urging
+their cause they proudly pointed to the fact that they
+had appointed Simpson to the Chair of Midwifery
+against the opposition of the medical faculty. To
+have elected him, they thought, under such circumstances
+displayed their discernment, vindicated their
+existence, and pleaded for the perpetuation of their
+elective office.</p>
+<p>When the question of the admission of women to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span>
+the study of medicine came up in Edinburgh and
+divided the ancient city once more into two hostile
+camps, Simpson&#8217;s sympathies appear to have gone with
+the sex to which he was already a benefactor. He
+recognised that there was a place, if a small one,
+within the ranks of the profession for women; and
+when the question came to the vote he cast his in
+their favour. The proposal, however, was rejected,
+and has only quite recently become law in the
+University.</p>
+<p>Numerous honours were heaped upon him during
+the last five-and-twenty years of his life. In 1847 he
+filled the office of President of the Edinburgh College
+of Physicians, and in 1852 held the corresponding
+post in the Medico-Chirurgical Society. In the
+following year the Imperial Academy of Medicine of
+France&mdash;a body which lacks an analogue in this
+country&mdash;conferred upon him the title of Foreign
+Associate. This was a jealously guarded honour
+awarded only to the most highly distinguished men of
+the day, and it was conferred upon Simpson in an
+altogether unprecedented manner which doubled its
+value. According to custom a commission of
+members prepared a list of renowned men whom they
+advised the Academy to elect; in the list no British
+name appeared although Owen, Faraday, and Bright
+were entered as &#8220;reserves.&#8221; On the day of election
+the members accepted all the candidates named in the
+original list until the last was reached. When the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span>
+president asked for the vote for this individual a
+sensational and truly Gallic scene was enacted.
+Almost to a man the members rose, and loud and
+long proclaimed Simpson&#8217;s name. Excited speeches
+were made, and amidst great enthusiasm he was elected
+to the one remaining vacancy by an overwhelming
+majority. It had remained for Simpson to prove, as
+the President courteously pointed out at the time,
+that there existed a greater honour than that of being
+elected by the Academy&mdash;viz., that of being chosen in
+<i>spite</i> of the will of the Academy itself.</p>
+<p>This was by no means the only honour awarded to
+him by France. In 1856 the French Academy of
+Sciences voted him the Monthyon Prize of two
+thousand francs for &#8220;the most important benefits done
+to humanity.&#8221; Other foreign societies added their
+compliments, and he was elected Foreign Associate of
+the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, of the
+Parisian Surgical and Biological Societies, and of the
+Medical Societies of Norway, Stockholm, Copenhagen,
+New York, Massachusetts, Leipsic, and other places.</p>
+<p>In 1866 his own country made an acknowledgment
+of his eminent attainments when the Queen offered
+him a baronetcy on the advice of Lord John Russell.
+Twice before he had refused a title, but this time
+he wrote to his brother that he feared he <i>must</i> accept
+although it appeared so absurd to take a title. This
+honour was the first of its kind ever conferred upon a
+doctor, or even upon a professor, in Scotland. It was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span>
+entirely unsought, and scarcely welcomed by its
+recipient for its own sake; he regarded it not merely
+as a personal honour but also as a tardy recognition of
+the services of the Edinburgh school in the cause of
+medicine. He enjoyed the congratulations which
+showered upon him, and felt glad when the citizens
+flocked to Queen Street to express their feelings,
+much to Lady Simpson&#8217;s delight. The medical papers
+unanimously approved of the honour, the <i>Lancet</i> remarking
+that apart from his connection with chloroform,
+Simpson was distinguished as an obstetric
+practitioner, as a physiologist, as an operator, and as
+a pathologist of great research and originality.</p>
+<p>Domestic bereavement quenched the rejoicings over
+the baronetcy, and condolences displaced congratulations.
+He fell ill for a time himself, and in a condition
+of unusual mental depression spoke of the baronetcy as
+appearing even more of a bauble in sickness than in
+health. In less than a fortnight after the offer of the
+title his eldest son David died after a short illness. He
+had been educated for the medical profession, and was
+a youth of considerable promise and of an earnest
+temperament; his death fell as a severe blow, and
+Simpson even contemplated abandoning the baronetcy
+which had not yet been formally conferred. The
+words of his friends, however, and the thought that
+his dead son had particularly insisted on its acceptance,
+persuaded him.</p>
+<p>A coat of arms had to be drafted for the new
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span>
+Baronet, and this was a pleasant interest for one of his
+tastes. The family history was searchingly entered
+into, and the arms of his father&#8217;s family were differenced
+on the most correct lines with those of the
+Jervays from whom his mother had sprung. In the
+matter of a crest he was able to be boldly original, and
+adopted the rod of Æsculapius over the motto <i>Victo
+dolore</i>, and thus handed down to his family the
+memory of his great victory over pain. In June of
+the same year, 1866, the University of Oxford conferred
+upon him one of the few honours which reached
+him from England in awarding him the honorary
+degree of Doctor of Civil Law. The University of
+Dublin made him an honorary Doctor of Medicine,
+and he was created an honorary Fellow of the King&#8217;s
+and Queen&#8217;s College of Physicians of Ireland.</p>
+<p>By the death of the veteran Sir David Brewster, in
+February, 1868, the office of Principal of Edinburgh
+University fell vacant. This post is a survival from
+the earliest days. The College out of which the
+University grew was established in 1583 by the Town
+Council under a charter granted by James VI. Only
+one regent or tutor was necessary at first to teach the
+&#8220;bairns,&#8221; as the students were termed in the contract
+entered into between Rollock, the first regent, and
+the city fathers. Rollock was promised that as the
+college increased &#8220;in policy and learning&#8221; he should
+be advanced to the highest post created. By his own
+efforts the number of students increased so greatly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span>
+that within the first few years several other regents
+were appointed, and the Council, remembering their
+promise, dignified him with the title of Principal or
+First Master in 1586. This office was held during
+the succeeding two centuries by a series of more or
+less worthy men, prominent among whom were
+Leighton, afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow, and
+William Carstares, better known as a statesman and
+for his connection with the Rye House Plot in 1684.
+During Carstares&#8217;s tenure the tutors were turned into
+professors, and the college became more strictly speaking
+a university, although from the first it had assumed
+without any right by charter the function of degree-granting.
+Although the utility of the post quite vanished
+when the college became a university, and the principal
+had no place in the constitution of a university,
+nevertheless the principalship was not abolished. The
+Universities Act of 1858 recognised the office, but
+only as that of an ornamental head, acting as president
+of the assembly of professors constituting the Senatus
+Academicus. The salary is a thousand pounds a year
+with an official residence, not within the precincts or
+the University. The former head master of the
+college, known by and knowing every student, became
+a sinecurist of whose existence it is no exaggeration to
+say many of the students are, through no fault of
+their own, unaware. Brewster had been a distinguished
+occupant of the post&mdash;distinguished not as a principal,
+for he received the appointment only at the age of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span>
+seventy-eight, but as a scientist. To the public he
+was best known as the author of the &#8220;Life of Sir Isaac
+Newton,&#8221; and as the inventor of the kaleidoscope. It
+is said that Brewster never spoke as much as five lines
+at the meetings of the Senatus Academicus without
+having previously written them down; and it is
+probable that this lack of spontaneous utterance from
+the Chairman gave the tone to the assembly. The
+rival professors doubtless nursed their animosities for
+some less dignified meeting-place, differing there only
+on the most correct academic lines.</p>
+<p>It is not surprising that Simpson at first refused to
+be a candidate for the vacant post. He would undoubtedly
+have made an unrivalled figure-head for his
+<i>Alma Mater</i>; he was the leading figure in Scotland
+already and &#8220;did the hospitalities&#8221; of Edinburgh
+to distinguished visitors of all classes. But he would
+probably have been obliged to resign his professorship
+and have thus been cut off from his sphere of greatest
+usefulness; and although he would have grasped
+with ease the details of university affairs it is open to
+question whether he would have suitably filled the
+post of president over men to many of whom he was
+in professional opposition. The most that the suggestion
+that he should be a candidate conveyed was a
+well-meant compliment, but it would have been a
+greater compliment on his part if he had really ended
+his life as the ornamental head of the University he
+had already done so much to adorn. He would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span>
+certainly have turned his position to good account,
+and perhaps might have earned the gratitude of all
+succeeding students by improving their position in the
+University and bettering their relationship with their
+teachers&mdash;a much needed reform at that time. But
+he was a man for more active occupation, and it was
+more fitting that he should persevere to the end in the
+work of his life. Simpson expressed his opinion that
+the most suitable man for the post was the one already
+named by Brewster and desired by a majority of the
+Senatus; but that man, Professor Christison, then
+over seventy years of age, generously said that Sir
+Alexander Grant, an active candidate, would better
+fill the post. A strong section of Edinburgh folks
+persisted in pushing Simpson, and in deference to
+their wishes he consented to enter the lists. It
+cannot be said that he displayed any of the eager
+energy which had marked his candidature for the
+midwifery chair; but his friends made up for his
+comparative apathy. They were met by a strong
+opposition, not instigated by his rivals for the post,
+but offered by insignificant persons who cherished ill-will
+against him and spread untrue statements with the
+object of damaging his character. Greatly owing to
+the reports spread in this manner he was not elected.
+Sir Alexander Grant became the new Principal. The
+fact that he could not gain the post was communicated
+to him in a letter which reached him one morning
+before prayers. He conducted the worship as usual
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span>
+after reading the letter, and when the family had
+afterwards all assembled at the breakfast table he
+intimated the fact to them and dismissed the subject
+from his mind with the quiet remark, &#8220;I have lost
+the Principalship.&#8221;</p>
+<p>An interesting episode pertaining to this period was
+narrated by the Free Church minister of Newhaven.
+&#8220;The election,&#8221; he wrote to Dr. Duns, &#8220;took place
+on a Monday, and it was on the Sabbath preceding,
+between sermons, that one of my people, a fisherman,
+called on me stating that his wife was apparently
+dying, but that she and all her friends were longing
+most intensely for a consultation with Sir James. I
+did not know well what to do, for I knew that his
+mind was likely to be very much harassed, and I
+shrank from adding to his troubles. But in the
+urgency of the case I wrote him a note simply stating
+that one of the best women in the town was at the
+point of death and longed for his help, leaving the
+matter without another word to himself. The result
+was that he came down immediately, spent three
+hours beside his patient, performed, I am told, miracles
+of skill, and did not leave her till the crisis was over.
+She would, I am assured, have died that evening, but
+she was one of the sincerest mourners at his funeral,
+and she still lives to bless his memory. After all was
+over he went into a friend&#8217;s house and threw himself
+down on a sofa in a state of utter exhaustion. This
+was the way in which, without hope of fee or reward,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span>
+and while others were waiting for him able to give
+him both, Sir James spent the evening preceding the
+election. Some will say it was no great matter after
+all. Why, for that part of it, neither was the cup of
+cold water which the dying Sir Philip Sidney passed
+from his own lips to those of a wounded soldier in
+greater agony than himself. But the incident is
+recalled whenever his name is mentioned as adding to
+the glory of the knight <i>sans peur et sans reproche</i>, and
+the incident I have mentioned in the Newhaven
+fisherman&#8217;s house surely gives to Sir James a place
+beside him in the glorious order of chivalrous
+generosity.&#8221;</p>
+<p>Among the last of the honours offered to Simpson
+was the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh; a fitting
+tribute from the City in which and for which he had so
+nobly and untiringly laboured. It was proposed to present
+him with the burgess-ticket at the same time that it
+was publicly presented to another hero in a different
+sphere, Lord Napier of Magdala; but by his own desire
+the ceremony was postponed so far as he was concerned
+in order that full honour might be paid to Lord Napier.
+At the eventual presentation the Lord Provost made a
+short speech recapitulating the achievements for which
+they desired to honour him, and referring to his reputation
+as being great on the banks of the Thames and
+the Seine, as well as on the shores of the Firth of
+Forth; he likewise expressed the pride of his fellow-citizens
+that Sir James had remained amongst them
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span>
+and had not been drawn away like other men of genius
+before him by the attractions of the greater metropolis
+of the south. Simpson&#8217;s reply took the form of an
+impromptu review of his career from the time he first
+entered the City as a wonderstruck boy. &#8220;I came,&#8221;
+he proudly said, &#8220;to settle down and fight amongst
+you a hard and up-hill battle of life for bread and
+name and fame, and the fact that I stand here before
+you this day so far testifies that in the arduous struggle
+I have&mdash;won.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The accounts of the speeches delivered on this
+occasion which reached America raised the indignation
+of Dr. Bigelow, of Boston. Reference had been
+made to chloroform in a manner which appeared to
+slight Morton&#8217;s work in introducing ether as an anæsthetic
+before chloroform was heard of. In Bigelow&#8217;s
+estimation Simpson posed as a hero at the expense of
+Morton. Simpson had certainly been far from liberal
+in his allusions to Morton and others in his article
+upon Anæsthesia in the <i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>, and
+had written almost entirely about his own discovery.
+A controversy was excited, and on his deathbed Simpson
+wrote a letter to Bigelow to prove that he had duly
+considered the priority and the value of Morton&#8217;s
+and Wells&#8217;s work. In his concluding sentences he
+expressed regret at having taken up so much of his
+own and his correspondent&#8217;s time in such a petty
+discussion, but blamed his illness which prevented
+him from writing with the force and brevity required.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span>
+&#8220;With many of our profession in America,&#8221; he said,
+&#8220;I have the honour of being personally acquainted,
+and regard their friendship so very highly that I
+shall not regret this attempt&mdash;my last, perhaps&mdash;at
+professional writing as altogether useless on my part
+if it tend to fix my name and memory duly in
+their love and esteem.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The widespread national expression of the sense of
+loss and of sympathy which reached Edinburgh from
+the United States after Sir James&#8217;s death testified to
+the regard in which he was held from one end to
+the other of that country. In Boston itself the
+Gynæcological Society, of which he had been the
+first honorary member, convened a special memorial
+meeting, which was solemn and impressive. He
+had not been mistaken in presuming with his last
+breath that he held the regard of his American
+<i>confrères</i>.</p>
+<p>On the subject of education Simpson held what
+were considered advanced opinions, but which had
+already been expressed by Mr. Lowe. A few years
+before his death he delivered a lecture on Modern
+and Ancient Languages at Granton, in which he
+lamented the common neglect of modern languages
+in the education of the day. He had personally felt
+the want of a mastery over French and German,
+both in the course of his studies and during his
+travels; nor did he feel the want compensated for by
+his ability to write and talk in Latin. He strongly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span>
+advocated the paying of more attention to the modern
+and less to the dead languages, and he urged that
+natural science should take its place in the ordinary
+curriculum of the great public schools. These views
+were used as an argument against his fitness for the
+post of Principal of the ancient University.</p>
+<p>On three separate occasions it fell to Simpson&#8217;s
+lot to deliver the annual address to the newly-fledged
+graduates, which is the duty of the professors of
+the medical faculty in rotation. This ceremony
+remains deeply impressed in the memory of Edinburgh
+men, simple and dull as it undoubtedly is.
+The homily delivered by the orator of the day contains
+excellent counsels appropriate to the occasion,
+but the young man eager to rise and confidently
+try his wings pays little attention to the words of
+wisdom; unless it be to feel wonder that just as he
+is about to leave them, probably for ever, his <i>Alma
+Mater</i> and her priests have discovered an affectionate
+regard for him and his welfare. A few years later
+the struggling young practitioner may perhaps turn
+to the copy of this graduation address, forwarded to
+him by post with the author&#8217;s compliments, and find
+in such an one as Simpson delivered much to
+strengthen and encourage him. In 1842 and 1855
+he delivered addresses from which quotations have
+already been made; and in the third one, spoken in
+1868, he made a forecast of the future of medical
+science, predicting <i>inter alia</i> that by concentration
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span>
+of electric or other lights we should yet be enabled
+to make many parts of the body sufficiently diaphanous
+for inspection by the practised eye of the physician.
+It was his habit to commit such lectures to memory
+and to deliver them without notes. He was a ready
+public speaker on any subject in which he was interested;
+speeches made on the spur of the moment
+teemed with pleasantly-put facts and apt anecdotes
+from the vast storehouse of his memory. A speech
+from Sir James was one of the treats in which Edinburgh
+folks delighted.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span>
+<a name='CHAPTER_XII_FAILING_HEALTHDEATH' id='CHAPTER_XII_FAILING_HEALTHDEATH'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII
+<span class='chsub'> <br /><br />FAILING HEALTH&mdash;DEATH</span></h2>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Poetical instincts&mdash;Religious views&mdash;Religious and emotional influences
+in his life&mdash;Doubts&mdash;Revivalism&mdash;Health&mdash;Overwork tells&mdash;Bed&mdash;Gradual
+failure&mdash;Death on May 6, 1870&mdash;Grave offered in
+Westminster Abbey&mdash;Buried at Warriston&mdash;Obituary notices&mdash;Bust
+in the Abbey&mdash;His greatness.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The emotional part of Sir James Simpson&#8217;s
+nature found some small expression in versifying
+both, as we have seen, in early years and in
+later days. We know that he was a close student
+of Shakspeare, but Miss Simpson states that her
+father probably never entered a theatre, so that he
+can never have seen a representation. He was
+familiar with modern poets, especially with Burns.
+It is related that he once tested a lady friend&#8217;s insight
+into the vernacular by quoting from memory for
+explanation the following lines from the national
+bard:&mdash;</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Baudrons sit by the ingle-neuk,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>An&#8217; wi&#8217; her loof her face she&#8217;s washin&#8217;,</p>
+<p>Willie&#8217;s wife it nae sae trig,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>She dichts her grunzie wi&#8217; a hooschen.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span></div>
+<p>His own verses were neither better nor worse than
+those written by other men whose abilities have led
+them to excel in more practical pursuits. In youth
+they celebrated student life, or were, as usual,
+dedicated to Celia&#8217;s eyebrows; in mature life they
+were of a more serious, and latterly of a strong
+religious description. At all times he delighted in
+writing little doggerel verses to his children or friends;
+valueless as such efforts are, they served a useful
+purpose; their composition was a recreation and
+pleasant relief to his over-taxed brain, while it was
+an amusement to him to watch their effect upon
+the recipients, and perhaps to receive a reply clothed
+also in the garb of rhyme.</p>
+<p>Sir James&#8217;s example so influenced the people amongst
+whom he lived that it is impossible to omit reference
+to his attitude throughout life towards religion and an
+account of what is one of the most interesting phases
+in his history. Up to Christmas, 1861, he had been,
+in the eyes of the religious public, an ordinary
+citizen; as regular in church-going as his professional
+engagements permitted; thoroughly interested in
+Church affairs, and a strong supporter of his own
+Church; possessing to the full the national characteristic
+of intimate acquaintance with the letter
+of the Old and New Testaments; and something
+of a theologian as well, as his answer to the religious
+objections to anæsthesia showed. At that
+period, to the delight of many, and the genuine
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span>
+astonishment of others among his fellow-citizens,
+he became a leading spirit in the strong Evangelical
+movement which was then spreading through the
+country, &#8220;Simpson is converted,&#8221; cried the enthusiastic
+revivalist. &#8220;Simpson is converted now,&#8221; laughed
+those who had opposed every action of his. &#8220;If Professor
+Simpson is converted, it is time some of the rest
+of us were seeing if we do not need to be converted,&#8221;
+wisely answered one of his friends. In the ordinary
+sense of the word Simpson was not converted. Had
+he passed away without developing this latter-day Evangelical
+enthusiasm, all sects would still have united in
+thankfulness that such a man had lived. Why this
+religious revival during the sixties affected him as it
+did becomes evident in looking at the religious, moral,
+and emotional influences which affected him throughout
+his career.</p>
+<p>The simple-minded, devout mother, strong in faith
+and strong in works, who passed out of his life when
+he was but nine years old, left a vivid impression on
+the boy&#8217;s mind. In after years he would call up the
+picture of the good woman retiring from the shop and
+the worries and troubles of daily life into which she
+had so vigorously thrown herself and so bravely
+faced even with failing health, into the quiet little
+room behind, to kneel down in prayer; and would
+describe how at other times she went about her
+work chanting to herself one of the old Scots metrical
+psalms:</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span></div>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Jehovah hear thee in the day, when trouble He did send</p>
+<p>And let the name of Jacob&#8217;s God thee from all ill defend.</p>
+<p>Let Him remember all thy gifts, accept thy sacrifice,</p>
+<p>Grant thee thine heart&#8217;s wish and fulfil thy thoughts and counsel wise.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>He used to relate one memory of her, touching in
+its simplicity: how one day he entered the house with
+a big hole in his stocking which she perceived and
+drew him on to her knee to darn. As she pulled the
+repaired garment on she said, &#8220;My Jamie, when your
+mother&#8217;s away, you will mind that she was a grand
+darner.&#8221; He remembered the words as if they had
+been spoken but yesterday, and subsequently offered to
+a lady who had established a girls&#8217; Industrial School in
+his native village a prize for the best darning.</p>
+<p>The simple faith which beat in the life of the
+Bathgate baker&#8217;s household was ingrained into James
+Simpson; he went forth into the world full of it, and
+full of the determination that by his fruits he should be
+known.</p>
+<p>The tender, loving care for his welfare of his sisters
+and brothers, particularly of Sandy, who never faltered
+in his inspired belief in James&#8217;s great future, kept alive
+in Simpson something of his mother&#8217;s affectionate
+nature, and kindled the sympathies and emotions
+which bulked so large in his character. His goodness
+was displayed in his kindly treatment of the poor, who
+formed at first the whole and afterwards no small part
+of his patients. When name and fame and bread
+were his, he did not turn his back on the poor, but
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span>
+as we have seen, ever placed his skill at their disposal
+for no reward, as readily as he yielded it to the greatest in
+the land. As in his daily practice, so in his greatest
+professional efforts, the revelation of chloroform, the
+fight for anæsthesia, the introduction of acupressure,
+the crusade against hospitalism, one thought breathed
+through his work&mdash;that he might do something
+to better the condition of suffering humanity. He
+never attempted to keep discoveries in his own
+hands, to profit by the monopoly, but scattered wide
+the knowledge which had come to him that it might
+benefit mankind and grow stronger and wider in the
+hands of other workers.</p>
+<p>In his domestic life he was a tender, loving, and
+companionable husband and father, a charming host,
+and a warm-hearted friend. &#8220;In this Edinburgh of
+ours,&#8221; says a recent writer, &#8220;there are familiar faces
+whose expression changes greatly at the mention of
+his name; there are men whose speech from formal
+and precise turns headlong and extravagant, as if it
+came from a new and inspired vocabulary.&#8221; In
+Scotland his personal influence was immense. As
+was afterwards written of him, &#8220;Great in his art,
+and peerless in resource, yet greater was he in his
+own great soul;&#8221; such a man stood in no need of the
+violent revolution in mode of life implied in conversion.
+A gradual process of development led to his
+feeling that although to labour was to pray, there was
+a need for more attention to the spiritual, even in his
+self-sacrificing life.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span></div>
+<p>There is evidence that during a brief period of his
+career Simpson became affected by speculative doubts;
+indeed it would have been surprising if his mind had
+not been affected by some of the new schools of thought
+which sprang up in the footsteps of Charles Darwin,
+and appeared for a time to threaten a mortal antagonism
+to all that was dear to orthodox Christians. But these
+did not influence him long; true to his character he
+examined every new thought and finding it wanting
+remained firm in his old and tried faith, and ranged
+himself on the side of those who perceived nothing
+seriously incompatible between religion and modern
+science.</p>
+<p>In his bearing, when the angel of sorrow afflicted his
+household with no unsparing hand, we find him always
+a religious-minded man. The first trial was the loss
+of the eldest child, his daughter Maggie, in 1844.
+Another daughter, Mary, was lost in early infancy.
+In 1848 his friend of boyhood and student days,
+Professor John Reid, was smitten with a painful
+malady and died after a prolonged period of suffering
+during which, knowing that the shadow of death was
+hanging over him, he devoted himself in retirement
+to religious thoughts. Experiences such as these made
+Simpson pause and question himself. Brimful of life
+and vigour, however much he came in contact with
+death in his professional rounds, the sight of it in
+his own inner circle powerfully stirred his emotional
+nature. His friend the Rev. Dr. Duns noticed in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span>
+him after these sad events a gradually increasing
+earnestness in his spiritual life, and a closer inquiry into
+the meanings of the Scriptures. He sought out the
+company, and placed himself under the influence of
+those among his patients whom he knew to possess
+fervid religious temperaments. The last mental stumbling-block
+was the question of prayer; he had seriously
+doubted in examining the question intellectually that
+human prayer could influence the purpose of the
+Deity. It is difficult, if not presumptuous, to inquire
+into the process whereby, under the guidance of
+spiritually minded friends, his doubts were satisfied.</p>
+<div class='poem w20'><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='center'>&#8220;... One indeed I knew</p>
+<p>In many a subtle question versed.&#8221;</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<hr class='tb' />
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;He fought his doubts and gathered strength,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>He would not make his judgment blind,</p>
+<p class='indent2'>He faced the spectres of the mind,</p>
+<p>And laid them&mdash;thus he came at length&#8221;</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<hr class='tb' />
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;To find a stronger faith his own.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>The simple earnest faith of his fathers in which he
+had commenced life, ran all through his mature years
+and prompted his strong purposeful energies. After
+the combat with the only seriously perplexing doubt
+he re-embraced his faith with the simplicity of a child
+and the strength of a giant. For one accustomed
+to apply to every subject taken in hand the rigid
+process of careful scientific investigation, it required
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span>
+no small effort to lay aside his usual methods and
+suffer himself to be led wholly by faith.</p>
+<p>It was impossible for Simpson to enter into any
+movement without taking a prominent part in it.
+That Christmas Day on which all doubts left him was
+followed by days of extraordinarily zealous work, such
+as would have been expected of him after he had
+convinced himself that he had a mission to spread
+abroad this, the latest, and, in his opinion, the greatest,
+of his discoveries. He plunged at once into the midst
+of Evangelical societies, missions, and prayer-meetings,
+amongst the upper and lower classes of Edinburgh,
+and made excursions into the mining districts of his
+native county to deliver addresses. He interested
+himself in the education of theological students, and
+in foreign missions, and added to his literary work the
+writing of religious addresses, tracts and hymns. His
+example had a powerful influence in Edinburgh. It
+is said that he frequently addressed on a Sunday
+evening Evangelical assemblies of two thousand
+persons. The news of his so-called conversion was
+gleefully spread by well-meaning folks, who had given
+credence to statements published by his enemies, and
+imagined that here was a bad if a great man turned
+aside from the broad to the narrow path. This
+enthusiastic revival movement died down in time, and
+Simpson returned to his ordinary everyday life.</p>
+<p>More sorrow soon fell to his lot. In 1862 his fifth
+child, James, who had always been an invalid, was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span>
+taken from him at the age of fifteen. In 1866 the
+sad death of Dr. David Simpson, the eldest son, which
+has already been referred to, was followed in about a
+month&#8217;s time by that of the eldest surviving daughter,
+Jessie, at the age of seventeen. The death of James,
+a sweet-natured child, stimulated him in the revival
+work. Pious friends had surrounded the little sufferer
+and led him to add his innocent influence in exciting
+his father&#8217;s religious emotions.</p>
+<p>There is reason to believe that Simpson perceived
+much insincerity in the revival movement, and
+attempted to dissociate himself from active participation
+in it, on account of finding it impossible to
+work in harmony with some who, though loud in
+profession, flagrantly failed in practice.</p>
+<p>The subject of Simpson&#8217;s health has been little
+referred to in these pages, because throughout his life
+he paid little attention to it. The chief remedy for
+the feeling of indisposition was change of work. He
+found it impossible to be idle, and sought as recreation
+occupations such as archæological research, or a
+scamper round foreign hospitals, which to most people
+would have savoured more of labour. The part of his
+body which was most worked, his nervous system, was
+naturally the one which most often troubled him with
+disorder; like other great men of high mental development
+he suffered from time to time with severe
+attacks of megrim, which necessitated a few hours of
+rest. The blood-poisoning, for which he availed himself
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span>
+of Professor Syme&#8217;s services, was soon recovered
+from with prompt treatment ending in a foreign tour;
+but after it little illnesses became more frequent, and
+he was perforce occasionally confined to the house.
+During these times he busied himself, for the sake of
+occupation and to distract his attention from his sufferings,
+in professional reading or the preparation of literary
+papers. Rheumatic troubles became frequent, and
+soon after his eldest son&#8217;s death he had to run over to
+the Isle of Man to free himself from a severe attack of
+sciatica.</p>
+<p>Long, weary nights spent at the bedside of
+patients or in tiresome railway journeys, and exposure
+to all varieties of weather, had a serious effect upon
+him. Travelling was slow, according to modern ideas,
+and long waits at wayside stations in winter-time
+helped to play havoc with his constitution. He was
+well known to the railway officials in Scotland. The
+figure of the great Edinburgh professor was familiar
+at many a station, striding up and down the platform
+with the stationmaster, chaffing the porter, or cheerily
+chatting to the driver and stoker leaning out of the
+engine. After his death many of these men would
+proudly produce little mementoes of their services to
+him, which he never forgot to send.</p>
+<p>The little rest house, Viewbank, on the Forth, had
+to be more frequently sought refuge in, if only to get
+away from the harassing night-bell and secure a full
+night&#8217;s sleep. In the last year or two of his existence
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span>
+he found the work of his practice and chair hard to
+carry on, not because of any defined illness, but on
+account of the loss of that buoyant elasticity of constitution
+which had enabled him to bear without apparent
+effort or injury the fatigue which would have been sufficient
+to prostrate more than one ordinary man. He
+had early trained himself to do with a minimum of
+sleep; to snatch what he could and when he could, if
+it were only on a sofa, a bare board, or in one of the
+comfortless railway carriages of the day. He took full
+advantage during his career of the modern facilities for
+travelling which he had seen introduced and developed.
+Many a night was spent in the train, going
+to or returning from a far-distant patient, or after a
+combined professional and archæological excursion;
+the next morning would find him busy in his usual
+routine. On the day after receiving the degree of
+D.C.L. at Oxford in 1866, he started for Devizes,
+which was reached the same evening; here he had a
+hasty meal and drove on to Avebury to see the standing
+stones there. He returned at midnight, and at five
+o&#8217;clock next morning set off for Stonehenge, a place
+he had long desired to see, thoroughly examined the
+remarkable remains, and on his return took train to
+Bath, where he found time to examine more antiquities.
+At midnight a telegram reached him calling him professionally
+to Northumberland. He snatched a few
+hours&#8217; sleep, and taking the four a.m. train to London
+set out for Northumberland, where he saw his patient,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span>
+and then proceeded to Edinburgh. This is no solitary
+instance of his journeyings, but an example of many.</p>
+<p>When the year 1870 had been entered upon, he
+awoke to the fact that his flesh was too weak for his
+eager spirit; despite this, he held on his course, and
+worked without ceasing, never refusing an urgent call,
+although he now suffered from angina pectoris. On
+February 12th he hastened to London to give evidence
+in a notorious divorce case. He arrived only to find
+that the trial had been postponed for four days. He
+returned to Edinburgh on the 14th, spent the next
+day in professional visits in the country, and arrived
+again in London in time to appear in the witness-box
+on the 16th, although chilled to the bone by the coldness
+of the long journey. On the following day he
+stopped at York on his way home, dined with Lord
+Houghton, and visited, at 11 p.m., his friend Dr.
+Williams, in Micklegate. During the remainder of
+the journey from York to Edinburgh he suffered
+severely, and &#8220;was glad to rest for awhile upon the
+floor of the railway carriage.&#8221;</p>
+<p>A few days after this last run to London he was
+summoned to see a patient in Perth, but was this time
+so fatigued by the effort, that after his return on
+February 25th he was obliged to take to bed. The
+news sped to all quarters of the globe that Simpson was
+gravely ill, for nothing but grave illness could compel
+that vigorous man to completely lay down his work.</p>
+<p>His symptoms improved at first under appropriate
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span>
+treatment sufficiently to allow him to be placed on a
+bed in the drawing-room; and he even once more
+took up his favourite archæology, revising some of his
+work in that subject. Patients also were not to be
+denied; many were seen and prescribed for in his
+sick room, some even being carried up to his presence.
+But the fatal disease regained ascendancy, and the
+fact became apparent to all, not excepting himself,
+that the last chapter of the closely written book of his
+life had been entered upon. Towards the end of
+March, by his own request, his eldest surviving son
+was telegraphed for to be near him, and he wrote a
+touching letter to his youngest son, then a student in
+Geneva, encouraging him in his studies, asking him to
+look for cup-markings cut in the curious islet rock in
+Lake Geneva, and ending with an expression of his
+feeling of impending death, for which he felt perfectly
+and happily prepared. In these last days he loved to
+have his nearest and dearest around him; Lady Simpson
+and others read to him, and his daughter tells us
+how she daily prepared her school lessons in the sick
+room with his help; to the last he interested himself
+in the work of his relations and friends. He answered
+the attack of Bigelow, of Boston, conscious that it
+was his last effort on behalf of chloroform, and wrote
+to all his old opponents asking their forgiveness if at
+any time words of his had wounded their feelings.
+He might well have spared himself the regrets&mdash;such
+as they were&mdash;which troubled him. &#8220;I would have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span>
+liked to have completed hospitalism,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but I
+hope some good man will take it up.&#8221; On another
+occasion he asked, &#8220;How old am I? Fifty-nine? Well,
+I have done some work. I wish I had been busier.&#8221;</p>
+<p>He expressed a desire that his nephew should succeed
+him in the Chair of Midwifery&mdash;he would, he
+thought, help to perpetuate his treatment.</p>
+<p>There was much communing with himself on his
+future, and all his sayings on the subject breathed the
+simple faith first inculcated in him in the Bathgate
+cottage. His great sufferings, sometimes allayed by
+opiates and his own chloroform, were bravely borne,
+but the days dragged sadly on. On the evening of
+May 5th Sandy took his place at his side, and the last
+conscious moments of the great physician were spent
+with his head in the arms of him who had helped
+and guided him through the difficult days of his
+career. At sunset on May 6th he passed peacefully
+away.</p>
+<p>The extent of the feeling evoked by the tidings of
+his death was represented in Mr. Gladstone&#8217;s remark
+that it was a grievous loss to the nation and was truly
+a national concern. There was a universally expressed
+opinion that he merited without a shadow of
+doubt the rare national honour of public interment in
+Westminster Abbey. A committee was formed out of
+the leading medical men in London to carry out this
+suggestion. Their task was light, for the Dean
+acceded to the request at once. Much as his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span>
+family and the Scots people valued this tribute to his
+greatness, they decided otherwise. Scotland has no
+counterpart of Westminster in which to lay to rest
+those whom she feels to have been her greatest; but
+Edinburgh felt that she could not part with him who
+in life had been her possession and her pride. He had
+long ago chosen a piece of ground in the Warriston
+cemetery, and Lady Simpson decided, to the gratification
+of his fellow-citizens, that he should be buried
+there beside the five children who had preceded him.
+His resting place was well chosen; it nestled into the
+side of the beautiful city, and from it could be viewed
+some of the chief objects of the scene he knew so
+well&mdash;on the south the stately rock crowned with
+the ancient castle, and the towering flats of the old
+town stretching away to Arthur&#8217;s Seat; on the north
+the long stretch of the Firth of Forth and in the
+distance on the one hand the Ochills; on the other
+the Bass Rock.</p>
+<p>The funeral was one of the most remarkable ever
+witnessed in Scotland. It took place on May 13th
+in the presence of a crowd estimated to consist of
+thirty thousand persons. The hearse was followed by
+a representative procession comprising close upon two
+thousand persons. His own relatives assembled at 52,
+Queen Street, the general public and the Town
+Council in the Free Church of St. Luke, and the
+representatives of the University, the Colleges of
+Physicians and Surgeons, and the Royal Society and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span>
+many other public bodies, in the Hall of the College of
+Physicians. At each of these meeting-places religious
+services were held. The whole city ceased to labour
+that afternoon in order to pay the last tribute to its
+dearly loved professor. The poor mourned in the
+crowd as deeply and genuinely as those with whom
+he had been closely associated in life mourned as
+they followed his remains in the procession. Every
+mourner grieved from a sense of personal loss, so
+deeply had his influence sunk down into the hearts
+of the people.</p>
+<p>The companion of his troubles and his triumphs,
+who had bravely joined him to help him to the fame
+he strove after, was soon laid beside him. Lady
+Simpson died on June 17th of the same year.</p>
+<p>But two notes were struck in the countless obituary
+notices and letters of condolence which appeared from
+far and near&mdash;those of appreciation of his great
+nature, and sorrow for the terrible loss sustained by
+science and humanity. The Queen caused the Duke
+of Argyle to express to the family her own personal
+sorrow at the loss of &#8220;so great and good a man.&#8221; A
+largely attended meeting was held in Washington
+to express the feeling of his own profession in the
+United States, at which Dr. Storer moved, &#8220;that in
+Dr. Simpson, American physicians recognise not
+merely an eminent and learned Scots practitioner, but
+a philanthropist whose love encircled the world; a
+discoverer who sought and found for suffering
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span>
+humanity in its sorest need a foretaste of the peace
+of heaven, and a devoted disciple of the only true
+physician, our Saviour Jesus Christ.&#8221;</p>
+<p>The following original verses from the pen of a
+well-known scholar in the profession, were given
+prominence in the columns of the <i>Lancet</i>:&mdash;</p>
+<h3>PROMETHEUS.</h3>
+<p class='center'>(Our lamented Sir James Simpson was the subject of angina pectoris.)</p>
+<div class='poem w25'><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='center'>1</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;Alas! alas! pain, pain, ever forever!&#8221;</p>
+<p>So groaned upon his rock that Titan good</p>
+<p>Who by his brave and loving hardihood</p>
+<p>Was to weak man of priceless boons the giver,</p>
+<p>Which e&#8217;en the supreme tyrant could not sever</p>
+<p>From us, once given; we own him in our food</p>
+<p>And in our blazing hearth&#8217;s beatitude;</p>
+<p>Yet still his cry was &#8220;Pain, ever forever!&#8221;</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Shall we a later, harder doom rehearse?</p>
+<p>One came whose art men&#8217;s dread of are repressed:</p>
+<p>Mangled and writhing limb he lulled to rest,</p>
+<p>And stingless left the old Semitic curse;</p>
+<p>Him, too, for these blest gifts did Zeus amerce?</p>
+<p>He, too, had vultures tearing at his breast.</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='center'>2</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Hush, Pagan plaints! our Titan is unbound;</p>
+<p>The cruel beak and talons scared away;</p>
+<p>As once upon his mother&#8217;s lap he lay</p>
+<p>So rests his head august on holy ground;</p>
+<p>Spells stronger than his own his pangs have found;</p>
+<p>He hears no clamour of polemic fray,</p>
+<p>Nor reeks he what unthankful men may say;</p>
+<p>Nothing can vex him in that peace profound.</p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span></p>
+<p>And where his loving soul, his genius bold?</p>
+<p>In slumber? or already sent abroad</p>
+<p>On angels&#8217; wings and works, as some men hold?</p>
+<p>Or waiting Evolution&#8217;s change, unawed?</p>
+<p>All is a mystery, as Saint Paul has told,</p>
+<p>Saying, &#8220;Your life is hid with Christ in God.&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>In a peaceful corner of the St. Andrew Chapel in
+Westminster Abbey, alongside memorials of Sir Humphry
+Davy and a few other scientists of note, stands a
+speaking image in marble&mdash;perhaps the most expressive
+representation that exists&mdash;of this wonderful man,</p>
+<div class='poem w20'><div class='stanza'>
+<p class='center'>&#8220;To whose genius and benevolence</p>
+<p class='center'>The world owes the blessings derived</p>
+<p class='center'>From the use of chloroform for</p>
+<p class='center'>The relief of suffering.</p>
+<p class='center'><span class='smcap'>Laus Deo.</span>&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<p>Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, when writing to the
+medical journals in support of the proposal to secure
+Simpson&#8217;s burial in Westminster Abbey, foretold that
+his reputation would ripen with years, that jealousies
+would be forgotten, and antagonism would be buried.
+Twenty-seven years have elapsed since then, and
+few remain with whom he came in conflict; those
+who do remain exchanged, along with others of his
+opponents, friendly words of reconciliation in the end,
+and took the hand which he held out from his deathbed.
+As a man, Simpson had his faults; but they
+were exaggerated in his lifetime by some, just as his
+capabilities and achievements were magnified by
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span>
+those who worshipped him as inspired. He was full
+of sympathy for mankind, benevolent and honest to a
+fault, and forbearing to his enemies. He rushed
+eagerly into the combat and oftentimes wounded sorely,
+and perhaps unnecessarily. His genius was essentially
+a reforming genius, and impelled him to fight
+for his ends, for genius is always the &#8220;master of man.&#8221;
+We can forgive him if sometimes it caused him to
+fight too vigorously, where the heart of a man of
+mere talent might have failed and lost. His social
+charms were excelled only by his marvellous energy,
+his prodigious memory, and his keenness of insight;
+but he was regrettably inattentive to the details of
+ordinary everyday life and practice.</p>
+<p>He approached the study of medicine when the darkness
+of the Middle Ages was still upon it, and was one
+of the first to point out that although many diseases
+appeared incurable, they were nevertheless preventable.
+Although no brilliant operator himself, he so transformed
+the surgical theatre by his revelation of the
+power of chloroform, and by his powerful advocacy of
+the use of anæsthetics, that pain was shut out and vast
+scientific possibilities opened up; many of which have
+been brilliantly realised by subsequent workers. He
+devoted himself specially to the despised obstetric art,
+fighting for what he recognised as the most lowly
+and neglected branch of his profession, ranging his
+powerful forces on the side of the weak, and left
+it the most nearly perfect of medical sciences.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span></div>
+<p>He was enthusiastic in his belief in progress, and in
+the power of steady, honest work to effect great ends.
+With the exception of the time of that temporary burst
+into revivalism in 1861, his motto throughout life
+might very well have been <i>laborare est orare</i>. He
+was no believer in speculations, but curiously enough
+kept for recreation only the subject of archæology,
+in which he entered into many intricate speculative
+studies. In his professional work he avoided speculation,
+and never adopted a theory which was not
+built upon firm fact.</p>
+<p>If we are asked for what we are most to honour
+Simpson, we answer, not so much for the discoveries he
+made, not for the instruments he invented, not for his
+exposure of numerous evils, not for the introduction
+of reforms, not for any particular contribution to
+science, literature, or archæology; but rather for
+the inspiring life of the man looked at both in outline
+and in detail. He was guided by high ideals, and a
+joyous unhesitating belief that all good things were
+possible&mdash;that right must prevail. He was stimulated
+by a genius which, as has been pointed out, gave him
+the energy to fight for his ends with herculean
+strength. The fact that chloroform was by his
+efforts alone accepted as <i>the</i> anæsthetic, and ether,
+which from the first was generally thought to be
+safer in ordinary hands, was deliberately put on one
+side practically all over the world, testified to his
+forcible and convincing method, and to his power of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span>
+making others see as he saw. As a man of science
+alone, as a philanthropist alone, as a worker alone,
+as a reformer alone, he was great. But although to
+the popular mind he is known chiefly because of his
+introduction of chloroform, medical history will record
+him as greater because of his reforming genius, and
+will point to the fight for anæsthesia, and his crusade
+against hospitalism as the best of all that he accomplished
+or initiated. And he who, while making
+allowances for the weaknesses of human nature which
+were Simpson&#8217;s, studies the life which was brought
+all too soon to a close, will recognise the great spirit
+which breathed through all his life.</p>
+<p class='center larger'>THE END.</p>
+<hr class='toprule' />
+<div class='chsp'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span>
+<a name='APPENDIX' id='APPENDIX'></a>
+<h2>APPENDIX</h2>
+</div>
+<h3>I.</h3>
+<p>The following is a list of Sir James Simpson&#8217;s contributions
+to <i>Archæology</i>. His professional writings, in the
+form of contributions to the medical journals, or of papers
+read to various societies or meetings, number close upon
+two hundred.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>1. &#8220;Antiquarian Notices of Leprosy and Leper Hospitals
+in Scotland and England.&#8221; (Three papers read
+before the Medico-Chirurgical Society, March 3, 1841.)
+<i>Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal</i>, October, 1841,
+and January and April, 1842.</p>
+<p>2. &#8220;Notice of Roman Practitioner&#8217;s Medicine Stamp
+found near Tranent.&#8221; Royal Society of Edinburgh; Dec.
+16, 1850.</p>
+<p>3. &#8220;Ancient Roman Medical Stamps.&#8221; <i>Edinburgh
+Journal of Medical Science</i>, Jan., March, April, 1851.</p>
+<p>4. &#8220;Was the Roman Army provided with any Medical
+Officers?&#8221; Edinburgh, 1851, private circulation.</p>
+<p>5. &#8220;Notes on some Ancient Greek Medical Vases for
+containing Lykion; and on the modern use of the same
+in India.&#8221; Edinburgh, 1856.</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span></div>
+<p>6. &#8220;Notice of the appearance of Syphilis in Scotland
+in the last years of the fifteenth century.&#8221; 1860.</p>
+<p>7. &#8220;Note on a Pictish Inscription in the Churchyard of
+St. Vigeans.&#8221; Royal Society, April 6, 1863.</p>
+<p>8. &#8220;Notes on some Scottish Magical Charm-Stones or
+Curing Stones.&#8221; <i>Proceedings of Antiquarian Society of
+Scotland</i>, vol iv., 1868.</p>
+<p>9. &#8220;An Account of two Barrows at Spottiswoode, Berwickshire,
+opened by the Lady John Scott.&#8221; <i>Proceedings
+of Antiquarian Society of Scotland</i>, vol iv., 1868.</p>
+<p>10. &#8220;Did John de Vigo describe Acupressure in the
+Sixteenth Century?&#8221; <i>British Medical Journal</i>, Aug. 24,
+1867; <i>Medical Times and Gazette</i>, 1867, vol. ii., p. 187.</p>
+<p>11. &#8220;Account of some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls
+of Caves in Fife.&#8221; 1867.</p>
+<p>12. &#8220;Notices of some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls
+of Caves.&#8221; <i>Proceedings of the Royal Society</i>; Edinburgh,
+1867.</p>
+<p>13. &#8220;Cup-cuttings and Ring-cuttings on the Calder
+Stones, near Liverpool.&#8221; 1866. <i>Transactions of the Historical
+Society of Lancashire and Cheshire.</i></p>
+<p>14. &#8220;Archæology&mdash;its past and its future work.&#8221; Annual
+Address to the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland,
+January 28, 1861.</p>
+<p>15. &#8220;The Cat Stane, Edinburghshire.&#8221; <i>Proceedings of
+the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland</i>, 1861.</p>
+<p>16. &#8220;Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, &amp;c., upon
+Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England, and other
+countries.&#8221; 1867.</p>
+<p>17. &#8220;Is the Pyramid at Gizeh a Meteorological Monument?&#8221;
+<i>Proceedings of the Royal Society</i>; Edinburgh,
+1868.</p>
+<p>18. &#8220;Pyramidal Structures in Egypt and elsewhere.&#8221;
+<i>Proceedings of the Royal Society</i>; Edinburgh, 1868.</p>
+<p>19. &#8220;Cell at Inchcolm.&#8221;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span></div>
+<p>The above list is founded on that given by Professor
+Gusscrow in his &#8220;Zur Erinnerung an Sir James Y.
+Simpson.&#8221; Berlin, 1871.</p>
+<h3>II.</h3>
+<p>On <i>post mortem</i> examination the following observations
+on Sir James Simpson&#8217;s head were made:&mdash;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" summary="Head Exam">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><i>Skull</i></td><td align="left">&mdash;circumference round by occipital protuberance and below frontal eminences, 22œ inches.</td></tr>
+<tr><td /><td align="left">&mdash;from ear to ear, 13 inches.</td></tr>
+<tr><td /><td align="left">&mdash;from occipital protuberance to point between
+superciliary ridges, 13 inches.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><i>Brain</i></td><td align="left">&mdash;weight of entire brain (cerebrum and cerebellum) was 54 ounces; the cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata weighed 5Πounces.</td></tr></table>
+<p>The convolutions of the cerebrum were remarkable for
+their number, depth, and intricate foldings. This was
+noticed more particularly in the anterior lobes and the
+islands of Reil.</p>
+<p>Extract from <i>British Medical Journal</i>, May 14, 1870.</p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<div class='chsp' style='padding-top:0'>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span>
+<a name='INDEX' id='INDEX'></a>
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+</div>
+<table style="width:75%;" border="0" summary="index jump table">
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#IX_A">A</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_B">B</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_C">C</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_D">D</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_E">E</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_F">F</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_G">G</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_H">H</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_I">I</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_J">J</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_K">K</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_L">L</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_M">M</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><a href="#IX_N">N</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_O">O</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_P">P</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_Q">Q</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_R">R</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_S">S</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_T">T</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_U">U</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_V">V</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_W">W</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_Y">X</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_Y">Y</a></td>
+    <td><a href="#IX_Y">Z</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_A'></a>A</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Academy of Sciences (France), <a href='#page_194'>194</a></p>
+<p>Acupressure, <a href='#page_173'>173</a></p>
+<p>Adam Street, Simpson&#8217;s lodgings in, <a href='#page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#page_30'>30</a></p>
+<p>Addresses, Graduation, <a href='#page_74'>74-77</a>, <a href='#page_200'>200</a></p>
+<p>Alcohol as an anæsthetic, <a href='#page_93'>93</a></p>
+<p>Alison, Professor, <a href='#page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#page_148'>148</a></p>
+<p>America, United States of, and anæsthesia, <a href='#page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#page_199'>199</a></p>
+<p>Anæsthesia, <a href='#page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#page_178'>178</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>opposition to:</p>
+<p class='indent4'>(1) medical, <a href='#page_113'>113</a></p>
+<p class='indent4'>(2) moral, <a href='#page_120'>120</a></p>
+<p class='indent4'>(3) religious, <a href='#page_123'>123</a>.</p>
+<p class='indent2'>Discovery of, <a href='#page_88'>88</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>results of, <a href='#page_130'>130</a></p>
+<p>Antiquarians, Scots Society of, <a href='#page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#page_156'>156</a></p>
+<p>Appendix, <a href='#page_223'>223</a></p>
+<p>Archæological works, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_223'>223</a></p>
+<p>Archæology, <a href='#page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#page_223'>223</a></p>
+<p>Argyle, Duke of, <a href='#page_217'>217</a></p>
+<p>Arts, curriculum of, <a href='#page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#page_20'>20</a></p>
+<p>Aytoun, <a href='#page_27'>27</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_B'></a>B</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Baden, Princess Marie of, <a href='#page_69'>69</a></p>
+<p>Ballingall, Professor, <a href='#page_60'>60</a></p>
+<p>Baronetcy, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_190'>190</a></p>
+<p>Bathgate, <a href='#page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#page_142'>142</a></p>
+<p>Bell, Sir Charles, <a href='#page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#page_61'>61</a></p>
+<p>Bennet, <a href='#page_42'>42</a></p>
+<p>Bigelow, Dr., of Boston, <a href='#page_198'>198</a>, <a href='#page_214'>214</a></p>
+<p>Blantyre, Lord, <a href='#page_80'>80</a></p>
+<p>Boerhaave, <a href='#page_134'>134</a></p>
+<p>Boston, U.S.A., <a href='#page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#page_199'>199</a></p>
+<p>Braid, Dr., <a href='#page_95'>95</a></p>
+<p>Brewster, Sir David, <a href='#page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span></p>
+<p>British Medical Association, <a href='#page_188'>188</a></p>
+<p><i>British Medical Journal</i>, <a href='#page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#page_225'>225</a></p>
+<p>Bruce, Robert, <a href='#page_72'>72</a></p>
+<p>Brunton, Dr. Lauder, <a href='#page_148'>148</a></p>
+<p>Burke and Hare, <a href='#page_23'>23</a></p>
+<p>Bursary won by Simpson, <a href='#page_20'>20</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_C'></a>C</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Carstares, William, <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p>Catstane, the, of Kirkliston, <a href='#page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#page_155'>155</a></p>
+<p>Chalmers, Dr., <a href='#page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#page_125'>125</a></p>
+<p>Cheselden, <a href='#page_122'>122</a></p>
+<p>Cheyne, Mr. Watson, <a href='#page_184'>184</a></p>
+<p>Children, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_85'>85</a>, <a href='#page_207'>207</a></p>
+<p>Chirurgeons, incorporation of, <a href='#page_58'>58</a></p>
+<p>Chloric ether, <a href='#page_99'>99</a></p>
+<p>Chloroform, <a href='#page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#page_221'>221</a>, <a href='#page_219'>219</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>discovery of, <a href='#page_105'>105</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>composition described by Dumas, <a href='#page_106'>106</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>Flouren&#8217;s experiments, <a href='#page_106'>106</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>discovery of properties, <a href='#page_106'>106</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>used in obstetrics, <a href='#page_108'>108</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>Simpson&#8217;s opinion of, <a href='#page_111'>111</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>administration, teaching of, <a href='#page_130'>130</a></p>
+<p>Christison, Professor, <a href='#page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#page_195'>195</a></p>
+<p>Clark, Sir James, <a href='#page_129'>129</a></p>
+<p>Clover, <a href='#page_130'>130</a></p>
+<p>Cockburn, Lord, <a href='#page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#page_27'>27</a></p>
+<p>College of Physicians, Edinburgh, <a href='#page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#page_189'>189</a></p>
+<p>Cooley, Mr., <a href='#page_97'>97</a></p>
+<p>Cooper, Bransby, <a href='#page_123'>123</a></p>
+<p>Crest, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p>Cullen, <a href='#page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#page_41'>41</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_D'></a>D</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Davy, Sir Humphry, <a href='#page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#page_219'>219</a></p>
+<p>Dawson, Dr., <a href='#page_69'>69</a></p>
+<p>De Quincey, <a href='#page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#page_128'>128</a></p>
+<p>Disruption, the, <a href='#page_85'>85</a></p>
+<p>Doctor of Medicine, degree of, <a href='#page_38'>38</a></p>
+<p>Dumas, <a href='#page_106'>106</a></p>
+<p>Dunbar, Professor, <a href='#page_18'>18</a></p>
+<p>Duncan, Dr. Matthews, <a href='#page_105'>105</a></p>
+<p>Duns, Dr., <a href='#page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#page_207'>207</a></p>
+<p>Du Potet, <a href='#page_94'>94</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_E'></a>E</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Edinburgh, <a href='#page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#page_197'>197</a></p>
+<p><i>Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal</i>, <a href='#page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#page_72'>72</a></p>
+<p>Education, Simpson on, <a href='#page_199'>199</a></p>
+<p>Elliotson, Dr. John, <a href='#page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#page_95'>95</a></p>
+<p><i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i>, <a href='#page_198'>198</a></p>
+<p>Erskine House, Simpson&#8217;s visit to, <a href='#page_80'>80</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span></p>
+<p>Esdaile, Dr., <a href='#page_95'>95</a></p>
+<p>Ether, <a href='#page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#page_112'>112</a></p>
+<p>Evangelical work, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_209'>209</a></p>
+<p>Extra-mural Medical School, Edinburgh, <a href='#page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#page_31'>31</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_F'></a>F</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Faraday, <a href='#page_96'>96</a></p>
+<p>Fohman, Professor, <a href='#page_45'>45</a></p>
+<p>Forbes, Edward, <a href='#page_41'>41</a></p>
+<p>Foreign tour, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_43'>43-46</a></p>
+<p>Free Church, <a href='#page_85'>85</a></p>
+<p>Freedom of Edinburgh city, <a href='#page_197'>197</a></p>
+<p>Funeral, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_216'>216</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_G'></a>G</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Gairdner, Dr., <a href='#page_37'>37</a></p>
+<p>Girdwood, Dr., <a href='#page_37'>37</a></p>
+<p>Gladstone, Mr., <a href='#page_215'>215</a></p>
+<p>Goodsir, Professor, <a href='#page_42'>42</a></p>
+<p>Graduation addresses, <a href='#page_74'>74-77</a>, <a href='#page_200'>200</a></p>
+<p>Graham, Professor R., <a href='#page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#page_148'>148</a></p>
+<p>Grant, Sir Alexander, <a href='#page_195'>195</a></p>
+<p>Gregory, Dr., <a href='#page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#page_33'>33</a></p>
+<p>Grindlay, Miss Jessie, <a href='#page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#page_57'>57</a></p>
+<p>Grindlay, Mr., <a href='#page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#page_68'>68</a></p>
+<p>Gusserow, Professor, <a href='#page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#page_225'>225</a></p>
+<p>Gynæcological Society of Boston, <a href='#page_199'>199</a></p>
+<p>Gynæcology, <a href='#page_86'>86</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_H'></a>H</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Hahnemann, <a href='#page_147'>147</a></p>
+<p>Hamilton, Duchess of, <a href='#page_69'>69</a></p>
+<p>Hamilton, Professor James, <a href='#page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#page_169'>169</a></p>
+<p>Hamilton, Sir William, <a href='#page_27'>27</a></p>
+<p>Health, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_210'>210</a></p>
+<p>Henderson, Professor, <a href='#page_148'>148</a></p>
+<p>Home, Professor James, <a href='#page_59'>59</a></p>
+<p>Hom&oelig;opathy, <a href='#page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#page_147'>147</a></p>
+<p>Hope, Thomas, <a href='#page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#page_59'>59</a></p>
+<p>Hospitalism, <a href='#page_177'>177-184</a></p>
+<p>Hospitality, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_81'>81-83</a></p>
+<p>Hotels, the Edinburgh, and Simpson, <a href='#page_163'>163</a></p>
+<p>Houghton, Lord, <a href='#page_213'>213</a></p>
+<p>Hutchinson, Mr. Jonathan, <a href='#page_219'>219</a></p>
+<p>Hypnotism, <a href='#page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#page_149'>149</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_I'></a>I</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Imperial Academy of Medicine (France), <a href='#page_189'>189</a></p>
+<p>Indian hemp, <a href='#page_92'>92</a></p>
+<p>Infirmary, Royal, of Edinburgh, <a href='#page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#page_177'>177</a>, <a href='#page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#page_187'>187</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span></p>
+<h3><a id='IX_J'></a>J</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Jackson, Dr., of Boston, U.S.A., <a href='#page_96'>96</a></p>
+<p>James VI., <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p>Jameson, Professor R., <a href='#page_59'>59</a></p>
+<p>Jeffery, Lord, <a href='#page_27'>27</a></p>
+<p>Jenner, <a href='#page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#page_145'>145</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_K'></a>K</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Keiller, Dr., <a href='#page_30'>30</a></p>
+<p>Keith, Dr. George, <a href='#page_105'>105</a></p>
+<p>Kennedy, Dr. Evory, <a href='#page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#page_63'>63</a></p>
+<p>Knox, Robert, <a href='#page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#page_28'>28</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_L'></a>L</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p><i>Lancet</i>, the, <a href='#page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#page_218'>218</a></p>
+<p>Laughing-gas, <i>vide</i> nitrous oxide</p>
+<p>Laycock, Professor, <a href='#page_186'>186</a></p>
+<p>Leighton, Archbishop, <a href='#page_193'>193</a></p>
+<p>Leprosy and leper-houses, <a href='#page_70'>70</a></p>
+<p>Lippi, <a href='#page_45'>45</a></p>
+<p>Lister, Lord, <a href='#page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#page_184'>184</a>, <a href='#page_188'>188</a></p>
+<p>Liston, Professor, <a href='#page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#page_151'>151</a></p>
+<p>Lizars, John, <a href='#page_26'>26</a></p>
+<p>London, Simpson&#8217;s journeys to, <a href='#page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#page_213'>213</a></p>
+<p>Long, Dr., of Athens, U.S.A., <a href='#page_96'>96</a></p>
+<p>Lycium, the, of the Muses, <a href='#page_154'>154</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_M'></a>M</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>MacArthur, Mr., <a href='#page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#page_39'>39</a></p>
+<p>Macintosh, Dr., <a href='#page_55'>55</a></p>
+<p>Maclagan, Sir Douglas, <a href='#page_43'>43</a></p>
+<p>Maclaren, Mr. Duncan, <a href='#page_61'>61</a></p>
+<p><i>Maga</i>, the university, <a href='#page_41'>41</a></p>
+<p>Mandrake, <a href='#page_93'>93</a></p>
+<p>Master of Arts, the degree of, <a href='#page_19'>19</a></p>
+<p>Medical faculty, the, <a href='#page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#page_187'>187</a></p>
+<p>Medical Reform Act, the, <a href='#page_187'>187</a></p>
+<p>Medical student, the Edinburgh, <a href='#page_33'>33</a></p>
+<p><i>Medical Times and Gazette</i>, the, <a href='#page_184'>184</a></p>
+<p>Medicine, condition of, at Simpson&#8217;s birth, <a href='#page_1'>1-3</a></p>
+<p>Medico-Chirurgical Society, the Edinburgh, <a href='#page_189'>189</a></p>
+<p>Meigs, Professor, <a href='#page_117'>117</a></p>
+<p>Melbourne, Lord, <a href='#page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#page_73'>73</a></p>
+<p>Mesmerism, <a href='#page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#page_149'>149</a></p>
+<p>Midwifery, <a href='#page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#page_104'>104</a></p>
+<p>Midwifery Chair, <a href='#page_55'>55-65</a>, <a href='#page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#page_215'>215</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span></p>
+<p>Midwifery class, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_67'>67</a></p>
+<p>Miller, Professor, <a href='#page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#page_186'>186</a></p>
+<p>Moncrieff, Lord, <a href='#page_27'>27</a></p>
+<p>Monro (Primus), <a href='#page_57'>57</a></p>
+<p>Monro (Secundus), <a href='#page_56'>56</a></p>
+<p>Monro (Tertius), <a href='#page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#page_59'>59</a></p>
+<p>Montgomery, Dr., <a href='#page_140'>140</a></p>
+<p>Monthyon Prize, the, <a href='#page_190'>190</a></p>
+<p>Morton, W. T. G., <a href='#page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#page_198'>198</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_N'></a>N</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Napier, Lord, of Magdala, <a href='#page_197'>197</a></p>
+<p><i>Nepenthe</i>, <a href='#page_93'>93</a></p>
+<p>Newhaven, <a href='#page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#page_196'>196</a></p>
+<p>Nitrous oxide gas, <a href='#page_97'>97</a></p>
+<p>North, Christopher, <a href='#page_18'>18</a></p>
+<p>Nunn, Mr., <a href='#page_123'>123</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_O'></a>O</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Oineromathic, the Society, <a href='#page_42'>42</a></p>
+<p>Oxford, D.C.L., degree of, <a href='#page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#page_212'>212</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_P'></a>P</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Paré, Ambroise, <a href='#page_90'>90</a></p>
+<p>Pathology, <a href='#page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#page_74'>74</a></p>
+<p>Petroleum, <a href='#page_84'>84</a></p>
+<p>Physician-Accoucheur to the Queen, Simpson appointed, <a href='#page_86'>86</a></p>
+<p>Pillans, Professor, <a href='#page_18'>18</a></p>
+<p><i>Post mortem</i>, <a href='#page_225'>225</a></p>
+<p><i>Practitioner</i>, the, <a href='#page_184'>184</a></p>
+<p>Principalship, the, of Edinburgh University, <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p>&#8220;Prometheus,&#8221; <a href='#page_218'>218</a></p>
+<p>&#8220;Puck,&#8221; <a href='#page_138'>138</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_Q'></a>Q</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Queen Street, No. 52, <a href='#page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#page_81'>81</a>, <a href='#page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#page_137'>137</a></p>
+<p>Queen, the, <a href='#page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#page_190'>190</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_R'></a>R</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Reform, medical, <a href='#page_187'>187</a></p>
+<p>Reform, university, <a href='#page_187'>187</a></p>
+<p>Regents, the, of Edinburgh University, <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p>Reid, Professor John, <a href='#page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#page_20'>20</a>, <a href='#page_21'>21</a>, <a href='#page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#page_207'>207</a></p>
+<p>Religious views, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_203'>203</a></p>
+<p>Rinderpest, epidemic of, <a href='#page_185'>185</a></p>
+<p>Rollock, the Regent, <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p>Roman army, the, <a href='#page_156'>156</a></p>
+<p>Royal Medical Society, <a href='#page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#page_53'>53</a></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span></p>
+<p>Royal Physical Society, <a href='#page_41'>41</a></p>
+<p>Russell, Lord John, <a href='#page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#page_190'>190</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_S'></a>S</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p><i>Scots Observer</i>, the, <a href='#page_82'>82</a></p>
+<p><i>Scotsman</i>, the, <a href='#page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#page_142'>142</a></p>
+<p>Scott, Sir Walter, <a href='#page_27'>27</a>, <a href='#page_124'>124</a></p>
+<p>Senatus Academicus, the, of Edinburgh University, <a href='#page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#page_194'>194</a>.</p>
+<p>Simpson, Alexander, <a href='#page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#page_40'>40</a>, <a href='#page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#page_215'>215</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, David, <a href='#page_5'>5</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, David (secundus), <a href='#page_37'>37</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, David (tertius), <a href='#page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#page_210'>210</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, Lady, <a href='#page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#page_217'>217</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, Mary, <a href='#page_10'>10</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, Miss E. B., <a href='#page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#page_214'>214</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, Mrs., <a href='#page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#page_204'>204</a></p>
+<p>Simpson, Professor A. R., <a href='#page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#page_219'>219</a></p>
+<p>Smallpox, <a href='#page_184'>184</a></p>
+<p>Snow, Dr., <a href='#page_130'>130</a></p>
+<p>Snowball riot, the, <a href='#page_42'>42</a></p>
+<p>Sound, the, <a href='#page_168'>168</a></p>
+<p>Squabbles, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_78'>78</a></p>
+<p>Stafford House, Simpson&#8217;s visit to, <a href='#page_80'>80</a></p>
+<p>St. Bartholomew&#8217;s Hospital, <a href='#page_151'>151</a></p>
+<p>Stevenson, R. L., <a href='#page_80'>80</a></p>
+<p>Storer, Dr., <a href='#page_217'>217</a></p>
+<p>Student, the Edinburgh medical, <a href='#page_33'>33</a></p>
+<p>Superstitions, <a href='#page_4'>4</a>, <a href='#page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#page_12'>12</a></p>
+<p>Surgery at Simpson&#8217;s birth, <a href='#page_3'>3</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>before anæsthesia, <a href='#page_88'>88-91</a></p>
+<p class='indent2'>after anæsthesia, <a href='#page_131'>131</a></p>
+<p>Sutherland, the Duchess of, <a href='#page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#page_86'>86</a></p>
+<p>Syme, Professor, <a href='#page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#page_186'>186</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_T'></a>T</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Thatcher, Dr., <a href='#page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#page_63'>63</a></p>
+<p>Thesis, Simpson&#8217;s, for M.D. degree, <a href='#page_39'>39</a></p>
+<p>Thomson, Professor, <a href='#page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#page_72'>72</a></p>
+<p>Town council of Edinburgh, the, <a href='#page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#page_192'>192</a></p>
+<p>Traill, Professor, <a href='#page_60'>60</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_U'></a>U</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Universities (Scots) Act, <a href='#page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#page_193'>193</a></p>
+<p>University of Edinburgh, <a href='#page_14'>14</a>, <a href='#page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#page_31'>31</a>, <a href='#page_130'>130</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span></p>
+<h3><a id='IX_V'></a>V</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Verses, Simpson&#8217;s, <a href='#page_33'>33</a>, <a href='#page_202'>202</a></p>
+<p>Viewbank, <a href='#page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#page_211'>211</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_W'></a>W</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>Waldie, Mr., <a href='#page_105'>105</a></p>
+<p>Wallace, Professor, <a href='#page_18'>18</a></p>
+<p>Warren, Dr. J. Collins, <a href='#page_102'>102</a></p>
+<p>Warriston cemetery, <a href='#page_216'>216</a></p>
+<p>Weavers, the, of Bathgate, <a href='#page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#page_9'>9</a></p>
+<p>Wells, Horace, <a href='#page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#page_132'>132</a>, <a href='#page_198'>198</a></p>
+<p>Wesley, John, <a href='#page_71'>71</a></p>
+<p>Westminster Abbey, <a href='#page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#page_219'>219</a></p>
+<p>Williams, Dr., of York, <a href='#page_213'>213</a></p>
+<p>Wilson, George, <a href='#page_42'>42</a></p>
+<p>Wilson, Professor John, <a href='#page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#page_27'>27</a></p>
+<p>Women, medical, <a href='#page_188'>188</a></p>
+<p>Wound-healing, <a href='#page_176'>176</a></p>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<h3><a id='IX_Y'></a>Y</h3>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<p>York, Simpson&#8217;s visit to, <a href='#page_213'>213</a></p>
+<p>Young, Professor Thomas, <a href='#page_59'>59</a></p>
+</div></div>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<p class='center'><i>The Gresham Press</i>,<br />
+<span class='smcaplc'>UNWIN BROTHERS,</span><br />
+<span class='smcaplc'>WOKING AND LONDON.</span></p>
+<hr class='pb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'><b>THE CENTURY DICTIONARY</b></p>
+<p class='center'><i>Six volumes bound in cloth, gilt lettered, sprinkled edges, per vol.</i> <b>£2 2s.</b><br />
+<i>Do. in half morocco, marbled edges, per vol.</i> <b>£2 16s.</b><br />
+<i>24 Parts, strongly bound in cloth, per part</i>, <b>10s. 6d.</b><br />
+<span class='smcap'>Bookcase</span> <i>for holding the Dictionary, price</i> <b>£3 3s.</b><br />
+Size of each volume 13 in. × 9œ In. × 2Œ In.</p>
+<hr class='mini' />
+<p class='center'><i>PRESS NOTICES.</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;The exceptional merits of the &#8216;Century Dictionary&#8217; are beyond dispute.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Times.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;One of the most notable monuments of the philological industry of the age.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Daily Telegraph.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;It is a work of great ability, fine scholarship, and patient research in many widely
+different departments of learning.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Standard.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;As we turn the leaves of this splendid work, we feel acutely the inadequacy of any
+description apart from actual handling of the volumes.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;It is fuller, more complete, with fewer faults than any rival.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'><b>THE CYCLOPÆDIA OF NAMES</b></p>
+<p class='center'><i>Cloth</i>, <b>£2 2s.</b> <i>net.; half morocco</i>, <b>£2 15s.</b> <i>net.</i><br />
+Size&mdash;13 in. × 9œ × 2Œ in.</p>
+<hr class='mini' />
+<p class='center'><i>PRESS NOTICES.</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;A book of ready reference for proper names of every conceivable kind.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Daily News.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;The &#8216;Cyclopædia of Names&#8217; deserves to rank with important works of reference,
+for though its facts on any given subject are of course, elementary, they can be quickly
+found, and, on the whole, they are admirably chosen.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Standard.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;A most handsome and solid volume.... It will be found exceedingly useful....
+It is beautifully printed.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;A most valuable compilation, and one which will be valued for the great mass of
+information which it contains.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Glasgow Herald.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;Every library of reference; no matter how richly stocked, will be the richer for
+having it ... may be consulted freely without the inconveniences of human
+haulage.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Scotsman.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'>BUILDERS OF GREATER
+BRITAIN</p>
+<p class='center'><span class='smcaplc'>EDITED BY</span><br />
+H. F. WILSON</p>
+<p class='center'><i>A Set of 10 Volumes, each with Photogravure Frontispiece,
+and Map, large crown 8vo., cloth</i>, <b>5s.</b> <i>each</i>.</p>
+<p>The completion of the Sixtieth year of the Queen&#8217;s reign will be the occasion of much
+retrospect and review, in the course of which the great men who, under the auspices of Her
+Majesty and her predecessors, have helped to make the British Empire what it is to-day,
+will naturally be brought to mind. Hence the idea of the present series. These biographies,
+concise but full, popular but authoritative, have been designed with the view of giving in
+each case an adequate picture of the builder in relation to his work.</p>
+<p>The series will be under the general editorship of Mr. H. F. Wilson, formerly Fellow
+of Trinity College, Cambridge, and now private secretary to the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain
+at the Colonial Office. Each volume will be placed in competent hands, and will contain
+the best portrait obtainable of its subject, and a map showing his special contribution to
+the Imperial edifice. The first to appear will be a Life of Sir Waiter Ralegh, by Major
+Hume, the learned author of &#8220;The Year after the Armada.&#8221; Others in contemplation will
+deal with the Cabots, the quarter-centenary of whose sailing from Bristol has recently been
+celebrated in that city, as well as in Canada and Newfoundland; is Sir Thomas Maitland, the
+&#8220;King Tom&#8221; of the Mediterranean; Rajah Brooke, Sir Stamford Raffles, Lord Clive,
+Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Zachary Macaulay, &amp;c., &amp;c.</p>
+<p>The Series has taken for its motto the Miltonic prayer:&mdash;</p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Thou Who of Thy free grace didst build up this Brittannick</i></p>
+<p><i>Empire to a glorious and enviable height. With all her</i></p>
+<p><i>Daughter Islands about her, stay us in this felicitie.</i>&#8221;</p>
+</div></div>
+<hr class='mini' />
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>1. <b>SIR WALTER RALEGH.</b> <span class='smcap'>By Martin A. S. Hume</span>, Author of &#8220;The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth,&#8221; &amp;c.</p>
+<p>2. <b>SIR THOMAS MAITLAND</b>; the Mastery of the Mediterranean. By <span class='smcap'>Walter Frewen Lord</span>.</p>
+<p>3. <b>JOHN CABOT AND HIS SONS</b>; the Discovery of North America. By <span class='smcap'>C. Raymond Beazley, M.A.</span></p>
+<p>4. <b>LORD CLIVE</b>; the Foundation of British Rule in India. By Sir <span class='smcap'>A. J. Arbuthnot, K.C.S.I., C.I.E.</span></p>
+<p>5. <b>EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD</b>; the Colonisation of South Australia and New Zealand. By <span class='smcap'>R. Garnett, C.B., LL.D.</span></p>
+<p>6. <b>RAJAH BROOKE</b>; the Englishman as Ruler of an Eastern State. By <span class='smcap'>Sir Spenser St. John, G.C.M.G</span></p>
+<p>7. <b>ADMIRAL PHILIP</b>; the Founding of New South Wales. By <span class='smcap'>Louis Becke</span> and <span class='smcap'>Walter Jeffery</span>.</p>
+<p>8. <b>SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES</b>; England in the Far East. By the Editor.</p>
+</div></div>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'>THE STORY OF
+THE NATIONS</p>
+<p class='center'>A SERIES OF POPULAR HISTORIES.</p>
+<hr class='mini' />
+<p class='center'><i>Each Volume is furnished with Map, Illustrations, and Index. Large
+Crown 8vo., fancy cloth, gold lettered, or Library Edition, dark cloth, burnished
+red top,</i> <b>5s.</b> <i>each.&mdash;Or may be had in half Persian, cloth sides, gilt tops;<br />
+Price on Application.</i></p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>1. <b>Rome.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Arthur Gilman</span>, M.A.</p>
+<p>2. <b>The Jews.</b> By Professor <span class='smcap'>J. K. Hosmer</span>.</p>
+<p>3. <b>Germany.</b> By the Rev. <span class='smcap'>S. Baring-Gould</span>.</p>
+<p>4. <b>Carthage.</b> By Professor <span class='smcap'>Alfred J. Church</span>.</p>
+<p>5. <b>Alexander&#8217;s Empire.</b> By Prof. <span class='smcap'>J. P. Mahaffy.</span></p>
+<p>6. <b>The Moors in Spain.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Stanley Lane-Poole.</span></p>
+<p>7. <b>Ancient Egypt.</b> By Prof. <span class='smcap'>George Rawlinson.</span></p>
+<p>8. <b>Hungary.</b> By Prof. <span class='smcap'>Arminius Vambery.</span></p>
+<p>9. <b>The Saracens.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Arthur Gilman, M.A.</span></p>
+<p>10. <b>Ireland.</b> By the Hon. <span class='smcap'>Emily Lawless</span>.</p>
+<p>11. <b>Chaldea.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Zenaide A. Ragozin</span>.</p>
+<p>12. <b>The Goths.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Henry Bradley</span>.</p>
+<p>13. <b>Assyria.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Zenaide A. Ragozin</span>.</p>
+<p>14. <b>Turkey.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Stanley Lane-Poole</span>.</p>
+<p>15. <b>Holland.</b> By Professor <span class='smcap'>J. E. Thorold Rogers</span>.</p>
+<p>16. <b>Mediæval France.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Gustave Masson</span>.</p>
+<p>17. <b>Persia.</b> By <span class='smcap'>S. G. W. Benjamin</span>.</p>
+<p>18. <b>Ph&oelig;nicia.</b> By Prof. <span class='smcap'>George Rawlinson</span>.</p>
+<p>19. <b>Media.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Zenaide A. Ragozin</span>.</p>
+<p>20. <b>The Hansa Towns.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Helen Zimmern</span>.</p>
+<p>21. <b>Early Britain.</b> By Professor <span class='smcap'>Alfred J. Church</span>.</p>
+<p>22. <b>The Barbary Corsairs.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Stanley Lane-Poole</span>.</p>
+<p>23. <b>Russia.</b> By <span class='smcap'>W. R. Morfill</span>.</p>
+<p>24. <b>The Jews under the Roman Empire.</b> By <span class='smcap'>W. D. Morrison</span>.</p>
+<p>25. <b>Scotland.</b> By <span class='smcap'>John MacKintosh, LL.D.</span></p>
+<p>26. <b>Switzerland.</b> By <span class='smcap'>R. Stead</span> and <span class='smcap'>Lina Hug</span>.</p>
+<p>27. <b>Mexico.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Susan Hale</span>.</p>
+<p>28. <b>Portugal.</b> By <span class='smcap'>H. Morse Stephens</span>.</p>
+<p>29. <b>The Normans.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Sarah Orne Jewett</span>.</p>
+<p>30. <b>The Byzantine Empire.</b> By <span class='smcap'>C. W. C. Oman, M.A.</span></p>
+<p>31. <b>Sicily: Ph&oelig;nician, Greek and Roman.</b> By the late <span class='smcap'>E. A. Freeman</span>.</p>
+<p>31. <b>The Tuscan and Genoa Republics.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Bella Duffy</span>.</p>
+<p>33. <b>Poland.</b> By <span class='smcap'>W. R. Morfill</span>.</p>
+<p>34. <b>Parthia.</b> By Prof. <span class='smcap'>George Rawlinson</span>.</p>
+<p>35. <b>The Australian Commonwealth.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Greville Tregarthen</span>.</p>
+<p>36. <b>Spain.</b> By <span class='smcap'>H. E. Watts</span>.</p>
+<p>37. <b>Japan.</b> By <span class='smcap'>David Murray</span>, Ph.D.</p>
+<p>38. <b>South Africa.</b> By <span class='smcap'>George M. Theal</span>.</p>
+<p>39. <b>Venice.</b> By the Hon. <span class='smcap'>Alethea Wiel</span>.</p>
+<p>40. <b>The Crusades</b>: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. By <span class='smcap'>T. A. Archer</span> and <span class='smcap'>Charles L. Kingsford</span>.</p>
+<p>41. <b>Vedic India.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Zenaide A. Ragozin</span>.</p>
+<p>42. <b>The West Indies and the Spanish Main.</b> By <span class='smcap'>James Rodway</span>, F.L.S.</p>
+<p>43. <b>Bohemia.</b> By <span class='smcap'>C. E. Maurice</span>.</p>
+<p>44. <b>The Balkans.</b> By <span class='smcap'>W. Millem</span>.</p>
+<p>45. <b>Canada.</b> By Dr. <span class='smcap'>Bourinot</span>.</p>
+<p>46. <b>British India.</b> By <span class='smcap'>R. W. Frazer</span>, LL.B.</p>
+<p>47. <b>Modern France.</b> By <span class='smcap'>André Le Bon</span>.</p>
+<p>48. <b>The Franks.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Lewis Sergeant</span>, B.A.</p>
+</div></div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;Such a universal history as the series will present us with in its completion will be a
+possession such as no country but our own can boast of.... Its success on the whole
+has been very remarkable.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'>THE MERMAID SERIES</p>
+<p class='center larger'>The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists.<br />
+Literal Reproductions of the Old Text.</p>
+<p class='center'><i>Post 8vo., each Volume containing about 500 pages, and an etched
+Frontispiece, cloth</i>, <b>3s. 6d.</b> <i>each</i>.</p>
+<hr class='mini' />
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p>1. <b>The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe.</b> Edited by <span class='smcap'>Havelock Ellis</span>, and containing a General Introduction to the Series by <span class='smcap'>John Addington Symonds</span>.</p>
+<p>2. <b>The Best Plays of Thomas Otway.</b> Introduction by the Hon. <span class='smcap'>Roden Noel</span>.</p>
+<p>3. <b>The Best Plays of John Ford.</b>&mdash;Edited by <span class='smcap'>Havelock Ellis</span>.</p>
+<p>4 and 5. <b>The Best Plays of Thomas Massinger.</b> Essay and Notes by  <span class='smcap'>Arthur Symons</span>.</p>
+<p>6. <b>The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood.</b> Edited by <span class='smcap'>A. W. Verity</span>. Introduction by <span class='smcap'>J. A. Symonds</span>.</p>
+<p>7. <b>The Complete Plays of William Wycherley.</b> Edited by <span class='smcap'>W. C. Ward</span>.</p>
+<p>8. <b>Nero</b>, and other Plays. Edited by <span class='smcap'>H. P. Horne</span>, <span class='smcap'>Arthur Symons</span>, <span class='smcap'>A. W. Verity</span>, and <span class='smcap'>H. Ellis</span>.</p>
+<p>9 and 10. <b>The Best Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher.</b> Introduction by <span class='smcap'>J. St. Loe Strachey</span>.</p>
+<p>11. <b>The Complete Plays of Congreve.</b> Edited by <span class='smcap'>Alex. C. Ewald</span>.</p>
+<p>12. <b>The Best Plays of Webster and Tourneur.</b> Introduction by <span class='smcap'>John Addington Symonds</span>.</p>
+<p>13 and 14. <b>The Best Plays of Thomas Middleton.</b> Introduction by <span class='smcap'>Algernon Charles Swinburne</span>.</p>
+<p>15. <b>The Best Plays of James Shirley.</b> Introduction by <span class='smcap'>Edmund Gosse</span>.</p>
+<p>16. <b>The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker.</b> Notes by <span class='smcap'>Ernest Rhys</span>.</p>
+<p>17, 19, and 20. <b>The Best Plays of Ben Jonson.</b> Vol. I. edited, with Introduction and Notes, by <span class='smcap'>Brinsley Nicholson</span> and <span class='smcap'>C. H. Herford</span>.</p>
+<p>18. <b>The Complete Plays of Richard Steele.</b> Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by <span class='smcap'>G. A. Aitken</span>.</p>
+<p>21. <b>The Best Plays of George Chapman.</b> Edited by <span class='smcap'>William Lyon Phelps</span>, Instructor of English Literature at Yale College.</p>
+<p>22. <b>The Select Plays of Sir John Vanbrugh.</b> Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by <span class='smcap'>A. E. H. Swaen</span>.</p>
+</div></div>
+<hr class='mini' />
+<p class='center'><i>PRESS OPINIONS.</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;Even the professed scholar with a good library at his command will find some
+texts here not otherwise easily accessible; while the humbler student of slender
+resources, who knows the bitterness of not being able to possess himself of the treasure
+stored in expensive folios or quartos long out of print, will assuredly rise up and thank
+Mr. Unwin.&#8221;&mdash;<i>St. James&#8217;s Gazette.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;Resumed under good auspices.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;The issue is as good as it could be.&#8221;&mdash;<i>British Weekly.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;At once scholarly and interesting.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Leeds Mercury.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'>SIX-SHILLING NOVELS</p>
+<p class='center'><i>In uniform green cloth, large crown 8vo., gilt tops,</i> <b>6s.</b></p>
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<p><b>Effie Hetherington.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Robert Buchanan</span>, Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>An Outcast of the Islands.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Joseph Conrad</span>. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>Almayer&#8217;s Folly.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Joseph Conrad</span>. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>The Ebbing of the Tide.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Louis Becke</span>. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>A First Fleet Family.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Louis Becke</span> and <span class='smcap'>Walter Jeffery</span>.</p>
+<p><b>Paddy&#8217;s Woman</b>, and Other Stories. By <span class='smcap'>Humphrey James</span>.</p>
+<p><b>Clara Hopgood.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Mark Rutherford</span>. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>The Tales of John Oliver Hobbes.</b> Portrait of the Author. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>The Stickit Minister.</b> By <span class='smcap'>S. R. Crockett</span>. Eleventh Edition.</p>
+<p><b>The Lilac Sunbonnet.</b> By <span class='smcap'>S. R. Crockett</span>. Sixth Edition.</p>
+<p><b>The Raiders.</b> By <span class='smcap'>S. R. Crockett</span>. Eighth Edition.</p>
+<p><b>The Grey Man.</b> By <span class='smcap'>S. R. Crockett</span>.</p>
+<p><b>In a Man&#8217;s Mind.</b> By <span class='smcap'>J. R Watson</span>.</p>
+<p><b>A Daughter of the Fen.</b> By <span class='smcap'>J. T. Bealby</span>. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>The Herb-Moon.</b> By <span class='smcap'>John Oliver Hobbes</span>. Third Edition.</p>
+<p><b>Nancy Noon.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Benjamin Swift</span>, Second Edition. With New Preface.</p>
+<p><b>Mr. Magnus.</b> By <span class='smcap'>F. Reginald Statham</span>. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Olive Schreiner</span>. Frontispiece.</p>
+<p><b>Pacific Tales.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Louis Becke</span>. With Frontispiece Portrait of the Author. Second Edition.</p>
+<p><b>Mrs. Keith&#8217;s Crime.</b> By Mrs. <span class='smcap'>W. K. Clifford</span>. Sixth Edition. With Portrait of Mrs. Keith by the Hon. <span class='smcap'>John Collier</span>, and a New Preface by the Author.</p>
+<p><b>Hugh Wynne.</b> By Dr. <span class='smcap'>S. Weir Mitchell</span>. With Frontispiece Illustration.</p>
+<p><b>The Tormentor.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Benjamin Swift</span>, Author of &#8220;Nancy Noon.&#8221;</p>
+<p><b>Prisoners of Conscience.</b> By <span class='smcap'>Amelia E. Barr</span>, Author of &#8220;Jan Vedder&#8217;s Wife.&#8221; With 12 Illustrations.</p>
+<p><b>The Gods, some Mortals and Lord Wickenham.</b> New Edition. By <span class='smcap'>John Oliver Hobbes</span>.</p>
+<p><b>The Outlaws of the Marches.</b> By Lord <span class='smcap'>Ernest Hamilton</span>. Fully illustrated.</p>
+<p><b>The School for Saints:</b> Part of the History of the Right Honourable Robert Orange, M.P. By <span class='smcap'>John Oliver Hobbes</span>, Author of &#8220;Sinner&#8217;s Comedy,&#8221; &#8220;Some Emotions and a Moral,&#8221; &#8220;The Herb Moon,&#8221; &amp;c.</p>
+<p><b>The People of Clopton.</b> By <span class='smcap'>George Bartram.</span></p>
+</div></div>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center larger'>WORKS BY MARTIN A. S. HUME</p>
+<p class='center'>F.R.H.S., Editor of the &#8220;Calendar of Spanish State Papers of Elizabeth&#8221;<br />
+(Public Record Office).</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'>THE COURTSHIPS OF
+QUEEN ELIZABETH</p>
+<p class='center'>With Portraits</p>
+<p class='center'><i>Fourth Edition. Demy 8vo., cloth</i>, <b>12s.</b></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;It is undeniably an important addition to the history of the Elizabethan period, and
+it will rank as the foremost authority on the most interesting aspect of the character of
+the Tudor Queen.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;A clear and very interesting account. An excellent book.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Times.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;A connected and consistent, though assuredly a most extraordinary, story.... A
+fascinating picture.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Standard.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;A delightful book.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Daily Telegraph.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'>THE YEAR AFTER THE
+ARMADA</p>
+<p class='center larger'>AND OTHER HISTORICAL STUDIES</p>
+<p class='center'><i>Second Edition. Illustrated. Demy 8vo., cloth gilt,</i> <b>12s.</b></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;A most valuable and conscientiously written historical work.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Spectator.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;The whole book is extremely interesting, and at once instructive and amusing.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Speaker.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;Deserves a wide circulation, and we trust that a proper reward will follow close
+upon its merits.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Literary World.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;Major Hume has thrown the most curious and valuable light on the Armada period.
+Full of delightful sketches of men and things.&#8221;&mdash;<span class='smcap'>W. L. Courtney</span> in <i>The Daily
+Telegraph</i>.</p>
+<p>&#8220;A work which adds many a fresh page to English, and one may say to European
+history.... From first to last the volume is excellent reading, while the entertaining
+style in which the matter is presented and the undeniable authority of the
+writer ... render the book of special interest and permanent value.&#8221;&mdash;<i>The Morning
+Post.</i></p>
+<p>&#8220;Quite as good as a novel&mdash;and a good dead better, too. The book is so bright and
+vivid that readers with the common dislike of history may venture on its pages
+unafraid.&#8221;&mdash;<span class='smcap'>Andrew Lang</span> in <i>Cosmopolis</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p class='center muchlarger'>SIR WALTER RALEGH</p>
+<p class='center'>Being Vol. I. of the series entitled &#8220;Builders of Greater
+Britain,&#8221; each vol. with photogravure frontispiece and map.</p>
+<p class='center'><i>Large crown 8vo., cloth</i>, <b>5s.</b> <i>each</i>.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;There is not a dull page in it, and, with his skilful telling of it, the story of Raleigh&#8217;s
+life and of his times reads like a romance.&#8221;&mdash;<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="trnote">
+<p><b>Transcriber Notes</b></p>
+<p>Archaic and variable spelling is preserved, including &#8216;receptable&#8217;.</p>
+<p>Sections in Greek will yield a transliteration when the pointer is moved over each line, <i>e.g.</i> <span lang="el" title="MATHÊSIS">&#924;&#913;&#920;&#919;&#931;&#921;&#931;</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- generated by ppg.rb version: 3.21k3 -->
+<!-- timestamp: 2010-10-23 11:18:30 -0500 -->
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+(1811-1870), by Henry Laing Gordon
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHLOROFORM ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+(1811-1870), by Henry Laing Gordon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform (1811-1870)
+       Masters of Medicine
+
+Author: Henry Laing Gordon
+
+Editor: Ernest Hart
+
+Release Date: October 24, 2010 [EBook #34128]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHLOROFORM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+
+(1811-1870)
+
+BY H. LAING GORDON
+
+  LONDON
+  T. FISHER UNWIN
+  PATERNOSTER SQUARE
+  MDCCCXCVII
+
+
+Copyright by T. Fisher Unwin, 1897, for Great Britain and Longmans
+Green & Co. for the United States of America
+
+
+MASTERS OF MEDICINE
+
+EDITED BY ERNEST HART, D.C.L
+
+
+  "HOMINES AD DEOS NULLA IN RE
+  PROPIUS ACCEDUNT QUAM
+  SALUTEM HOMINIBUS DANDO."
+
+    CICERO.
+
+      Title.                         Author.
+
+  JOHN HUNTER              _Stephen Paget_
+  WILLIAM HARVEY           _D'arcy Power_
+  SIR JAMES SIMPSON        _H. Laing Gordon_
+  EDWARD JENNER            _Ernest Hart_
+  HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ    _John G. McKendrick_
+  WILLIAM STOKES           _Sir William Stokes_
+  CLAUDE BERNARD           _Michael Foster_
+  SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE      _Timothy Holmes_
+  THOMAS SYDENHAM          _J. F. Payne_
+  VESALIUS                 _C. Louis Taylor_
+
+
+[Illustration: J. Simpson]
+
+
+To PROFESSOR ALEXANDER RUSSELL SIMPSON
+
+
+  "Him by the hand dear Nature took,
+  Dearest Nature, strong and kind."
+
+    RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+
+  "When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it."
+
+    _Id._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+I have endeavoured to condense the vast amount of matter which has
+been written concerning this Master of Medicine and his work into the
+form of a readable narrative, and to represent him in his social and
+intellectual environment in accordance with the object of this Series.
+The selections from his own writings illustrate as far as possible his
+versatility and many-sided character. I have chosen for quotation out
+of the numerous sketches and memoirs of him those written from
+undoubted knowledge of the man.
+
+I am indebted especially to Professor A. R. Simpson for kind advice,
+to Mr. Cuthbertson of the Edinburgh University Library for useful
+help, to Mr. C. Louis Taylor for valuable criticism, and to my wife
+for assistance in research and compilation. I have also to thank those
+friends who from time to time have favoured me with personal
+reminiscences of Sir James.
+
+The following are the chief works, in addition to Simpson's own
+writings, from which my information has been drawn:--(1) "The Jubilee
+of Anaesthetic Midwifery"; (2) "Keiller and Crede"; (3) "History of the
+Chair of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh," being addresses by
+Professor A. R. Simpson; (4) Miss Eve B. Simpson's "Sir James
+Simpson"; and her (5) "Dogs of other Days;" (6) "Twenty Years and
+their Lesson; a Retrospect and Review" (_Scots Observer_, 1891); (7)
+Dr. Duns's "Memoir of Sir J. Y. Simpson"; (8) Professor Gusserow's
+"Zur Erinnerung an Sir J. Y. Simpson"; (9) Mr. Cuthbertson's
+"Student's Pilgrimage"; (10) "The Story of Edinburgh University," by
+Sir A. Grant; (11) "The Life of Sir Robert Christison"; (12) "The Life
+of Robert Knox"; and numerous back numbers of the _Century Magazine_,
+the _Lancet_, the _British Medical Journal_, the _Medical Times and
+Gazette_, the _Edinburgh Medical Journal_, &c., &c.
+
+FOREST HILL, _October, 1897_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                                          PAGE.
+     I. Birth and Childhood. (1811-1825)                             1
+    II. Student Days. (1825-1830)                                   17
+    III Further Studies. (1830-1835)                                36
+    IV. Early Practice and Professorship. (1835-1840)               52
+     V. Professor and Physician. (1840-1847)                        66
+    VI. The Discovery of Anaesthetics. (1844-1847)                   88
+   VII. The Fight for Anaesthesia. 1847 onwards                     111
+  VIII. Home Life--Controversies                                   133
+    IX. Archaeology--Practice                                       152
+     X. Personal--Professorial--Professional                       164
+    XI. Further Reforms--Honours                                   186
+   XII. Failing Health--Death                                      202
+        Appendix                                                   223
+        Index                                                      227
+
+
+
+
+SIR JAMES SIMPSON
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 1811-1825
+
+  The state of the healing art at Simpson's birth--Birthplace--Family
+  superstitions--His father's bakery--His mother's Huguenot
+  descent--Commencement of schooldays--Natural and antiquarian
+  features of Bathgate district--The village hand-loom weavers as
+  antiquarians and naturalists--His interest in Nature and craving
+  for knowledge--Brothers' and sister's care for him--Size of his
+  head--Village doctor's record of his birth--Schooldays cease at age
+  of fourteen--Influence of his environment in developing his
+  character.
+
+
+James Young Simpson, who will ever be remembered as the discoverer of
+the pain-annulling power of chloroform, was born in the year 1811, at
+a period when there was room for a hero in the practice of the healing
+art in the British Islands.
+
+It is true that in the seventeenth century Harvey had laid bare the
+great fact of the circulation of the blood and the practical Thomas
+Sydenham had swept aside the highly empirical systems and theories of
+medicine which had successively supplanted each other since
+Hippocrates first taught, and urged men to found their knowledge upon
+what they actually saw--on observation and experiment; and that in the
+eighteenth century men like Cheyne, Heberden, Cullen, and the
+wonderful Jenner had appreciably assisted in developing medicine at
+the same time that Hunter was raising surgery nearer to the level of a
+science. But even while Simpson was growing out of childhood all the
+powers of such professional giants as Bright, Addison, Abernethy,
+Astley Cooper, and Charles Bell, were insufficient to dispel the
+massive cloud of mystery and superstition which enveloped the practice
+of both medicine and surgery in this country and obscured whatever
+there was of truth in the teaching of these men.
+
+In the first decade or two of this century the medical profession had
+not yet entirely abandoned the use of the golden-headed cane, nor had
+what Oliver Wendell Holmes calls the solemn farce of overdrugging yet
+ceased. "Humours," "impostumes," "iliac passions," and such like were
+still spoken of--terms now heard only amongst country-folks in remote
+districts and that rarely, or encountered in curious old medical
+publications. Messes and abominations, prepared by the apothecaries
+according to more or less secret recipes handed down through the
+Middle Ages, were swallowed in good faith; blood-letting was still a
+panacea; and such remedies as that of holding a live puppy to the
+body for the relief of colic still had their professional advocates,
+but happily a decreasing number; whilst those pains
+
+          "... In the hour,
+  When the veil of the body we feel
+  Rent round us--while torments reveal
+  The motherhood's advent in power"
+
+--pains which Simpson was the first truly to relieve by his
+application of anaesthetics, were gravely said to be alleviated by
+the swallowing of a concoction of white onions and oil. Surgery
+was no doubt ahead of medicine; but the early surgical records of
+this century have little more than a curious interest to modern
+practitioners. Operations entirely unknown to our professional
+forefathers less than a century ago are now performed in safety
+daily. Such mysterious diseases as "icteric irritative fever" and
+"acute sinking" after operations, dreaded then with the fear that is
+always inspired by unseen or ill-understood dangers, have vanished
+before the progress of modern science in which the introduction of
+anaesthesia was the first great step.
+
+The practice of the branch of medicine which Simpson made so
+peculiarly his own--that of obstetrics--originally in the hands of
+women only, had been fiercely contested for by the two sexes during
+two centuries, and such was the feeling against man-midwives in
+Scotland that the dispute had scarcely ceased at Simpson's birth. The
+stronger sex, however, was then at last asserting its superiority,
+and to be an accoucheur was beginning to be considered after all as
+worthy of a gentleman. The despised art was preparing for its
+renaissance.
+
+Simpson grew to manhood whilst science, aided by precise methods of
+accurate observation, was shedding new light upon physic, surgery,
+and obstetrics. In fulfilling his great part in establishing the
+healing art on a firm scientific basis, Simpson encountered the full
+force of the ignorance and prejudice of his day both within and
+without his profession. It was, perhaps, fortunate that he was brought
+up in a small village and in a rank of life where he would meet from
+his earliest days with many superstitious beliefs and practices,
+strange and utterly irrational. A mind such as his would meet,
+reason, and experiment these out of existence. Probably through
+these circumstances he conceived the taste for archaeology and
+antiquarian research which were his recreation in later years; but,
+what was more important, he gained also some training for the
+struggle with ignorance, untruth, and irrationalism, into which he
+threw with his eager vigour the whole strength of his manhood.
+
+Simpson was born in the village of Bathgate, in Linlithgowshire, where
+his father, David Simpson, was the local baker. David's father, who
+died at the ripe age of ninety-one a few years after James's birth,
+was the descendant of a line of small hard-working farmers, who added
+to his work and his profit the practice of farriery. Although modern
+science has, by the aid of bacteriology, proved such practitioners of
+the rough veterinary medicine of the day to have been right in
+ascribing to unseen influences many of the diseases of animals which
+they found themselves powerless to check, the methods they employed
+for treatment when what they called witchcraft was at work scarcely
+have the support of present-day practitioners. In one of his addresses
+upon archaeology Simpson records how his grandfather ordered and his
+own father took part in the burial alive of a cow in order to appease
+the evil spirit which was spreading the plague of murrain with fatal
+effect. And the older gentleman was known to have had more than one
+serious encounter with a witch. On one occasion an old beggar woman,
+who plied her calling in quite an original method--that of being
+wheeled in a barrow from farm to farm--hurled curses at old Simpson
+for ordering a servant to wheel her from his house on to her next
+calling-place, and vowed an awful vengeance on his family if he did
+not replace the servant with one of his stalwart sons. The farmer
+recollected that an ill event had followed the old woman's last visit,
+and quickly drew a sharp flint from his pocket and made a gash across
+her forehead with it. "Ah," he exclaimed, "I see what ye're noo, ye
+auld witch; but I've scored ye aboon the braith and my house is
+safe."
+
+Simpson noted these and many other curious practices and beliefs, and
+afterwards pointed out in one of his addresses that they were
+probably, for the most part, relics of the pagan creeds and customs of
+our ancestors. He urged the making of a collection of the folk-lore of
+Scotland, ere it utterly disappeared before the march of modern
+civilisation, and suggested that, perhaps, some archaeological Cuvier
+might one day be able to re-construct from these mythological
+fragments distinct pictures of the heathen practices, rites, and
+faiths of our forefathers.
+
+In his early boyhood he listened to many stories of local and family
+superstitions told to him with all the earnestness of a firm believer
+by his father. He himself was the object of superstitious admiration
+to the simple villagers all through his boyhood, and they freely
+foretold great deeds from him in later years; for he was a seventh
+son, and the good luck which seventh sons were supposed to bring had
+appeared in the family soon after his birth. Up to the day on which
+James first saw the light, June 7, 1811, the baker's business had been
+going steadily from bad to worse, and the shop books showed that on
+that very day the lowest depths were reached. The baker, David
+Simpson, seems to have been curiously lacking in business method,
+although he was a hard-working man. But after James's birth he wisely
+interested his wife in his affairs, with the result that she
+energetically and successfully bestirred herself to recoup their
+fallen fortunes. Mrs. Simpson was directly descended from a fugitive
+Huguenot family, settled for many years on a farm near Bathgate, and
+intermarried with well-known families. Through her, indeed, Simpson
+claimed a distant relationship with the national hero, Sir William
+Wallace. The cares of her family and the strain of managing the
+increasing baker's business proved too much for her always delicate
+constitution, and she died when James was only nine years old. There
+is no doubt that the youngest child and favourite son had an unusually
+large share of his mother's society during those years; he was a
+peculiarly attractive child, "a rosy bairn wi' laughin' mou' and
+dimpled cheeks," and his manner, even when he was little more than an
+infant, was quiet and affectionate. When physical sufferings overtook
+the mother, the child's quiet sympathy and engaging manner helped and
+comforted her. Her own nature was bright, vivacious, and energetic,
+quick to think and prompt to act; and she was full of love, sympathy,
+and piety. These maternal traits influenced the youth, and added a
+soft, refined--delicately refined--tone to the paternal influence,
+whence he received self-reliance and habits of persevering industry.
+
+The boy's school-life began at the age of four years. The orthodox
+learning came very easily to him; he entered into both work and play
+so whole-heartedly that he at once became known as the "wise wean,"
+and was at the same time ever sought after by his school-mates as a
+companion in out-door sports. The parish schoolmaster was one James
+Taylor, who had considerable ability for the post, and encouraged his
+pupils by kindly personal interest to develop affection for learning.
+But for Simpson there were other teachers and greater subjects for
+study in the countryside around Bathgate. The district was full of
+rich treasures for the field naturalist and for the antiquarian.
+Bathgate lies between the Firth of Forth and the Pentland Hills, in a
+geologically varied district, with a varied and abundant flora and
+fauna--more so in those days when Bathgate was a small village of
+hand-loom weavers than latterly, when it was a thriving little town,
+the centre of a coal, shale, and ironstone mining industry. The
+archaeological features of the neighbourhood were full of interest.
+There was the famous "Catstane," of Kirkliston, which had puzzled
+antiquarians even before the establishment of the Scots Society in
+1780, and at Kipps was one of the few remaining cromlechs--and that a
+ruined one--in Scotland; whilst the line of the Roman wall between the
+Firth of Forth and the Clyde was not far distant. There were traces of
+a Cistercian monastery founded by David I., and various hills and
+fields and caves were associated with the names of Sir William
+Wallace, Robert Bruce, and King Edward I.
+
+Simpson thoroughly familiarised himself in boyhood with the natural
+features, as well as with the antiquarian objects in the district.
+He continued to investigate them during his vacations when a student
+at Edinburgh University, and rendered the neighbourhood famous
+archaeologically by masterly monographs written when he was at the
+height of his fame. Amongst the village hand-loom weavers, a race
+of peculiarly observant and intelligent men, there were some who
+studied both the antiquarian objects and the natural history of
+Linlithgowshire. Simpson used to speak of one man, a daily labourer
+at the loom, who was able to write, in correct Latin, an accurate
+description of any plant or animal brought before him, although
+his earnings at the loom never amounted to fifty pounds a year.
+These men thoroughly enjoyed the evident interest of the "young
+philosopher" in their discussions and demonstrations, at the same
+time kindly directing his mind towards the simple, painstaking, true
+methods of observing and reflecting upon nature. There was no lack
+of change in his environment for him; his interest in natural
+phenomena was roused and kept alive during his drives round the
+countryside delivering bread to the farmers and cottagers, or in
+occasional visits to his parents' relations. He daily took his turn
+behind the shop counter, reading, writing, or drawing in the
+interval of waiting for customers. He trained himself to read or
+do his school lessons as readily in a roomful of romping children
+as in the quiet of the bedroom. It has been said that he never knew
+an idle moment from the day of his birth onwards, and his was such
+an indomitable and persevering energy that the remark is no
+exaggeration. But the pathway to greatness was made specially smooth
+for James Simpson. He was set upon it, and protected in his
+childhood, and guided in his youth, with the one definite object
+always in view. The Simpson family as well as the whole Bathgate
+community, took it for granted that eminence was to be his in
+whatever walk of life he entered seriously upon. His sister Mary and
+his brother Alexander looked upon him as a special care; the former
+watched over him as a mother, and the latter helped him in the ups
+and downs of boyhood, just as he constantly stood by him throughout
+the difficult days of his later career. It had always been a
+custom in Scots families of humble rank that one child, either from
+the exhibition of a natural aptitude, or through the ambition of
+the parents, was singled out to receive the advantages of a fuller
+education such as is within the reach of every able lad in Scotland.
+Honour and glory would thus be brought to the family, greatest of
+all if from the pulpit, while the less favoured members of the family
+would plod on in the same sphere of life as their parents. The world
+owes a great deal to the Simpsons, and particularly to Alexander, who
+cheerfully seconded their father's efforts to help forward their
+young brother, without a suspicion of jealousy. They knew he would
+be great some day, and therein they looked for their reward.
+
+Happily there were ample means for all their requirements derived from
+the now prosperous bakery. The money was kept in one drawer, the till
+where the shop earnings were placed. All the household were free to
+draw thence supplies for their ordinary wants, James without stint;
+and he alone was exempted from the condition that he who profited must
+also contribute by the sweat of his brow. The boy took very full
+advantage of his fortunate circumstances and drank deeply of all the
+knowledge that came near and ever hunted for more. With each
+succeeding year the craving to know, and to know thoroughly, became
+more and more his ruling passion; by the time his schooldays were over
+it had gained complete mastery over him; happily for the human race
+Providence had so endowed him that when knowledge had come wisdom did
+not linger.
+
+He was never in any way led away by the temptations that no doubt
+beset every boy in a village of hard-drinkers such as Bathgate was in
+his youth. Alexander took pains to warn him--"Others may do this,
+Jamie, but it would break all our hearts and blast all your prospects
+were you to do it," he said. It was not necessary to make appeals to
+James to work and fulfil the family predictions; he was as firmly
+determined to be great as they were sure he would be: He never forgot
+how much he owed to the loving help of his family, and to the fact
+that he was the youngest son growing up at a time when the family
+struggles were fairly over; when instead of its being an effort for
+the parents to provide the necessary funds for his education, the
+shop-till was well filled and the elder brothers and the loving sister
+were at hand eagerly willing to help. In student days when struggles
+came and the path seemed dark and beset with dangers, the knowledge of
+the firm faith in his powers of the family at home and of the scarcely
+smaller faith of the weavers, was a powerful incentive in the moments
+when he required any other than that of the spirit within him.
+
+We cannot feel otherwise than thankful that up to the age of fourteen,
+when his schooldays ended, he had access to but a limited stock of
+literature wherewith to gratify his hunger for knowledge. To satisfy
+his appetite he was driven into the fields and the forests; every
+sense was stimulated, and became developed through repeated use. Thus
+he laid the foundation of his phenomenal faculty of rapid and accurate
+observation, and of his no less phenomenal memory.
+
+His imagination was fed with the legends of the district and tales of
+his remote moss-trooper ancestors told to him of an evening by his
+father. Though happily saved from being a bookworm to the exclusion of
+sounder means for acquiring knowledge, he devoured and digested every
+scrap of literature which came in his way. Like all Scots children of
+his class he learnt his Bible thoroughly from end to end--a knowledge
+which served him well in later years. Shakespeare followed the Bible
+in his own review of his favourite reading as a boy; but a gazetteer
+or an almanac was quite as acceptable. His taste was for solid
+fact--fact which he could learn and put to the test; thus the great
+open book of Nature was the attraction he most readily yielded to. But
+nothing in book form ever came amiss to him; if between the covers
+there was useful information to be had, Simpson extracted it and
+stored it away in his capacious brain.
+
+The unusually large size of his head, a source of admiration in
+manhood, was in childhood an object of wonder to observers. In manhood
+he wore his hair in long locks, and this was apparently his habit in
+boyhood. Once a strange barber cut his hair so close that his brother
+took upon himself to go and rebuke the man. "The callant had suck a
+muckle head," was the retort, "I was doin' my best to mak' it look
+respectable." A close-cropped head gave altogether a too sportive
+appearance to the "young philosopher" in the eyes of the watchful
+elder brother.
+
+There is no evidence that Simpson displayed in his schooldays any
+special leaning towards the medical profession; it cannot be
+reasonably urged that his grandfather's rough skill in the treatment
+of animals fostered any medical tendency in him, for James was but
+five years old when the old man died. Even had he been of an age to
+understand them, the methods employed would have scarcely recommended
+themselves to a youth of Simpson's nature, sufficiently to raise a
+spirit of emulation within him. It is also not recorded that the
+village doctor took any special interest in the boy or brought any
+influence to bear upon him; although his note-book thus gives the
+earliest record of the future prince of obstetricians:--
+
+  275.--June 7. Simpson, David, baker, Bathgate. Wife, Mary Jarvie.
+  AE. 40. 8th child, son. _Natus_ 8 o'clock. _Uti veniebam natus._
+  Paid 10s. 6d.
+
+James displayed his superiority so decidedly in the village school
+that when he reached the age of fourteen it was decided to send him to
+Edinburgh University without further waste of time. It was no unusual
+age for boys to commence their University career in Scotland. There
+was no secondary education in the Scots provinces, but instruction
+intermediate between that of the parish school and what is ordinarily
+known as University education was given within the walls of the
+University itself. Boys of humble rank who aspired to a profession
+were sent up, as indeed many still are, at the age of fourteen or
+fifteen, to attend these junior Arts classes in which this instruction
+was, and still is, imparted. The University was crowded with
+schoolboys of all ranks of life gathered together from town and
+country, and consisted of nothing more than a collection of
+class-rooms devoted to the giving of instruction in lecture form. This
+stepping-stone of junior classes threw open the higher education to
+hundreds of youths whose equals in England had no such advantage at
+that time. Scots University education besides being thorough was
+decidedly cheap, so that the church, law, and medicine received many
+recruits from the class out of which Simpson was drawn.
+
+His environment up to the age of fourteen was well calculated to train
+him for the great work that lay before him. The legends of the
+district, and the sight of the objects of archaeological interest which
+he came across in his rambles out of school hours, were powerful
+stimuli to his sensations; whilst the accurate observation of natural
+phenomena in field and hedge which the kindly interested weavers
+helped him to, was also a valuable educative influence. It is probable
+that his senses received much of the training which was to lead to his
+ultimately being the greatest physician of his day by these means,
+rather than from the instruction imparted to him in the village
+school, or derived by him independently from the books that came in
+his way. It was undoubtedly a fortunate circumstance that he was born
+and bred in an out-of-the-way country district, where he drew his
+lessons from Nature and the phenomena which lay round him, rather than
+in a great city where he would have been educated on the stereotyped
+orthodox system. When we look further back, asking why he saw sermons
+in stones and books in the running brooks, to which the bulk of his
+schoolfellows were entirely blind, we are bound to confess that we
+find no satisfactory answer in his family history, to which it is
+customary to look for an explanation of such tendencies. Heredity
+played no great part in making Simpson great; from the paternal side
+there was imparted to him a vigorous physique; from his mother he
+received the bright, happy, sympathetic, and alert disposition, which
+descended through her from his French ancestors. He was provided with
+a brain of marvellous quality and phenomenal size. But it was the
+environment which acted upon this brain and brought out the capacities
+born in him without any apparent hereditary bias, and which might have
+remained entirely latent under less favourable circumstances. No small
+part of the development was due to the people among whom he lived; a
+race of men accustomed to rely upon their senses which were always
+with them, rather than upon books which they seldom saw, even if they
+were able to read them; and to observe not only all that lay around
+them, but also the characteristics of their fellowmen with whom they
+were brought into contact--the close contact of different classes
+which obtains in village and rural life. Simpson was taught to study
+Nature whether in field or fellow-creature first, and the knowledge
+and opinions of men as expressed in books afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+STUDENT DAYS. 1825-1830.
+
+  Visit to Edinburgh--Sent to the University--Takes the Arts
+  classes--Gains a bursary--Influence of MacArthur and Reid--Robert
+  Knox the anatomist--The Burke and Hare murders--Superiority of the
+  extra-mural teachers of the day--Edinburgh an intellectual
+  centre--University life--His mode of living as a student--Apprenticed
+  to a chemist--Studies surgery under Liston--Regularly falls asleep
+  in the obstetric class--Influence of his teachers--Verse
+  writing--Description of the medical student of the day--Vacation
+  work--Death of his father--Obtains qualification to practice at
+  the age of eighteen.
+
+
+Although Edinburgh was only eighteen miles from Bathgate, Simpson
+visited it only once as a schoolboy; probably he walked all the way,
+for railroads were as yet unknown and it was not a long walk for a
+country-bred vigorous youth. He exercised his already formed habit of
+noting objects of interest during this great event in his boyhood, and
+in his journal there are copies of old inscriptions from tombs in the
+famous Greyfriars' Churchyard to which he made his pilgrimage.
+
+The boy's nearest and dearest ambition was to become a student at "the
+College," as Edinburgh University was familiarly termed. It received
+encouragement in the periodical return to the village of elder boys
+who had gone up before him. He was specially struck, and afterwards
+stimulated, by the appearance of one John Reid, his senior by two
+years, and his former companion in many a country ramble, who came
+back for the vacations smartened up both physically and mentally by
+the new life.
+
+Although the collegiate life characteristic of Oxford was unknown in
+Scots Universities, there was social intercourse amongst the boys very
+different from that of the village. The ancient Edinburgh University
+attracted students from all parts of the world, mostly for the medical
+curriculum, but many preceded the professional course with a year or
+two's attendance on the Arts classes; and it was usual for young
+Englishmen of good family to spend a session at Edinburgh before going
+to Oxford or Cambridge. Probably before he entered the medical
+classes, Simpson rubbed shoulders with lads of all ranks from home and
+abroad. Pillans was at this time the Professor of Humanity, Wallace
+held the chair of Mathematics, John Wilson--better known as
+Christopher North--that of Moral Philosophy, and Dunbar was Professor
+of Greek. Wallace had begun life as a bookbinder's apprentice, and
+Dunbar had risen from being a gardener; the example of these men under
+whose influence he was brought encouraged the baker's son to go and
+do likewise.
+
+The family had sent him off to the College with the mission to be
+famous, and he was beginning only in an orthodox fashion when he
+entered himself for the curriculum in Arts. It had been easy for him,
+with his magnificent brain power, to stand _dux_ of the village school
+over the ordinary village youth; but here, in Edinburgh, he was
+brought into competition with the picked boys from other country
+schools, and intellectually eager youths from town schools where the
+course of instruction was such as more easily to lead to early
+University success than that of the Bathgate parish school. At first
+he found difficulty and desponded. The keen observer with senses all
+alert was dashed to find so much of the College life to which he had
+so eagerly looked forward only a magnified repetition of the dull
+school routine. But he was too intent on ultimate success to be
+repulsed by his initial disappointment, and soon brought his mind into
+adjustment with the circumstances he found himself in, reserving
+leisure time and vacations for the exercise of his faculties as he
+most loved to exercise them. He did not persevere in the Arts course
+after he found his tastes led him to other studies; he did not trouble
+to obtain the Master of Arts degree, which was then conferred in a
+very lax manner; probably he saw its worthlessness, for it was not
+until the passing of the Scots Universities Act in 1858 that this
+degree became really valuable. He recognised, however, the value of
+laying a good foundation of general knowledge; without straining after
+any distinction he acquitted himself creditably in all his classes. In
+the second year of the curriculum he won one of the numerous small
+bursaries of the value of L10 a year, for which logic was one of the
+chief subjects of examination; but as candidates were restricted to
+those who possessed either the name of the founder, Stewart, or that
+of his wife, Simpson, the competition was not particularly severe. His
+individuality and natural straightforwardness attracted the attention
+of some of his professors. The boldness of his original essays
+provided them with food for comment in a manner dear to the
+professorial heart.
+
+The Arts curriculum served him usefully in helping to develop a
+literary style and in teaching him how best to express his vigorous
+thoughts, as well as in strengthening his knowledge of Latin and
+Greek. According to the record preserved on his class certificates he
+worked attentively and diligently; but the mere fact that he did not
+excel is sufficient proof that he did not make an attempt.
+
+During his Arts course Simpson lodged at No. 1, Adam Street, along
+with the John Reid already mentioned, who was now a medical student,
+and with a Mr. MacArthur, who had been a junior master at the Bathgate
+school, but had now also commenced to study medicine. MacArthur was a
+man of dogged determination; he urged Simpson to persist with his
+Arts course when his spirit seemed to rebel against it, and so long as
+they were together seems to have maintained some of the authority of
+the usher over both of the youths. The spirit of work was strong
+within him. Soon after Simpson joined him he related that he could
+then do with four hours' sleep, John Reid with six, but he had not
+been able to break in James yet. What MacArthur and the Arts course
+could not do, however, the attraction of medicine accomplished without
+effort, and Simpson soon formed the habit of early rising.
+
+It seems remarkable that so much study should have been required when,
+compared with to-day, the science of the healing art was in but a
+rudimentary condition. The teachers of the day had, in spite of
+Sydenham, a great regard for authority, and burdened their students
+with much that is utterly unknown to the present generation, and, if
+known, would be regarded as worthless. A very large part of the
+curriculum consisted of practical and bedside work, so that book study
+was necessarily left to the evening or early morning. All three
+students, moreover, were fired with ambition, and thirsted for
+something more than mere professional knowledge. MacArthur constantly
+urged on his two young friends, and foretold great things for them if
+only they would work. When he afterwards heard of their successes he
+used to say, "Yes, but _how_ they worked." Simpson became the
+greatest living obstetrician, and Reid rose to be Professor of
+Physiology in St. Andrew's University. MacArthur never became famous;
+his name is known only because of the initial impetus which his
+influence gave to the professional careers of his two young friends.
+
+In his close association with two such men as MacArthur and Reid,
+Simpson was again fortunate in his environment. The art of medicine
+was also fortunate inasmuch as at the right moment the right
+influences were at work to direct his mind towards it. While occupied
+in mastering the laws of hexameter and iambic or in assimilating the
+prescribed portion of Virgil and Tacitus, he happily now and then,
+living with two such enthusiastic medical students, got a taste of the
+more stimulating study of things scientific--food which was more
+agreeable to his mental palate, more suited to his mental digestion.
+By peeps into anatomical books, by little demonstrations of specimens
+in their lodgings, and by occasional visits to some of the lecture
+rooms or the wards of the Infirmary, his appetite was whetted for that
+great study of nature which his youthful training at Bathgate had
+prepared him for, and for which his mental constitution was specially
+adapted. One can picture the eagerness with which he would cast aside
+the finished Greek or Latin essay and urge the not unwilling embryo
+professor to demonstrate a bone or lecture on an anatomical
+preparation.
+
+Sometimes as a special favour he was taken by Reid to hear one of the
+lectures of the notorious Robert Knox, the extra-academical teacher of
+anatomy, whose strong personality and unrivalled powers as a lecturer
+were at that time attracting to Surgeon's Square hundreds of students,
+while Munro (Tertius) was mechanically repeating his grandfather's
+lectures from the University chair.
+
+It was towards the end of 1828, when Simpson was just about commencing
+his medical studies that Edinburgh, and in fact the whole of civilised
+Europe, was horrified by the revelation of the doings of Burke and
+Hare, when they were at last brought to justice for the long series of
+crimes perpetrated for the purpose of selling the bodies of their
+victims to the anatomical schools. Knox having a class of some four
+hundred students had special difficulty in meeting the demand for
+"subjects," and it was brought to light at the trial of Burke that the
+majority of the bodies were disposed of to Knox. As was only natural,
+a fierce indignation against Knox sprang up in the city. His residence
+was assailed and his effigy burnt. His life was in danger at the hands
+of the mob on more than one occasion.
+
+Lord Cockburn in his "Memorials of His Time" says that all the
+Edinburgh anatomists incurred an unjust and very alarming though not
+an unnatural odium--Dr. Knox in particular, against whom not only the
+anger of the populace but the condemnation of more intelligent
+persons was directed. "But," he says, "tried in reference to the
+invariable and the necessary practice of the profession our anatomists
+were spotlessly correct and Knox the most correct of them all."
+
+These were stirring times in Edinburgh medical circles. The strong,
+cool demeanour of Knox under the persecutions to which he was
+subjected, must have made an indelible impression on Simpson's mind,
+and the memory of it may have served to strengthen him in later years
+when himself subjected to the unjust accusations of thoughtless and
+ignorant people.
+
+One night when Knox had attracted a large class to hear him on a
+favourite subject, the crowd in the street mustered in unusual force;
+the yells and howls from outside were heard distinctly in the
+class-room. The students got alarmed, and kept looking to the doors of
+egress. Knox perceiving the restlessness and alarm of his audience
+paused, and then addressed to them reassuring words, expressing his
+contempt for the cowardly mob, and reminding them of the great men who
+at different times had suffered persecution for the cause of their
+science. His statement was received with such cheers as resounded
+beyond the class-room walls and actually cowed the uproarious mob, so
+loudly did the students applaud the words of the man who, they knew,
+daily placed his life in danger in order to lecture to them, and whose
+last hour seemed to have come, so great and threatening was the crowd
+on this particular evening.
+
+If Simpson did not actually witness such a scene as the foregoing--he
+was not a member of Knox's class until the session 1830-31--he must at
+least have known full well about it at the time, and shared with the
+whole body of students the worship of the man as a hero. His fellow
+lodger, Reid, was not only a distinguished pupil in Knox's class, but
+became one of Knox's demonstrators in 1833, and was always a prominent
+Knoxite. We know also that Knox went down to Bathgate to visit Reid's
+relations there, so that it is justifiable to conclude that Simpson
+came closely in contact with this remarkable teacher. That the
+relationship between Reid and Simpson was most intimate we have the
+former's own words for. At a public dinner given to him when appointed
+to his professorship in 1841, he said, "In the croupier (Simpson) I
+recognise my earliest friend, a native of the same village. We were
+rivals at school and at college. We stood to each other from boyhood
+upwards in every possible relation, whether of an educational,
+warlike, delicate, or social character, which the warm and fitful
+feelings peculiar to boyhood and youth can produce."
+
+In the end Knox and Reid quarrelled over a scientific matter. Knox
+never recovered from the effect of the Burke and Hare incident; in
+spite of the favourable report of an influential committee appointed
+to inquire into his share in the proceedings, and his own explicit
+statements, the public never acquitted him of at least a wilful
+shutting of his eyes to much that ought to have aroused his
+suspicions. His crowded class-room gradually became empty during the
+next few years, and the once brilliant, talented, and determined man
+became demoralised and left Edinburgh. Christison says that Knox
+finally died almost destitute in London, and that one of his last
+occupations was that of showman to a party of travelling Ojibbeway
+Indians.
+
+However the strong personality and attractive lecturing of Knox may
+have influenced him, it is undoubted that to the personal influence of
+MacArthur and Reid, acting upon his constant hunger to know nature and
+truth, stimulated as it was by what he saw of anatomy and physiology,
+we owe the fact that Simpson decided to enter the medical profession.
+
+Although the number of medical students in Edinburgh University
+reached one of its highest points during the years that Simpson was a
+student, it is remarkable that with one, or perhaps two, exceptions,
+the University professors were men of no marked eminence in their
+various subjects. On the other hand, the extra-mural teachers included
+men of such wide reputation as Knox, Lizars, and Liston. Syme, who
+reached the height of his fame as a surgeon about the same time that
+Simpson became renowned, had just resigned the teaching of anatomy to
+take up surgery; shut out at first from the wards of the Royal
+Infirmary by jealous colleagues, he was boldly establishing for
+himself the little Minto House Hospital, which became the successful
+nursery of his own unsurpassed system of clinical teaching, and
+remains in the recollection to this day as the principal scene of Dr.
+John Brown's pathetic story, "Rab and his Friends." It was chiefly
+these extra-academical teachers who at that time made the medical
+school famous, and were raising for it a reputation in surgery such as
+it had acquired in physic in the days of Cullen. In certain subjects
+the students would, according to the regulations for the degree, take
+out their tickets of attendance on the professor's course of lectures,
+but would put in only a sufficient number of appearances to entitle
+them to the necessary certificates; the real study of the subject
+being made under the more accomplished teacher outside the University
+walls.
+
+Edinburgh was at this period much more than the scene of the foremost
+medical and surgical teaching of the day in the world. It was a
+striking centre of intellectual activity. Sir Walter Scott,
+Cockburn, and Jeffrey were famous in literature and politics; Chalmers
+and Moncrieff in Church affairs; and Aytoun, John Wilson, Sir
+William Hamilton, and Sir David Brewster were names that attracted
+men from far and wide to the modern Athens. English and foreign
+advocates, scholars, artists, squires, and noblemen mingled together
+to hear or see some of these men. Lord John Russell, Henry
+Temple--subsequently Lord Palmerston--and Lord Melbourne were
+amongst the young Englishmen who attended university classes for a
+session or two; and H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and his brother the
+Duke of Edinburgh, each matriculated in later days. When Simpson began
+his studies Knox was the great lion, without a visit to whose
+class-room no sojourn in Edinburgh was complete; just as in later
+years Simpson's house in Queen Street was the resort of all sorts
+and conditions of distinguished people.
+
+The University had little control over her students once they were
+outside the gates of the quadrangle. There were no residential
+colleges; each youth found lodgings for himself suitable to his means,
+and led a perfectly independent life. So long as he conducted himself
+with propriety within her walls his Alma Mater cared little how he
+conducted himself or how he fared outside. Before 1858, when the Town
+Council controlled University affairs, there were sometimes attempts
+to order the comings and goings of students. It is recorded that in
+1635 the Town Council discovered that the scholars of the College were
+much withdrawn from their studies by "invitations to burials," which
+"prejudiced their advancement in learning," and they enacted that no
+student was to be permitted to attend burials except those of
+University or city worthies. This was at a time when some of the
+students were provided with residences inside the University, but by
+the beginning of the eighteenth century College residence had ceased.
+From time to time attempts have been made to render the students
+conspicuous in the city by the wearing of red gowns, but without
+success; and those of all faculties continue to be their own masters,
+in marked contrast to the mode of government in force at Oxford and
+Cambridge. Recently, in the eighties, a batch of students who had
+figured in the police-court after a riot in the gallery of a theatre
+were surprised to find themselves summoned before the Senatus
+Academicus and rusticated for varying periods; this, however, was but
+a spasmodic exercise of power. The chief advantage claimed for this
+custom of leaving the student to his own devices is that it encourages
+independence and develops each man's individuality better than a
+system of discipline and control. In men of Simpson's calibre it
+certainly has had a good effect.
+
+Although the family in Bathgate strained every nerve to keep James
+well supplied with the necessary funds as a student, they were not
+able to place him in such a pecuniary position as to make it
+unnecessary for him to exercise economy: He appears to have been very
+careful indeed of the money which he had; much more careful than when
+he reckoned his income by thousands. He kept methodical accounts of
+his expenses down to the most trivial items, and regularly submitted
+them to his family. His cash-book opened with the following quotation
+from a small book called the "Economy of Life," which figures at a
+cost of ninepence:--"Let not thy recreations be expensive lest the
+pain of purchasing them exceed the pleasure thou hast in their
+enjoyment"; and to this he added:--
+
+  "No trivial gain nor trivial loss despise;
+  Mole-hills, if often heaped, to mountains rise.
+  Weigh every small expense and nothing waste;
+  Farthings long saved amount to pounds at last."
+
+It is easy to see here the imprint of a well-known national
+characteristic, from which, however, he completely shook himself free
+when prosperity came to him.
+
+His share of the rent of the Adam Street lodging amounted to only
+three shillings a week. The entries in the cash-book show how frugally
+he lived and how every spare sum was devoted to the purchase of books.
+His library, the foundation of much of his encyclopedic knowledge, was
+a curious mixture. Adam's "Antiquities," Milton's Poems, Byron's
+"Giaour" and "Childe Harold," a Church Bible, Paley's "Natural
+Theology," Fife's "Anatomy," and "The Fortunes of Nigel," were amongst
+those entered as purchased. The daily entries were such as the
+following:--"Subject (anatomical), L2; spoon, 6d.; bread and tart, 1s.
+8d. Duncan's Therapeutics, 9d.; snuff; 1-1/2d.; Early Rising,
+9-1/2d."
+
+He followed out the usual student's custom of the day of learning
+dispensing by serving for a time in a chemist's shop. The late Dr.
+Keiller, of Edinburgh, used to relate how, while he himself was so
+employed in a chemist's shop in Dundas Street, one day "a little
+fellow with a big head" was brought in and entered as a pupil by a
+relative. The little fellow was Simpson, and no sooner was he left in
+the shop than he sat down with a book upon drugs, and turning to the
+shelves took down drug after drug to read up. The prompt industry of
+the big-headed fellow deeply impressed Keiller.
+
+James attended most of the University classes, but studied surgery
+under the great Robert Liston, the foremost extra-mural surgeon,
+daring and skilful as an operator and of great repute as a lecturer,
+who afterwards filled the post of Professor of Clinical Surgery in
+University College Hospital, London. Liston was an abrupt-mannered but
+sincere man, and a keen lover of truth. He was a warm advocate of
+hospital reform, and was successful in introducing several needed
+improvements into the Royal Infirmary after a fierce fight. Here again
+Simpson was brought under the influence of a strong, self-reliant man
+with a distinct tendency towards controversy; to whom he was also
+attracted by the fact that Liston was a native of Linlithgowshire.
+Liston and Syme, after being close colleagues, quarrelled most
+fiercely, and were bitter rivals until Liston removed to London in
+1835. Simpson attended Liston's lectures during three sessions.
+
+There is no record of his having obtained great distinction in any of
+the medical classes, but his certificates show that he worked with
+pre-eminent diligence in them all, and obtained a characteristic
+mastery of each subject. If any exception occurred it was in the very
+subject in which he afterwards earned his greatest scientific
+fame--that of obstetrics. He attended Professor James Hamilton's
+course of lectures on that subject early in his career, and apparently
+felt so little interest--the subject only became a compulsory one for
+examination for qualification in 1830--that he regularly went to sleep
+during the lecture. The excuse urged was that the lecture being a late
+one, three to four in the afternoon, it found him tired out after a
+long morning of study, lectures, and practical work. But had he been
+keenly interested he would have been wide awake, for Hamilton was a
+forcible, if plain, lecturer.
+
+Hamilton was another of Simpson's teachers who exhibited the same
+uncompromising fighting characteristics--eager and strenuous in his
+efforts to obtain some object--which Simpson himself afterwards
+displayed. He fought hard for fifteen years to gain recognition for
+the subject which he taught, and to have it included in those
+necessary for qualification. He succeeded in the end, but in the
+course of the struggle had to bring two actions at law against
+professional brethren. In one the defendant was Dr. Gregory, whose
+teaching was mainly responsible for the British system of medical
+practice in the early part of this century, viz., free purging,
+free bleeding, and frequent blistering, and who was the inventor of
+that well known household remedy, Gregory's powder. Gregory was also
+a pugnacious man and could not abide the pretensions of the
+representative of the despised art of midwifery; he administered a
+public caning to him, and had to pay L100 in damages which, it is
+said, he offered to pay over again for another opportunity of
+thrashing the little obstetrician. This encounter occurred before
+Simpson became a student, but the memory of it was frequently
+revived in the subsequent disputes which Hamilton carried on.
+
+The notes which Simpson took of the curriculum lectures were concisely
+made and full of comments, criticisms, and queries. He by no means
+bowed down to authority; he allowed nothing to pass which he did not
+understand at the time, and specially noted points which it seemed to
+him his teachers themselves did not understand.
+
+Like most young men of his abilities and temperament, Simpson took
+pleasure in rhyming, and some of his verses are preserved. They
+indicate something of the rollicking spirit of the medical student's
+life seventy years ago. The medical student at that date has been
+described in a recent interesting sketch of Edinburgh student life as
+wearing a white great-coat and talking loud; his hat was inclined
+knowingly to one side of his head, and the bright hues of an Oriental
+handkerchief decorated his neck. There was a great deal of acting in
+his motions. He was first at the door of the theatre on a Saturday
+night, and regardless of the damages sustained by the skirts of his
+coat, secured the very middle seat of the fifth row of benches in the
+pit. Simpson, however, hardly conformed to this description. He
+enjoyed recreation as much as any man, and had a keen sense of humour
+which made him popular among his fellow students, but he was saturated
+with the love of study and was not led into extravagances of the Bob
+Sawyer type, or the harmless inanities of Albert Smith's immortal
+Medical Student.
+
+During the long summer vacation he noted carefully his observations on
+the botany, zoology, geology, and even the meteorology of the Bathgate
+district. Dr. Duns, in his memoir, points out that he was much more at
+home with the phenomena of organic than with those of inorganic forms.
+His highest powers came into play when he had to do with the presence
+of life and its varied manifestations. Even his antiquarian notes
+illustrated this. He passed at once from the things to the thoughts
+and feelings of the men associated with them.
+
+In the holidays he also assisted the village doctor in visiting and
+dispensing, and lent a willing hand in his father's shop when he was
+wanted, often enough driving the baker's cart on the daily round of
+bread delivery.
+
+In January of the year 1830 his father was taken seriously ill, and
+James hastily left Edinburgh and tended him till his death. On his
+return he presented himself for the final examination at the College
+of Surgeons. This he passed with ease and credit in April, and found
+himself a fully qualified medical practitioner at the age of
+eighteen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FURTHER STUDIES. 1830-1835
+
+  Applies for a village appointment--Disappointment--Brother's help
+  to further studies--Dispensary assistant--Obtains University M.D.,
+  1832--Thesis--Assistant to the Professor of Pathology--Turns to
+  obstetrics--Attends Professor Hamilton's lectures again--Royal
+  Medical and Royal Physical Societies--Edward Forbes--The
+  Oineromathic Society--Foreign tour--Visits Liverpool and meets
+  Miss Jessie Grindlay--His characteristics, principles, and
+  methods, with extracts from addresses.
+
+
+There now came the first crisis in Simpson's medical career. After
+his father's death he felt that having obtained his qualification
+to practise it was his duty to relieve his family of the burden of
+supporting him through more extended studies. After due deliberation
+he applied for a small appointment which would have served as a
+nucleus for private practice, that of parish surgeon to a small
+village on the banks of the Clyde. Those in whose hands the
+appointment lay were not impressed with his fitness for the post,
+and he was not elected, "I felt," he afterwards said, "a deeper
+amount of chagrin and disappointment than I have ever experienced
+since that date. If chosen, I would probably have been working there
+as a village doctor still." Although such a commencement might have
+delayed his ultimate rise to eminence, it cannot be agreed that it
+could possibly have prevented it. It was at this crisis that what he
+tenderly referred to as "the ceaseless love and kindness of a dear
+elder brother" came to his rescue, and by Alexander's or, as he
+affectionately called him, "Sandy's" help, he returned to Edinburgh
+to resume his studies in the winter session, 1830-31. His other
+brother, David, had started in business as a baker at Stockbridge,
+close to Edinburgh, and James boarded with him there for a time.
+His qualification enabled him to become assistant to a Dr. Gairdner
+in dispensary practice, a class of work he had had some experience of
+in the previous year while staying with Dr. Girdwood at Falkirk during
+the summer. Dr. Gairdner was much struck with Simpson's abilities,
+which he stated, "promised the most flattering expectations." In the
+course of his first experiences of actual practice he became
+impressed with the necessity for a knowledge of obstetrics, and
+therefore attended lectures on the subject by Dr. Thatcher, an
+extra-mural teacher of repute, who subsequently applied for the
+University chair of midwifery when Simpson was the successful
+candidate.
+
+His chief object, however, was to qualify for the degree of Doctor
+of Medicine of the University, and this he succeeded in doing in
+1832. The regulations for this coveted degree were, for the times,
+wonderfully complete; it was held in such high estimation and such
+large numbers qualified annually--in 1827 there were one hundred and
+sixty graduates--that the authorities felt justified in being
+stringent. The length of the course of study necessary for graduation
+had been fixed at four years, and required the candidate to have
+attended classes in Anatomy, Surgery, Materia Medica, and Pharmacy,
+the Theory and Practice of Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Midwifery,
+Chemistry, and Botany, as well as a three months' course in any two
+of the following:--Practical Anatomy, Natural History, Medical
+Jurisprudence, Clinical Surgery, and Military Surgery. The first
+step in examination took place at the house of one of the professors
+where the candidate was questioned in literary subjects, chiefly
+Latin, and in the different branches of Medicine and Surgery. If he
+passed this satisfactorily he was examined more minutely by two
+professors in the presence of the others, and was subsequently given
+two Aphorisms of Hippocrates to explain and illustrate in writing and
+to defend before the faculty, as well as two cases with questions
+attached. The last step was the presenting of a thesis which was
+read by one of the faculty and was publicly defended by the
+candidate on the day of graduation. All this examination was
+conducted in Latin. Simpson's thesis was entitled: "_De causa
+mortis in quibusdam inflammationibus proxima_." He was amongst the
+last graduates who were examined through the medium of Latin, for
+after 1833 the language was optional, and English soon became the
+only one used; at the same time the examinations were differently
+arranged, and made to consist of more thorough and prolonged written
+and oral stages. Being on a pathological subject, Simpson's thesis
+was allotted to Thomson, the professor of Pathology, to examine,
+who not only recommended the author for the degree, but was so
+impressed by the ability displayed in the dissertation that he sought
+him out and promptly offered him the post of assistant, which
+Simpson as promptly accepted. This appointment was most welcome. Not
+only did it give him a much desired opportunity for pathological work,
+but the salary of L50 a year enabled him to free his family from
+the immediate necessity of supporting him.
+
+If to MacArthur and John Reid was due the credit of first directing
+Simpson's thoughts to the study of medicine, to Professor John Thomson
+belongs the credit of having made him an obstetrician. "At Dr.
+Thomson's earnest suggestion and advice," says Simpson, "I first
+turned more especially to the study of midwifery with the view of
+becoming a teacher of this department of medical science." He lost no
+time in throwing himself heartily into the work that was nearest to
+him, and became almost indispensable to his chief. Most of his time
+was spent in the Pathological Museum, busily engaged in arranging,
+classifying, and describing the preparations, but he also assisted in
+preparing the professor's lectures. He took up more readily than
+Thomson the then new mode of study by the microscope, and it is
+related that once he composed a lecture for his chief on this subject
+which Thomson delivered without previous perusal. Several times as
+Thompson read the lecture to the class he looked up to glare at his
+assistant, and when they returned to the side room he shook his fist
+in his face, saying, "I don't believe one d--d word of it."
+
+Although Simpson was now earning enough by his salary as assistant to
+meet his expenses at the time, his family maintained their loving
+interest in his welfare. His sister told him he was working too hard
+and hurting his health. "Well," he replied, "I am sure it is just to
+please you all."
+
+Sandy, who had married in 1832, watched his career carefully, and when
+the cholera made its appearance in Scotland he made a will with a
+provision for "my dear James" in the event of his death. "I daresay,"
+he addressed his family therein, "every one of you has a pleasure in
+doing him good by stealth as I have had myself."
+
+By Thomson's advice Simpson attended Hamilton's lectures in the winter
+session 1833-4, and this time with awakened interest. With the
+definite object of devoting himself to Midwifery clearly in view
+Simpson worked with all his phenomenal energy during the years from
+1832 to 1835, studying the subject while he was helping Thomson. He
+entered the front rank of the young graduates of his day, and was
+elected a member of the Royal Medical and Royal Physical Societies in
+the same year, 1833. Both these societies were for the encouragement
+of scientific study and discussion among students and young graduates,
+and to obtain the Presidential chair of either was a high honour. The
+Royal Medical Society was the oldest Society in the University, having
+been established in 1737 by the great Cullen and others; it had always
+been of great account in the University, and the originality of the
+utterances on professional matters which emanated from it made it then
+a power to be reckoned with not only in Edinburgh, but throughout
+European professional circles. For membership of the Royal Physical
+Society he was proposed by Edward Forbes, a brilliant youth, who
+subsequently distinguished himself in Natural History, and held the
+University Chair in that subject for a brief period until cut down
+prematurely at the age of thirty-nine. Forbes was the leader of a set
+of able young students who have left a distinct mark in the history of
+the University. John Reid was an intimate friend of Forbes, and
+Simpson was probably as intimate with him. Forbes was the founder and
+editor of the best of all the shortlived literary ventures of
+Edinburgh undergraduates--_The University Maga_, which was issued
+weekly in 1834; and he was also one of the founders of the
+Oineromathic Society, "The brotherhood of the friends of Truth."
+Forbes thus described the nature of this Society in song:--
+
+  "Some love to stray through lands far away,
+    Some love to roam on the sea,
+  But an antique cell and a college bell,
+    And a student's life for me.
+  For palace or cot, for mead or grot
+    I never would care or pine,
+  But spend my days in twining lays
+    To Learning, Love, and Wine."
+
+"Wine, Love, and Learning" was the motto of this curious brotherhood,
+and it numbered in its membership many men of the day, who afterwards
+became eminent, such as Forbes himself, Reid, George Wilson, Goodsir,
+and Bennet. Simpson must have been quite cognisant of this Society's
+doings; he was closely associated with its leaders, but his name does
+not appear in any of the lists of members still preserved. His
+whole-hearted devotion to the ~MATHESIS~ probably prevented his
+uniting with the brotherhood to worship the ~EROS~ and ~OINOS~. The
+brotherhood was conspicuously united. In the great snowball riot of
+1837, which was quelled only by the reading of the Riot Act and the
+marching down at the double from the Castle of the Cameron Highlanders
+into the University gates, they fought shoulder to shoulder.
+
+In 1835 Simpson felt that the time had come to enter into serious
+practice and turn his acquired knowledge to account. Fifty pounds a
+year was no large income on which to satisfy his craving for
+learning, and there was no surplus from which by any means to repay
+his family for their assistance. Before taking any decided step,
+however, he desired to pay a visit to the Continental centres of
+medical science and teaching. The funds for the proposed tour were
+promptly found by his brothers Alexander and John; by their assistance
+he was enabled to visit Paris, Liege, and Brussels, as well as London
+and Oxford. He was accompanied by Dr. (now Sir Douglas) Maclagan, and
+kept a journal of the tour, which is an interesting example of his
+lively powers of observation. In London he visited the leading
+hospitals, and made the acquaintance of the leading physicians and
+surgeons, amongst whom were many _alumni_ of his own _alma mater_. In
+the journal he freely and concisely criticised the men, their methods,
+and their hospitals. In Paris he followed the same plan, going the
+round of all the hospitals, and searching for and grasping the
+principle which guided each distinguished man's thought and teaching.
+He took more than a medical interest in all that he saw, and noted the
+appearance and habits of the people of each place that he visited. At
+the end of his coach ride from London to Southampton, on the way to
+Paris, he sat down to write:--"The ride as far as Windsor Park was
+delightful, and from the top of the coach we had two or three most
+lovely glimpses of English scenery. After passing Windsor the soil was
+rather inferior in many parts, and we passed every now and then large
+tracts of heath.... The neatness and cleanliness of the English
+cottages is greatly superior to all that we have in Scotland; the
+little patches of garden ground before, behind, and around them set
+them off amazingly. I wish the Scottish peasantry could by some means
+or other be excited to a little more love of cleanliness and
+horticulture. I did not see above two or three dirty windows, men or
+women along the whole line of road. The snow-white smock-frocks of the
+Hampshire peasantry do actually look well in my opinion."
+
+At Liege on June 13th he wrote:--"And is it possible that I here begin
+a second volume of a journal?... I began my journal chiefly with some
+distant prospect of teaching myself the important lesson of daily
+notation. I am vain enough to flatter myself now that I have partly at
+least succeeded. At all events that which was at first a sort of task,
+at times rather an annoying task, has now become to me a pleasure. If
+I had my first volume to write over again I think I would now write it
+twenty times better. In writing a journal 'tis needless to think of
+making no blunders in the way of blots and bad grammar or of crooked
+sentences. We, or at least I, have occasionally felt so confoundedly
+tired at night that if I had been obliged to attend to such minutiae I
+certainly would not have been able to advance above two sentences.
+
+"This morning rose by half-past seven--dressed and breakfasted on
+coffee and rolls, read the _Liege Courier_, and by nine o'clock called
+on Professor Fohman with a copy of Dr. Reid's paper on the glands of
+the whale, which I had promised him yesterday. The Professor kept us
+until five minutes to ten, lecturing us on his discoveries upon the
+original elementary tubular structure of animal tissues. Somebody has
+remarked that no person ever entered into or at least came out of the
+study of the Book of Revelation without being either mad before or mad
+after it. I would not choose to say that Dr. F.'s case is perfectly
+analogous, but has it not some analogy? He seems to run wild on
+elementary tubular texture; ... he hates Lippi and his researches with
+a perfect hatred. Lippi has been preferred to him by the Parisian
+Academy. Is he not working against Lippi, and it may be against truth,
+if they happen to go together, which I do not believe?
+
+"We have taken our seats in the diligence to-morrow for Louvain, and
+on leaving Liege I must confess that I leave one of the most lovely
+places I have seen on the Continent. 'Tis rich, populous, busy; the
+town in itself is old and good, though not so neat and clean as Mons;
+its environs wild and romantic. Besides it seems full of good-natured
+_gash_ old wives, and sonsy, laughing-faced, good-looking, nay, some
+of them very good-looking girls."
+
+The homeward journey was made _via_ Birmingham, Liverpool, and
+Glasgow. In Liverpool he called upon a distant relative named
+Grindlay, established there as a shipper, and laid the foundation of a
+life-long friendship with the family. He also then for the first time
+met Miss Jessie Grindlay who afterwards became his wife.
+
+With the end of this tour, Simpson brought to a close the more
+strictly student part of his career, although it remained true of
+him, as of all eminent scientific men, that he was a student to the
+end of his days. He felt himself now fully equipped to enter into
+the professional battle, and he stepped into the arena, not only
+full of vigorous life and hope, but possessed of highly trained
+faculties, keen senses, and lofty ideals. It was his strong,
+personal characteristics, apart from his accomplishments, which at
+once placed him head and shoulders above his fellows. "He had a great
+heart," says a recent writer, "and a marvellous personal influence,
+calling forth, not only the sympathy and love of his fellowmen,
+but capable of kindling enthusiasm in others almost at first
+sight." It is impossible to overestimate this personal influence in
+analysing the elements of his ultimate success, and it is more
+impossible for those who did not feel it to realise its nature; but
+that he became the beloved as well as the trusted physician is due to
+this influence. "He had no acquaintances," says the writer already
+quoted; "none could come into contact with him and stop short of
+friendship." This was a powerful trait to possess; it cannot be
+denied that he was fully aware of it and its value; and used it with
+good effect in establishing himself as the greatest physician of his
+day.
+
+As a scientist he started with an eager desire for knowledge and
+reverence for truth, to which was added the highly developed power of
+mental concentration born of early self-training. When most men would
+be waiting in what they would term enforced idleness, Simpson would be
+busy with book or pen, deeply attentive to his occupation despite
+surrounding distractions or temptations to frivolous idleness. He took
+the full measure of the value of Time and handled his moments as
+another would a precious metal. "At all times," he said himself, "on
+all occasions, and amidst the numerous disturbing influences to which
+the medical man is so constantly subjected, he should be able to
+control and command his undivided mental attention to the case or
+object that he may have before him.... In the power of concentrating
+and keeping concentrated all the energies of attention and thought
+upon any given subject, consists the power of thinking strongly and
+successfully upon that subject. The possession or the want of this
+quality of the mind constitutes the main distinction between the
+possession or the want of what the world designates 'mental abilities
+and talents.'"
+
+His high ideals, his conception of the functions of the physician,
+and the strivings of the scientist are best shown in his own
+words:--"Other pursuits become insignificant in their objects when
+placed in contrast with ours. The agriculturist bestows all his
+professional care and study on the rearing of crops and cattle; the
+merchant spends his energies and attention on his goods and his
+commissions; the engineer upon his iron-wheels and rails; the sailor
+upon his ships and freights; the banker upon his bills and his
+bonds; and the manufacturer upon his spindles and their products. But
+what after all are machinery and merchandise, shares and stocks,
+consols and prices-current, or the rates of cargoes and cattle, of
+corns and cottons, in comparison with the inestimable value and
+importance of the very lives of these fellowmen who everywhere move
+and breath and speak and act around us? What are any, or what are all
+these objects when contrasted with the most precious and valued gift
+of God--human life? And what would not the greatest and most
+successful followers of such varied callings give out of their own
+professional stores for the restoration of health and for the
+prolongation of life--if the first were once lost to them, or if
+the other were merely menaced by the dreaded and blighting finger of
+disease?"
+
+In one of his addresses of later years he urged upon his students the
+objects and motives which had been his in early professional
+life:--"The objects and powers of your art are alike great and
+elevated," he said. "Your aim is as far as possible to alleviate
+human suffering and lengthen out human existence. Your ambition is to
+gladden as well as to prolong the course of human life by warding off
+disease as the greatest of mortal evils; and restoring health, and
+even at times reason itself, as the greatest of mortal blessings....
+If you follow these, the noble objects of your profession, in a proper
+spirit of love and kindness to your race, the pure light of
+benevolence will shed around the path of your toils and labours the
+brightness and beauty that will ever cheer you onwards and keep your
+steps from being weary in well-doing; ... while if you practise the
+art that you profess with a cold-hearted view to its results, merely
+as a matter of lucre and trade, your course will be as dark and
+miserable as that low and grovelling love that dictates it."
+
+Simpson's method of study was simple, at the same time that it
+involved immense labour. In entering upon a new work his first
+proceeding was to ascertain conscientiously all that had already been
+said or written by others upon the subject. He traced knowledge from
+its earliest sources and was able, as he followed the mental workings
+of those who had preceded him, to estimate the value of every vaunted
+addition to the sum of knowledge; and to weigh the theories and new
+opinions of men which had been evolved with the progress of time, and
+which had sometimes obscured, instead of casting greater light upon
+the truth. His antiquarian tastes added to his knowledge of Latin
+helped him in this work and turned a tedious task into a real
+pleasure. This preliminary accomplished, he plunged into the work of
+adding to the knowledge of the subject by thought, research,
+experiment, or invention.
+
+In writing upon an abstract subject he would disentangle the confused
+thoughts of his predecessors and restate their opinions in direct and
+simplified language. But matters of opinion never had such an
+attraction for him as matters of fact; in dealing with these latter he
+would test by experiment the statements of authorities and correct or
+add to them by his own researches. Most of his professional writings,
+as well as his archaeological works, are valuable for the historical
+_resume_ of the knowledge on the subject as well as for his additions.
+His later writings show as careful an attention to the inductive
+method with which he started, as those produced in the days of his
+more youthful enthusiasm; when fame was attained and fortune secured,
+when excessive work was sapping his physical strength, he never sank
+into lazy or slovenly methods in scientific work, but ever threw his
+whole vigour into the self-imposed task.
+
+When studying Nature directly he was constantly asking her "why?"--just
+as in his notes of his teacher's lectures the query was ever recurring.
+He never felt himself beaten by an initial failure, but returned again
+and again with his questions with renewed energy each time. He was not
+to be denied, and in this manner he wrested from Nature some of
+those precious secrets the knowledge of which has relieved suffering and
+prolonged human life in every corner of the globe. "He never kept
+anything secret," says his nephew and successor, Professor A. R.
+Simpson, "that he thought could help his fellows, and it is hard to
+say whether his delight was greater in finding some new means to cure
+disease, or in demonstrating to others his methods of treatment."
+
+He was indeed clothed in well-nigh impenetrable armour, and provided
+with powerful weapons, when in the autumn of 1835 he returned from his
+foreign tour to commence the serious fight in which his avowed object
+was not only to obtain professional eminence, but to stand forth a
+proud benefactor of the human race. Although he appealed always
+directly to Nature and used his own well-trained eyes and ears in
+preference to those of others, he did not completely brush aside
+authority as Sydenham had done; he hesitated neither to extract all
+that was valuable, nor to discard what appeared worthless from the
+writings of past masters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+EARLY PRACTICE AND PROFESSORSHIP. 1835-1840
+
+  President of Royal Medical Society--Personal appearance--Practice
+  among the poor--Corresponds with Miss Grindlay--Lecturer on
+  obstetrics--Resignation of Professor Hamilton--Applies for
+  vacancy--Active candidature--Strong opposition--Marriage--Account
+  of the midwifery Chair--The medical professors at the time--Their
+  opposition--Cost of candidature--Triumphant election.
+
+
+In November, 1835, Simpson was elected one of the annual Presidents of
+the Royal Medical Society; a position which has been occupied by many
+young Edinburgh graduates, who have subsequently risen to fame. He
+took pains to make his inaugural address worthy of the occasion, and
+chose a subject connected with the pathology of obstetrics. It was a
+great success, and contributed largely towards giving him a recognised
+position as an authority in that branch of study. After appearing in
+the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_ for January, 1836, it was
+translated into French, Italian, and German. It also obtained for him
+his first foreign honour--one of a long list that was made up through
+his lifetime--that of corresponding member of the Ghent Medical
+Society; indeed, his early works received more attention and
+appreciation abroad than at home. In 1836, in order to widen his
+experience in his chosen subject, he filled the post of house-surgeon
+to the Lying-in Hospital, and held it for twelve months. He was also
+elected a Fellow of the Edinburgh College of Physicians. From this
+time he became a profuse writer on professional subjects, and
+developed an easy and convincing style; he carried on this work _pari
+passu_ with practice amongst the poorer classes of the city and in
+addition to his work in connection with the Pathology Chair, always
+keeping in view his great object of becoming an obstetrician. It was
+not until 1838 that he became an independent lecturer on Midwifery. He
+had intended to do so earlier, but owing to Professor Thomson's
+ill-health, he had been called upon to act as Deputy-Professor of
+Pathology, a most valuable and useful employment.
+
+Simpson's personal appearance at this time has been described by one
+who visited a meeting of the Royal Medical Society on an evening when
+he was in the chair:--"The chair was occupied," says the narrator, "by
+a young man whose appearance was striking and peculiar. As we entered
+the room his head was bent down, and little was seen but a mass of
+long tangled hair, partially concealing what appeared to be a head of
+very large size. He raised his head, and his countenance at once
+impressed us. A pale, rather flattish face, massive brent brows, from
+under which shone eyes now piercing as it were to your inmost soul,
+now melting into almost feminine tenderness; a coarsish nose with
+dilated nostrils, finely chiselled mouth which seemed the most
+expressive feature of the face ... Then his peculiar rounded soft body
+and limbs, as if he had retained the infantine form in adolescence,
+presented a _tout ensemble_, which even if we had never seen it again
+would have remained indelibly impressed on our memory."
+
+In Simpson's youth physicians and surgeons made a habit of cultivating
+peculiarities of appearances and behaviour, but he was so shaped by
+nature as to attract attention without artificial aid. The growth of
+long hair seemed a natural accompaniment to his massive head and broad
+expressive countenance.
+
+His practice at this time was scattered over the city, and he took
+long tramps in the course of the day. In one of his letters to his
+brothers, who were still loyally supporting him in his increasingly
+successful endeavours to establish himself after his heart's desire,
+he says:--"The patients are mostly poor it is true, but still they are
+patients; ... if my health is spared me, I do hope I may get into
+practice sufficient to keep me respectable after the lapse of years;
+but I know years must pass before that. At present I enjoy the best
+possible spirits and health, and with all my toils was never happier
+or healthier."
+
+_Tout vient a point a qui sait attendre._ Simpson knew how to wait; he
+knew that waiting did not mean inactivity. Every opportunity that
+arose for advancement found him prepared to take full advantage of
+it.
+
+That his lectures on pathology were acceptable was made manifest by
+the address presented to him by the students of the class at the end
+of his temporary term of office, testifying to his zeal, fidelity, and
+success, their admiration of his high talents, of the varied and
+extensive research which he displayed, and of his uniform and kind
+affability which, while it exalted him in the eyes of all as a
+teacher, endeared him to each as a friend.
+
+During this period he kept up a correspondence with the Miss Grindlay,
+of Liverpool, whose appearance he had been struck with when he visited
+the family, and towards the end of 1837 he found time to visit there
+again accompanied by Dr. John Reid.
+
+The way for his appearance as an extra-academical lecturer on
+midwifery was made clear at the end of 1837 by the death of Dr.
+Macintosh, a successful teacher of that subject. He had been in
+negotiation, without success, with this Dr. Macintosh for the taking
+over of the part or whole of his lectures, and found it easy to step
+at once into his place at his death. He was firmly determined to
+succeed ultimately to the University Chair of Midwifery. On one
+occasion he pointed out to some friends the then holder of the Chair,
+Professor Hamilton, thus:--"Do you see that old gentleman? Well,
+that's my gown!"
+
+The good luck which had been his during his boyhood did not desert him
+when he began his course of lectures; for not only did he speedily
+attain a reputation for teaching, science, and practical skill,
+wonderful for one so young, but he had not two years to wait after
+thus establishing himself before the chair of his ambition fell vacant
+owing to the resignation in 1839 of Professor Hamilton, who died soon
+afterwards at the age of seventy-two.
+
+It was a bold step for so young a man--for Simpson was only
+twenty-eight--to apply for the professorship. He was, however, not
+without his precedent. The second Monro obtained the Anatomy Chair at
+twenty-five, Alison filled that of Physic at thirty, and Thomas Hope
+and Alexander Christison were Professors of Chemistry and Medical
+Jurisprudence respectively each at the age of twenty-four. But this
+subject was one which was popularly thought to require a man of
+experience and especially a married man. Simpson had devoted his
+energies but partially to midwifery for only four or five years, and
+except for his short hospital appointment and recent experience as a
+lecturer on the subject had in the eyes of many no greater claim to
+the post than any other general practitioner, except in the fact that
+he had obtained a wide reputation in the science of the subject by
+his contribution to its literature and his researches. This last was
+the point on which he himself most relied; for his age he had done
+more scientifically than any of his opponents. Those who had watched
+his career knew that he possessed in addition to zeal and ability,
+brilliant teaching and practical powers. The objection of his youth
+was less easily got over than that of his unmarried state. With
+characteristic promptness, as soon as he had determined to apply for
+the Chair and found that as a bachelor his chances would be small, he
+disappeared for a time from Edinburgh, and returned triumphantly with
+Miss Jessie Grindlay, of Liverpool, as his wife. It was a bold stroke
+which delighted his supporters, discomfited his opponents, who saw
+therein the removal of a barrier to his success and a weapon from
+their hands, and astonished the worthy town councillors in whose gift
+the appointment lay.
+
+The Edinburgh Chair of Midwifery was established in 1726, and was
+indisputably the first Chair of its kind in the British Islands, and
+probably in the world. It was in that year that the Town Council first
+established the medical faculty, by appointing two Professors of the
+Theory and Practice of Medicine and two of Medicine and Chemistry. A
+Chair of Anatomy had been instituted six years earlier through the
+instrumentality of the first Monro who became its first occupant.
+These five chairs were considered sufficient wherewith to teach all
+the medical knowledge of the day, and although appointed _ad vitam
+aut culpam_ the professors received no remuneration out of the city
+revenues. The Chair was not reckoned at first as a faculty Chair, but
+was termed a city professorship. The newly created medical faculty
+would have no midwifery within the precincts of the University; and
+this is scarcely surprising when we remember that at first the only
+persons lectured to by the city professor were women of an inferior
+class in whose hands the practice of the art almost entirely lay.
+
+Along with this appointment the Town Council established a system of
+regulation for midwifery practice within the city. It ordered that all
+midwives already in practice should at once be registered, and that no
+persons should thereafter enter on the practice within the city until
+they had presented to the magistrate a certificate under the hands of
+at least one doctor and one surgeon who were at the same time members
+of the College of Physicians or of the Incorporation of Chirurgeons,
+bearing that they had so much of the knowledge and principles of this
+art as warranted their entering on the practice of it; whereupon a
+licence should be given them signed by four magistrates at least
+entitling them to practise. It was further enacted that certain pains
+and penalties were to be inflicted upon ignorant persons for
+practising without this licence whereby their "want of skill might be
+of such dangerous consequences to the lives of so many people." It is
+to be presumed that as qualified medical men granted them these
+certificates and that these women had extensive practices, they
+possessed also a fair amount of skill. But slowly and gradually they
+had to give way and retire to the rank of nurses before the rise and
+growing public tolerance of the qualified male practitioner of
+obstetrics.
+
+The second occupant of the chair, appointed in 1739, was elevated to a
+place in the medical faculty, but Professor Thomas Young, who occupied
+it in 1756, was the first to teach the subject to medical students by
+means of lectures and clinical instruction. As already noted, it was
+left for James Hamilton to obtain the recognition of midwifery as a
+subject, a knowledge of which was necessary for the obtaining of the
+University medical degree.
+
+At the time when Simpson was straining every nerve to gain the post he
+coveted, the medical faculty of the University comprised the following
+professors of the following subjects:--Botany, Robert Graham, who
+established the Edinburgh and Glasgow Botanical Gardens; Anatomy,
+Monro the third; Chemistry, Hope, who discovered strontium in the lead
+mines of Argyleshire; Institutes of Medicine, Alison, an eminent
+physician and philanthropist who first pointed out the connection
+between destitution and epidemics of disease, and secured improved
+Poor Laws for his country; Practice of Physic, James Home; Materia
+Medica, Christison, the world-reputed toxicologist; Natural History,
+Robert Jameson; Clinical Surgery, James Syme, the wonderful operator
+and teacher, and inventor of the "macintosh" waterproof; Military
+Surgery, Ballingall; Medical Jurisprudence, Traill; Pathology,
+Thomson; and Surgery, Charles Bell, the discoverer of the double
+function of the nerves, who was ranked in his day on the Continent as
+greater than Harvey. It was thus not an undistinguished body that
+Simpson strove to enter; several of the best-known members were
+comparatively young men, recently appointed to their posts, and full
+of the rising scientific spirit. It is little to their credit that
+they were practically unanimous in opposing the candidature of this
+young and enthusiastic scientist, who afterwards shed such lustre on
+the University from the chair which they would have denied him for no
+reasons other than his youth and his humble origin.
+
+Fortunately for Simpson and for the University, the appointment did
+not lie in the gift of the professors, but was entirely in the hands
+of the Town Council, comprising thirty-three citizens.
+
+Such an election was always a matter of keen interest to the
+inhabitants of Edinburgh, and each candidate brought all the direct
+and indirect influence within his power to bear on every councillor
+whom he could reach. The Professors in the various faculties had no
+doubt great influence; they openly canvassed for the candidate they
+favoured, and did not hesitate to decry those they did not approve of.
+Shortsighted as this professorial opposition was, it proved no small
+difficulty in Simpson's way. Foremost amongst his opponents was Syme,
+who commenced a long feud with him by supporting his chief rival, Dr.
+Kennedy; "I feel no hesitation in stating," he wrote purposely for
+publication, "that of all the candidates in the field, he (Kennedy) is
+out of all question, according to my judgment, the one that ought to
+be elected." Sir Charles Bell was equally emphatic, and characterised
+Simpson's testimonials, in a note which Kennedy circulated, as given
+by "good-natured people merely to do a civil thing to a friend"--which
+was his mode of describing the declarations of some of the most
+eminent men of the day.
+
+Each candidate also brought political influence to bear, and Whig and
+Tory grew agitated as the contest became keener. Simpson seems to have
+thought that both political parties were in opposition to him, but he
+certainly had the strong support of Ritchie of _Scotsman_ fame, and
+the no less important influence of Mr. Duncan Maclaren.
+
+When writing to ask Mr. Grindlay for his daughter's hand, Simpson
+candidly confessed his pecuniary position at the time. He referred to
+a debt of L200 already owing to his brother Sandy, and added:--"Again
+he gave me a bill for L120 to assist me in furnishing my house. This
+has been renewed and becomes due in January. He hopes to be able to
+pay it, and I fondly imagined I would have paid the half, but this
+canvass has involved me in new difficulties, and besides, I have
+endeavoured to assist my sister to go out to Van Diemen's Land. As it
+is now I am self-sufficient enough to think that I am as well off as
+regards station in my profession as any who started here in the race
+of life with me. They have all, I believe, been aided by friends or by
+private wealth. They have almost all been fortunate enough to have the
+protection of a father's roof during the first years of practice. I
+have had no such advantages, but have worked and stood alone. I have
+accumulated for myself a library and museum, worth L200 at least,
+amidst these difficulties. These I have won by my pen and my lancet,
+and these are my only fortune. And now could you trust her future
+happiness to me under such circumstances? I did not intend to ask her
+hand at present. I fondly hoped I might have _first_ cleared myself of
+my debts."
+
+Grindlay did not hesitate, but willingly gave his daughter, as she was
+willingly given, for better or worse.
+
+The expenses of the canvass amounted to about L500, an amazingly large
+sum; he spared no expense in printing and posting his testimonials and
+letters to every one who had any influence with the Council, however
+small; but taking into consideration the cost of printing and postage
+in 1839, it is difficult to realise how the money was expended. His
+aim was to make known his scientific attainments, powers as a
+teacher, and personal qualifications which he felt, if duly realised,
+would outweigh the disadvantages of his youth and comparative
+inexperience. His testimonials spoke in strong terms of his abilities
+and characteristics; they were a good deal more numerous and elaborate
+than is customary to-day, but Kennedy's also made a fat volume of 150
+octavo pages.
+
+As the day of election drew near the excitement amongst citizens,
+professors, and students grew intense. Of the five candidates in the
+field, three, including his former teacher Thatcher, speedily fell out
+of the running. Dr. Evory Kennedy, of Dublin, and Simpson stood face
+to face as rivals. Kennedy was no mean opponent, and his supporters
+honestly considered him the better man of the two; his attainments
+certainly merited warm support. The prophets foretold a close
+struggle, and the event proved them correct. So keen was public
+interest that when a report was circulated that Kennedy was a bad
+lecturer, his friends brought him over from Dublin a few days before
+the election, hired a public room, and made him lecture to a crowded
+and enthusiastic audience to dispel that illusion. In spite of this
+the popular vote was decidedly in Simpson's favour; if the citizens
+had had votes Simpson would have been returned at the head of the poll
+by a large majority.
+
+On Tuesday, February 4, 1840, at a Council meeting, at which all
+thirty-three members were present, the Provost himself proposed
+Kennedy, while Baillie Ramsay proposed Simpson. The result was
+awaited with breathless suspense, the chamber being crowded by anxious
+spectators. Simpson's enthusiasm had infected his supporters; he had
+kindled the first sparks of that enthusiastic affection with which the
+citizens of Edinburgh ever after regarded him; when his triumph, by
+the narrowest majority, was announced, the cheers resounded loud and
+long.
+
+The same evening he was able to write to Liverpool:--
+
+  "1, DEAN TERRACE.
+
+  "I was this day elected Professor. My opponent had sixteen and I
+  had seventeen votes. All the political influence of both the
+  leading Whigs and Tories here was employed against me; but never
+  mind, I have got the chair in despite of them, Professors and all.
+  Jessie's honeymoon and mine is to commence to-morrow."
+
+It was the man's strong individuality which carried the day. The town
+councillors threw aside the political and academic bias of those who
+endeavoured to lead them, and elected the man who had boldly said,
+"Did I not feel I am the best man for the Chair I would not go in for
+it"; and had more boldly gone on showing them how thoroughly he felt
+what he said until they themselves came to believe it.
+
+The gift of this Chair, as of many others in the University, has now
+passed from the hands of the Town Council into those of a body of
+curators, seven in number, three nominated by the University Court
+and four by the Town Council; such a body might have made a more
+cautious choice, but never a more fortunate one both for the city
+and the University than this of their long-headed and far-sighted
+predecessors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+PROFESSOR AND PHYSICIAN. 1840-1847
+
+  Success as a lecturer--Increased practice--Generosity--Fashionable
+  patients--Memoir on Leprosy--Controversy concerning the Pathology
+  Chair--Address to the Graduates, 1842--Squabbles--Purchases 52,
+  Queen Street--A great and good physician--Called to London--Visit
+  to Erskine House--The daily scene at 52, Queen Street--Rangoon
+  petroleum and Christison--The disruption--His family--Appointed
+  Physician-Accoucheur to the Queen for Scotland.
+
+
+Simpson had not long been engaged upon his new duties before the town
+councillors gladly saw, and his brother professors were obliged to
+admit, that the baker's son was bringing a mighty genius to bear upon
+the subject of his choice from the chair of his ambition. He cherished
+no ill-feeling against those _confreres_ who had actively opposed his
+candidature, but set to work amidst his new surroundings conscious
+that the best way to obliterate bitter feelings was by gradually
+creating a stronger feeling--that of respect for him as a man and a
+worker. He had dealt heavy blows himself during the conflict--blows
+not easily forgotten. The position demanded tact and patience, and he
+was not found wanting in either. He converted many who had worked
+against him into adherents, admirers, and even friends.
+
+His lectures speedily attracted students. Besides those who were
+entering the profession, grey-headed and grey-bearded men, whose
+student days had long since passed away, came to sit at the feet of
+this remarkable young man and hear the so recently despised subject
+dealt with in his own masterly, scientific manner. Conciseness,
+clearness, and directness characterised his delivery; while with
+illustration and anecdote he made his dull subject fascinatingly
+interesting. It was his custom to write out on a black-board notes of
+the subject on which he was about to speak--concise, pithy headings,
+which were hung up in the theatre and which he proceeded methodically
+to explain and enlarge upon. So successful were his efforts that even
+in the first session he was able to make the proud boast that his
+class was for the first time in its history the largest in the
+University, and this in spite of the fact that one of the leading
+professors altered his lecture hour to the same hour as Simpson's,
+with the purpose of injuring the attendance at Simpson's class.
+
+A direct result of the reputation obtained through his course of
+lectures and improved professional position was the rapid increase of
+his practice and the improvement of the class of his patients, so that
+pecuniary profit came within his reach. He continued to be a general
+practitioner, however, attending to all classes of cases that came to
+him; but his zeal for midwifery and the diseases of women, together
+with his renown in those subjects, brought mostly patients of the
+female sex to his consulting-room. With the improved position there
+came necessarily increased expenditure, which at first exceeded the
+income; he never stopped to consider the patients' circumstances or
+whether he was likely to be paid for his services. "I prefer to have
+my reward in the gratitude of my patients," he said. He treated all
+that came to him, and his generous nature was oftentimes taken
+advantage of by persons very well able to remunerate him; moreover, at
+this time, when his pecuniary profit did not equal his professional
+reputation, he cheerfully helped many who appealed to him with amounts
+he could ill spare.
+
+His father-in-law generously and willingly stood by him until the fees
+began to come in more freely--his brother Sandy, who had supported him
+hitherto, having now other claims upon his purse. He found two
+ordinary but costly steps advisable--first, to move into a better and
+more centrally situated house; and, secondly, to obtain a carriage,
+"both to support my rank among my wealthier compeers and to save my
+body from excess of work." The outlay was justified in the result; the
+fees from students and from his private practice very soon enabled him
+to repay the debts to his brothers and his father-in-law without
+inconvenience and with grateful pleasure. Once and for ever within
+the first few years of his professorship he placed himself in a safe
+position, free from all pecuniary anxiety.
+
+If he had laboured hard to fit himself for the front rank of his
+profession, his work on attaining that position showed increase rather
+than abatement. His private practice alone was the work of more than
+one ordinary individual, and his professorial duties took up some of
+the best hours of his day. In the evenings and at all odd times he
+busied himself with absorbing current or ancient literature, or in
+preparing his own contributions to both professional and general
+knowledge either with the pen or by experiment. "Oh that there were
+double twenty-four hours in the day," he sighed at a time when he was
+working at highest pressure, practising amongst peers, commoners, and
+cottagers alike, who all flocked to his residence or sent long
+distances for him. When Princess Marie of Baden, wife of the Duke of
+Hamilton, came under his special care in 1843 he felt that he was
+placed at the top of his profession in Scotland, and must have
+smilingly recalled the words of old Dr. Dawson, of Bathgate, when he
+heard of the successful contest for the Chair. "It's all very well,"
+he had said, "to have got the Chair! But he can never have such a
+practice as Professor Hamilton. Why, ladies have been known to come
+from England to consult him!"
+
+They came from the furthest parts of Greater Britain to consult
+Hamilton's successor, in spite of the old doctor's prognostication!
+
+The energy as well as the versatility of the man is well shown in the
+works which he found time to carry on while he was thus establishing
+himself as a teacher and as a practitioner, during the years from 1840
+to 1845. One of his first literary efforts, not wholly professional,
+the Memoir on "Leprosy and Leper-Houses," was produced at that time.
+It was a work of relaxation and pleasure, for it carried him deeply
+into his favourite archaeology. The fascination which this subject
+always had for him sprang from his love of nature, and of the greatest
+work of nature--man. "The leading object and intent of all the
+antiquarian's pursuit is MAN," he said, "and man's ways and works, his
+habits and thoughts, from the earliest dates at which we can find his
+traces and tracks upon the earth, onwards and forwards along the
+journey of past time. During this long journey he has everywhere left
+scattered behind him and around him innumerable relics forming so many
+permanent impressions and evidences of his march and progress."
+
+The quantity and quality of the information concerning leper hospitals
+which he collected and embodied in his memoir, contributed to the
+Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society in March, 1841, was phenomenal.
+He had consulted old manuscripts and registers, monastic chronicles,
+burgh records, and Acts of Parliament, as well as works of antiquity,
+travel, and history. He gave close upon five hundred references, as
+well as a list of one hundred and nineteen leper-houses, whose
+existence in Britain and whose history he had traced. The work
+illustrates the objects and proper methods of antiquarian research,
+which twenty years afterwards he dilated upon in his address from the
+Chair of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. In the course of it he
+pointed out how vigorously our ancestors had set to work to stamp out
+the disease when it spread through Europe during the period from the
+tenth to the sixteenth century. The method adopted was that still
+employed--segregation; about the twelfth century scarcely a town or
+burgh in France and Britain was without its leper-hospital. Although
+we in Britain are happily now freed from its ravages, other parts of
+the world are not so fortunate. It is still regarded popularly as an
+incurable disease, as it was in 1597, when one Catherine Livingstone
+was gravely brought to trial for witchcraft, one instance of which had
+been that she dared to state her ability to cure "leprosie, which the
+maist expert men in medicine are not abil to do." The indictment set
+forth that she "took a reid cock, slew it, baked a bannock with the
+blude of it, and gaf the samyn to the leper to eat." The witch's
+remedy is scarcely more curious and certainly no less useful than
+those recommended two centuries later by John Wesley in his "Primitive
+Physic," where, moreover, he cheerfully, if somewhat too briefly to
+satisfy the modern inquirer, reports the cure "of a most desperate
+case" by the drinking of a half-pint of celery-whey morning and
+evening.
+
+Scotland was severely smitten by leprosy in the centuries when it
+overspread Europe; Robert Bruce fell a victim to it in 1339, and the
+disease seems to have lingered in the North after it had almost
+vanished from England.
+
+Simpson's paper was published in the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
+Journal_ in three parts in 1841 and 1842, and to this day is the most
+valuable contribution to the interesting and important history of the
+disease. Some of the information had been collected in his student
+days. In his antiquarian researches he had frequently met with
+references to the dirty and unwholesome habits and surroundings of
+Scots towns in early days. The thought that dirt and disease were
+directly connected--a new thought even so recently as fifty years
+ago--led to his investigations. He found that leprosy was most
+prevalent at the time when his country was most dirty; but he was not
+able to establish his supposition that the cause of the disease lay in
+the insanitary surroundings of the people; indeed his researches
+proved that, on the contrary, leprosy had declined and practically
+disappeared from the country long before any material improvement in
+sanitary conditions took place.
+
+Simpson's conduct when Professor Thomson resigned the Chair of
+Pathology illustrates the vigour with which he entered into quite
+casually arising incidents where he saw that strength and a fight were
+necessary to conquer an evil or prevent an abuse. Thomson resigned in
+1841 owing to ill-health. The Chair had been established by William
+IV. in 1831 on the representations of Thomson himself, who succeeded
+in satisfying Lord Melbourne that the subject was worthy of the
+dignity of a separate Chair, in spite of the protests of the Senatus
+Academicus, who throughout the history of the medical faculty
+generally appear to have been actuated more by personal considerations
+and professional jealousies, where new developments were in process,
+than by zeal for their _Alma Mater_. Professors Syme and Alison
+actively led an agitation that with Thomson's resignation the separate
+teaching of pathology should be brought to an end. Without a moment's
+hesitation, in the midst of his hard work, and suffering from
+indifferent health, Simpson plunged into a controversy with these
+colleagues, in which he silenced at once and for ever the detractors
+who had sneered at him as an ignorant, uncultured man-midwife. The
+controversy as usual was followed with intense interest by Edinburgh
+folks, and Simpson received a first taste of that popular approval
+which undoubtedly was one of the enjoyments of his life. The Crown
+avoided the difficulty of deciding between the rival petitioners for
+and against the Chair by transferring its patronage to the Town
+Council, who showed the same foresight which had led them to appoint
+Simpson, in deciding to maintain its existence. Unfortunately their
+wisdom failed when they elected as Thomson's successor a man who,
+although of brilliant attainments, subsequently brought discredit upon
+his University and himself by becoming a convert to homoeopathy.
+Simpson, who was indirectly instrumental in securing the Chair of
+Pathology for this man became his bitterest opponent when he declared
+himself a follower of Hahnemann's unorthodox and mistaken doctrines.
+
+In 1842 it fell to Simpson's lot to deliver the customary address to
+the medical graduates after they had received their degrees at the
+annual ceremonial on the 1st of August. He treated his listeners to a
+discourse on the duties of young physicians. When we remember that he
+had attained to his then high professional position while he was no
+more than a young physician himself, we recognise that he was but
+setting forth the ideals and principles which had been and still were
+his guides in life and conduct.
+
+After warning his audience against regarding the gaining of the
+coveted degree as the end of their student career, instead of as in
+reality the opening up of a lifetime of observation and study, he
+pointed out that self-patronage was the best of all patronage. "Place
+from the first," he said, "all your hopes of advancement upon the
+breadth and extent of your medical abilities alone.... Rather walk by
+the steady light of your own lamp than by the more dazzling, but to
+you more uncertain, lustre borrowed from that of others ... Young
+physicians often dream that by extending the circle of their private
+acquaintances they thus afford themselves the best chance of extending
+the circle of their private patients.... No man will in any case of
+doubt and danger entrust to your professional care the guardianship of
+his own life or of the life of those who are near and dear to his
+heart, merely because you happen to be on terms of intimacy with him.
+The self-interest of human nature forbids it.... The accomplishments
+which render you acceptable in the drawing-room are not always those
+that would make your visits longed for or valued in the chamber of
+sickness and sorrow.... Give therefore your whole energies to
+medicine; and in its multiplied departments you will find 'ample room
+and verge enough' for the most energetic as well as the most
+comprehensive mind. Place your faith in no extrinsic influences. Let
+your own professional character be the one great patron to whom you
+ever look for your professional advancement." He exhorted the young
+practitioners above all to save and economise their time, and to
+regard it as a property to be avaricious of and of every item of which
+they were to render a proper account to themselves. "It is by
+carefully preserving, confirming, and making diligent use of these
+broken and disjointed portions of it, which others thoughtlessly waste
+and destroy, that almost all the highest reputations in the medical
+profession have been formed." He strongly urged the value of a "proper
+covetousness of time." "Look around, and you will find that those who
+have the most to do in the way of business as practitioners have also
+apparently the most time to spare as observers and writers.... And
+why? Because they have all their daily duties perfectly assorted and
+arrayed; they save from loss and destruction every possible fragment
+of time and this very industry and precision procures them more true
+leisure than indolence can boast of."
+
+In referring to the relation of practitioner to patient, he
+spoke on a subject which has been much discussed in recent years
+without altering the principle originally laid down in the oath of
+Hippocrates:--"Whatever," said Simpson, "is communicated to you
+as a matter of professional confidence, must ever remain buried
+within your own breasts in all the silence and secrecy of the
+grave." He concluded his address with well-judged remarks on the
+relation of the physician to his professional brethren, counselling
+his hearers to observe the Golden Rule, and, moreover, "if it be
+possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men;
+never allow the darker part of your nature to persuade you to
+the attempt of over-taking him who has distanced you in the race
+of life by any unjust efforts to lame the character, and thus
+diminish the speed, of your adversary. And if such attempts are
+made upon you by others, have no dread of them--if you are armed
+strong in honesty, if you have pursued a line of irreproachable
+truth and unbending rectitude of conduct. 'Be thou as pure as
+snow thou shalt not escape calumny.'... Your future career is a
+matter of your own selection, and will be regulated by the conduct
+which you choose to follow. That career may be one of happiness or
+self-regret, one of honour or of obscurity, one of wealth or of
+poverty. The one or other result is not a matter of _chance_, but
+a matter of choice on your part. Your diligence and industry for
+the next few years will almost inevitably secure for you the one;
+your apathy and indolence will almost inevitably entail upon you
+the other. May God, in His infinite goodness, enable you to
+select the wiser and the better path."
+
+In this address, as in that previously quoted, we hear him exhorting
+his young listeners to a line of conduct which we know to have been
+broadly his own in practice as well as in ideal. During these early
+years as professor, Simpson had to ward off many ill-disposed
+adversaries, and he met their attack with the determination and
+powerful preparedness that characterised his attitude in later years,
+when he experienced the hostility so constantly opposed to genuine
+reformers, and men who have lived ahead of their times. He sometimes
+regarded these encounters regretfully himself; but none the less
+remembered to
+
+  "Bear't that the opposed may beware."
+
+The correspondence pertaining to some of these disputes was filed and
+ticketed, with brief contempt, "Squabbles." His controversy with
+Professor Syme over a personal matter in 1845 was not to the credit of
+either of these great men, and, as Simpson himself confessed, was
+equally discreditable to their profession. Simpson had seen, as has
+been pointed out, several of his teachers fighting long and strongly
+for their own cherished objects; and he doubtless then, in his student
+days, learnt the lesson that vigorous persistence had the power to
+gain much that at first seemed hopeless; he fought with such energy,
+that he accomplished in his own lifetime what the example of others
+might have led him to think would have been accomplished only by his
+successors.
+
+The growth of his practice up to 1847 was little short of phenomenal.
+In 1845 he purchased No. 52, Queen-street, the house which he
+inhabited up to his death, and which became the Mecca of hundreds upon
+hundreds of pilgrims from all quarters of the globe. Here, in those
+years, he was sought and consulted by unceasing crowds; in the public
+mind he was undoubtedly endowed with more than human powers, and
+regarded as a magician, at the wave of whose wand pain and disease
+would vanish. This caused him much embarrassment, and brought upon him
+the abuse of ignorant persons, irritated to find that, after all, even
+in Simpson's person, there was a limit to human powers; or of others
+with unimportant ailments who were disappointed to find that, once
+having made his diagnosis of their condition, he would have no more of
+them, preferring to place his time at the disposal of those whose
+sufferings were real and capable of relief, or whose cases were
+complicated and interesting. The question of remuneration was always
+secondary, and so careless was he in pecuniary matters that it is
+related that he would wrap up interesting specimens, professional or
+antiquarian, in bank notes; and his trusted valet was in the habit of
+emptying his pockets at night of the money earned in the day, to
+prevent its being lost, mislaid, or given away to undeserving persons.
+With him work was first and fee second. Like a great modern teacher he
+was able to say, "Work first--you are God's servant; fee first--you
+are the fiend's." To Simpson "work was master and the Lord of Work,
+who is God."
+
+The personal power and attractiveness of the man were large factors in
+gaining the practice which he now enjoyed. But he did not depend for
+success on these alone, by any means. His professional reputation was
+fully won by great work in obstetrics and gynaecology, and by the
+introduction of methods and instruments which contributed to the
+saving of countless lives. It has been said that he gave a new life to
+the obstetric art, and presided at the birth of gynaecology. He had
+done this before the great deed was dreamt of which hands his name
+down to posterity, before his discovery of the anaesthetic power of
+chloroform. Simpson was a great physician, the leading practitioner
+of the art and exponent of the science with which his name will always
+be connected. But many great physicians have failed to fulfil as
+Simpson did, Robert Louis Stevenson's description of the physician:--
+
+"Generosity he has such as is possible to those who practise an art,
+never to those who drive a trade; discretion tested by a hundred
+secrets; tact tried in a thousand embarrassments; and what are more
+Heraclean cheerfulness and courage. So it is that he brings air and
+cheer into the sick room, and often enough, though not so often as he
+wishes, brings healing."
+
+Great as a man and great as a physician, Simpson was actually run after
+by the greatest in the land. In 1845 he was summoned professionally
+to London, and gave an interesting description of his kindly reception
+by the Duchess of Sutherland and her family in a letter written from
+Stafford House. His advent to London was a matter of notoriety, and
+he noted that he bought in the street a life of himself which
+mightily diverted him and made him laugh until he was sore. A year or
+more later he was invited for rest and change to Erskine House by
+Lord Blantyre, where he says, "the Duchess of Sutherland, the Marquis
+and Marchioness of Lorne, and two Ladies Gower have made up with myself
+all the strangers." "Tell Janet," he wrote to his brother, "I think now
+artificial flowers very ungenteel. The ladies here wear nothing but
+real flowers in their hair, and every day they come down with
+something new and for us males to guess at. Often the Duchess wears a
+simple chaplet of ivy leaves, sometimes a bracken leaf is all she sports
+in her head ornaments, and beautiful it looks. Rowans and 'haws' are
+often worn beaded into crowns or flowers or chaplets. Heather is also
+a favourite. On Thursday Lady Lorne came down with a most beautiful
+chaplet tying round and keeping down her braided hair. It was a long
+bunch of bramble leaves and half-ripe bramble berries--actual true
+brambles. They have been all exceedingly kind to me, and I really
+feel quite at home among them though the only untitled personage at
+table."
+
+The daily scene at 52, Queen Street was now unique. Those who had the
+fortune to lunch or breakfast in that hospitable house never forgot
+it. Statesmen, noblemen, artists, scientists, clergymen, and
+politicians from various countries sat down together and entertained
+each other or attempted to do so in their different languages. The
+host guided the conversation while he still glanced over the newspaper
+or some newly published book, and never failed by skilful leading to
+entice out of every one the best knowledge that they possessed. With
+his quick insight he rarely failed in his estimate of character, but
+rapidly perceived even in a stranger where the conventional ceased and
+the real man began.
+
+No stranger to Edinburgh omitted to bring or obtain an introduction
+to the genial professor; all were welcome, and an open table was kept.
+The scene has been described from intimate knowledge in the columns of
+the _Scots Observer_ as follows:--"Luncheon is set on the table, and
+some ten, twenty, or even fifty people wait the appearance of their
+host, who is on his rounds maybe, or in another room ministers to an
+urgent case. A stranger who has not learnt that the great Simpson was
+only in the broadest sense a punctual man--of minutes, hours, he knew
+nothing, but none more reliably punctual, few so unsparingly regular
+in working while 'tis called to-day--might be prompted by hungry
+discontent to suggest that none but the wealthiest can keep the doctor
+from his guests. The mere suggestion would be infamous, for rich and
+ragged alike pay fees or not exactly as it pleases them. Whatever the
+cause, the host still lingers, and the impatient stranger has time to
+wonder how it is that so odd an assortment of human beings should be
+met together in one room. Lords and Commons rub shoulders at his
+table; the salt of the earth sit down side by side with the
+savourless; tweed jostles broadcloth; the town-bred Briton looks
+askance at his country-bred compatriot, and both unconsciously shudder
+at the Briton with no breeding at all. In one room are assembled
+together the American of bluest blood; the Yankee bagman; the
+slave-owning Southerner, and even the man of colour hateful to both
+alike. The atmosphere is chill like the grave, each guest, eyeing his
+neighbour suspiciously, shrinks into his own social shell; on each
+face the meanness and snobbery of humankind is, if not aggressively
+expressed, at least clearly legible; when all at once Simpson bustles
+in. In a few minutes, under the genial influence of his presence, all
+tongues are set a-wagging, and well may you ask whether the men who
+leave his house after luncheon are those who half-an-hour ago regarded
+each other with cold disdain. For now they are cordial, kindly,
+sympathetic; each has been induced to show whatever was attractive in
+his nature, or to give the fruits of his experience. If in one short
+hour Simpson could thus transform a crowd of frigid, haughty strangers
+into an assemblage of decent, amiable human beings, what could he not
+achieve in a day, a year, or a life?"
+
+His reception of members of his own profession was specially cordial,
+and if those from any one country were more welcome than others, it
+was the many who crossed the Atlantic to see and hear him. America had
+the greatest share in the birth of anaesthetics, and Simpson's intimacy
+with so many of the profession in the United States made it easy for
+them to welcome his assistance in that great event. Gynaecology, too,
+was eagerly taken up in America, and many were Simpson's admirers from
+that country who returned home fired by his influence to work out for
+themselves valuable additions to that science.
+
+Simpson paid close attention to current events in other branches of
+science, in politics, and in religion. Sir Robert Christison and he
+were at one time associated in an enterprise which narrowly escaped
+being the source of a fortune to him. Rangoon petroleum which was
+obtained from pits dug on the banks of the Irawaddy had been
+chemically investigated by Christison, and he had isolated from it a
+substance which he named petroline; unfortunately, unknown to him, a
+German chemist had independently made the same discovery a few months
+earlier, and christened the substance paraffin. When, a few years
+later, it occurred to Simpson that the crude Rangoon petroleum might
+serve as a lubricant for machinery and prove cheaper than those in
+general use, he applied to Christison. He met with willing assistance,
+but a refusal on principle to have anything to do with a patent, which
+Christison laughingly suggested, might be called "Simpson's
+incomparable antifriction lubricant!"
+
+"When I called for Simpson," says Christison, in his Recollections,
+"his two reception rooms were as usual full of patients, more were
+seated in the lobby, female faces stared from all the windows in
+vacant expectancy, and a lady was ringing the door bell. But the
+doctor brushed through the crowd to join me, and left them all kicking
+their heels for the next two hours."
+
+Their experiments proved that petroleum was vastly superior to sperm
+oil, the best known and most commonly used lubricant. Simpson
+proceeded to take out a patent, having no such scruples as Christison;
+but to his chagrin found that he had been forestalled by others, and
+had to abandon the subject.
+
+About the period now referred to Scotland was stirred from end to end
+by the ecclesiastical movement which culminated in the crisis known as
+the Disruption, when, for reasons connected with the jurisdiction of
+the National Church, a majority of its members severed their
+connection therewith in a public and dramatic fashion, and "came out"
+to found the now strong and vigorous Free Kirk. Simpson at first
+steered clear of all the squabbles and discussions which the movement
+gave rise to, but when affairs approached a crisis he threw his lot in
+with the leaders of the new movement, and became a staunch Free
+Churchman.
+
+Busy as he was, Simpson fully enjoyed his home and all the inner
+domestic life. He was a cheery and hearty host to his intimate
+friends, and took a pleasure in impromptu entertainments got up by
+himself in his own house, when he found time at his disposal for such
+amusement. His first child--a daughter--of whom he was mightily proud,
+was born in 1840; his first son, David, in 1842; and the second,
+Walter, in 1843. In 1844 the young couple, in the midst of their
+rising prosperity, suffered the loss of their daughter, who died after
+a brief illness. Simpson felt the loss keenly, and wrote pathetically
+on the subject to his relations; long afterwards he loved to talk of
+her and her winning ways.
+
+By 1846 the vast majority of his work lay in obstetrics and
+gynaecology, although he himself would no doubt have indignantly
+repelled the suggestion that he was a specialist; his mind recognised
+the interdependence of all the great branches of the healing art, and
+the necessity for any who wished to excel or be useful practitioners
+to be _au courant_ with each and every branch. He had early shown that
+as a pathologist alone he was worthy of a niche in the temple of fame;
+and in later days he was urged to apply for the vacant chair of Physic
+in his own University; while Professor A. R. Simpson tells us that
+foreigners working in the sphere of surgery sometimes spoke of him as
+a surgeon.
+
+Early in 1847 his good friend, the Duchess of Sutherland, wrote to
+inform him that the Queen had much pleasure in conferring upon him the
+vacant post of Physician to Her Majesty. In the Queen's own words,
+"His high character and abilities made him very fit for the post." He
+held this post until his death, under the title of Physician
+Accoucheur to the Queen for Scotland.
+
+Thus in his thirty-sixth year, to the pride of his family and of the
+whole village community in which he had been born and received his
+early training, to the admiration of patients and friends, as well as
+to his own conscious satisfaction, the Bathgate baker's son had risen
+by his own efforts to the highest attainable position in his native
+land. But the work which was to make him one of the most conspicuous
+figures in the history of medicine, and raise him to a place of honour
+in the grateful estimation of humanity, was scarcely begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF ANAESTHETICS. 1844-1847
+
+  His early sympathy for suffering--Surgical methods before the
+  discovery of anaesthetics--His mental struggle caused by the
+  sickening sights of the operating theatre--His researches into the
+  history of anaesthesia--Indian hemp--Mandrake--Alcohol--Hypnotism and
+  other methods--Inhalation of drugs--Sir Humphry Davy--Anaesthetics
+  discovered in America--Horace Wells and laughing-gas--Morton and
+  ether--Ether in Great Britain--He uses it in midwifery
+  practice--Search for a better-anaesthetic--Discovery of anaesthetic
+  power of chloroform.
+
+
+From his earliest student days the desire had ever been present in
+Simpson's mind to see some means devised for preventing the sufferings
+endured by patients on the operating table, without, as he put it,
+"interfering with the free and healthy play of the natural functions."
+It is difficult for us at the close of the nineteenth century to
+understand, without an effort of the imagination, the strong
+incentives which he had for such a wish. Even to-day, when operations
+are conducted without the infliction of pain, young students are not
+unfrequently overcome by the sight and the thought of what is in front
+of them. At the commencement of a winter session the theatre is
+crowded with those students who are entering upon surgical study, and
+with others, not so far advanced, who have come to get a preliminary
+peep at the practice of this fascinatingly interesting art. Many of
+these at first succumb and faint even before the surgeon has begun his
+work, and sometimes are only persuaded to pursue their studies by the
+encouragement of kindly teachers.
+
+Simpson also went through this trying experience, but it must have
+been a greater struggle to him to persist. The surroundings of the
+surgeon at the commencement of the century were vastly more repugnant
+to a youth of sensitive nature than to-day. The operating theatre then
+has been compared to a butcher's shambles; cleanliness was not
+considered necessary, and little attention was paid to the feelings of
+the patient. He was held down by three or four pairs of powerful arms
+as the surgeon boldly and rapidly did his work, despite the screams,
+stopping, perhaps, only to roughly abuse the patient for some agonised
+movement which had interfered with the course of action. The poor
+wretch saw the instruments handed one by one by the assistant, and
+heard the surgeon's calm directions and his remarks on the case. The
+barbarous practice of arresting bleeding by the application of red-hot
+irons to the surface of the wound had indeed ceased three centuries
+before, when that humane reformer, Pare, displaced it with the method
+of tying the open blood-vessel, but the patient's blood gushed forth
+before him until arrested, into the sawdust spread to receive it, and
+the sight and the hot odour of it oftentimes mercifully caused him to
+faint. The spirit of Pare who, when relating a successful operation,
+would humbly add at the end, "I dressed him; God healed him," had not
+descended to those who practised in Simpson's day the art for which
+Pare did so much. It had grown to be necessary for a surgeon to be
+rough and callous; it was expected of him by the public; he was a man
+to be pointed at in the street, and shuddered at when he passed, by
+all who devoutly prayed they might escape his clutches. Much of this
+conduct was mere mannerism; it had become the custom, and had to be
+maintained in order to preserve the dignity and stamp the identity of
+the surgeon. Much of it arose from the haste with which the surgeon
+had to work; the quicker the operation the better chance had the
+patient; it was no uncommon thing to see a bystander timing the
+surgeon's work, as the professional time-keeper carefully times a
+race; and the rapidity of each surgeon's performances was a subject of
+comparison and admiration amongst the students of his day. Much of it
+also arose from the effect of the hideous scenes in the operating room
+upon the surgeon himself; his nerve had to become of iron if he
+desired to succeed, and with the nerve the face and the manner, but
+not necessarily always the heart hardened also. Tennyson possibly
+recollected these days, when he wrote of the surgeon who
+
+  "Sent a chill to my heart when I saw him come in at the door,
+  Fresh from the surgery schools of France, and of other lands;
+  Harsh red hair, big voice, big chest, big merciless hands."
+
+When Simpson first saw Liston raise his knife to operate on a poor
+Highland woman, he actually felt so repelled that he contemplated
+abandoning his studies, and made a serious attempt to enter upon legal
+work instead. But the mental struggle with which medical men of all
+countries, and in all times, can sympathise out of their own
+knowledge, ended in a victory for medicine, and a triumphant return to
+his studies with the question permanently engraved on the tablets of
+his mind, "Can nothing be done to prevent this suffering?"
+
+It is necessary and it is certainly beneficial that we should thus
+remind ourselves of the horrors which surrounded the surgeon so
+recently as sixty years ago. "Before the days of anaesthetics," wrote
+an old patient to Simpson, in a letter which he treasured with
+pride--the writer was himself a medical man--"a patient preparing for
+an operation was like a condemned criminal preparing for execution. He
+counted the days till the appointed day came. He counted the hours of
+that day till the appointed hour came. He listened for the echo in the
+street of the surgeon's carriage. He watched for his pull at the door
+bell; for his foot on the stair; for his step in the room; for the
+production of his dreaded instruments; for his few grave words, and
+his last preparations before beginning. And then he surrendered his
+liberty and, revolting at the necessity, submitted to be held or
+bound, and helplessly gave himself up to the cruel knife.".
+
+It was, indeed, a monstrous ogre this giant Pain, holding the poor
+weak human creature in its merciless clutches, which Simpson even in
+his youthful days bethought himself to attack. It is well that we who
+are the heirs, should know how Simpson and those others whose names
+are ever associated with his, slew the monster, won the victory, and
+championed the human race forward into a land where further victories
+undreamt of by themselves are now being daily won.
+
+Simpson searched into ancient history in order to ascertain the
+methods, if any, by which in remote and mediaeval times surgeons sought
+to prevent the pain of operations. The most time-honoured method seems
+to have been by the internal administration of drugs, the chief one
+used being Indian hemp, which was well known in the East, and under
+one of its names _haschish_ gave origin to the term assassin (strictly
+eater of haschish). A certain Arab Sheikh got together a band of
+followers to whom he administered haschish, which produced in them its
+usual effect--beautiful dreams of a delightful paradise. He induced
+them to believe so thoroughly in his power to gain for them at death
+permanent entrance to this paradise that they obeyed all his ferocious
+and bloodthirsty behests. Thus these assassins became known as men
+obedient to their leader in any murderous enterprise. Indian hemp was,
+and still is, used as a luxury all over the East, as well as to annul
+pain, and was used by criminals doomed to torture or execution.
+Simpson thought the _nepenthe_ of Homer was a preparation of this
+drug; he also refers to the fact that Herodotus relates that the
+Massagetae inhaled the vapour of burning hemp to produce intoxication
+and pleasurable excitement.
+
+Mandrake was used in a similar manner and for similar purposes as
+Indian hemp in the Middle Ages, but it fell into disuse on account of
+the fatal results that often followed. It is frequently referred to by
+Shakspeare both for its narcotic properties and for its fabulous power
+of uttering a scream when torn up by the roots, to hear which meant
+death or madness. Simpson cited also well-known passages from
+Shakspeare to prove that the practice of "locking up the spirits a
+time" was known to that poet.
+
+In later days the intoxication produced by alcohol was taken advantage
+of, and instances of its use have been known in quite recent years in
+the Colonies, where both a surgeon and chloroform were out of reach.
+
+No drug, however, was known to be of such value in producing
+anaesthesia as to be constantly used, and many trials were made of
+other means, notably that of compressing the nerves supplying the part
+to be operated upon, but this was found to be too painful in itself.
+The stupor produced by compressing the carotid arteries--a method
+taken advantage of by the ruffians known as garotters--was also put in
+practice for a time during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
+but it was found too barbarous a method even for those days.
+
+Hypnotism was known to the Indians, Egyptians, and Persians at a very
+remote period, and may possibly have been used by them sometimes to
+produce anaesthesia for surgical purposes. Simpson was attracted by the
+words of the poet Middleton in his tragedy "Women, beware Women"
+(1617) where he says--
+
+  "I'll imitate the pities of old surgeons
+  To this lost limb--who ere they show their art
+  Cast me asleep, then cut the diseased part."
+
+When hypnotism made one of its periodic re-appearances in 1837, this
+time under the name of mesmerism, after that extraordinary exponent of
+its powers Mesmer, Simpson recognised in it a possible method for
+"casting the patient asleep" before operation and set to work to
+investigate its phenomena. A Frenchman named Du Potet, disheartened by
+the prejudice against mesmerism in his own country, came to London in
+1837, and was fortunate enough to receive the support of Dr. John
+Elliotson, physician to University College Hospital. Elliotson's
+advocacy of the new practice was received with ridicule by the
+profession, and was treated with such scathing contempt by the
+_Lancet_ and other journals, that he was completely ruined.
+
+Simpson was very successful in his experiments with mesmerism,
+conducted on the lines suggested by Elliotson, but he recognised that,
+after all, it was not the agent for which he was seeking, and dropped
+his researches.
+
+He did not resume them even when Liston, a few years later, stimulated
+by the advocacy of the Manchester surgeon Braid, who met with a better
+reception than Elliotson, and by the relation of a long series of
+successful cases by a surgeon named Esdaile, in Calcutta, actually
+performed operations with success on patients brought under its
+influence.
+
+The first suggestion to produce anaesthesia by the _inhalation_ of
+drugs was made by Sir Humphry Davy in 1800. He discovered by
+experiment upon himself that the inhalation of _nitrous oxide_
+gas--commonly known as a _laughing gas_--had the power of relieving
+toothache and other pains; he described the effect as that of
+"uneasiness being swallowed up for a few minutes by pleasures."
+Although he stopped short at this stage, and does not seem to have
+used the inhalation to produce actual loss of consciousness, he,
+nevertheless, forecast the future by suggesting that nitrous oxide
+might be used as an inhalation in the performance of surgical
+operations, in which "no great effusion of blood" took place.
+
+Some thirty years later Faraday pointed out that _ether_ had
+effects upon the nervous system when inhaled, similar to those of
+laughing-gas. These two drugs came to be inhaled more in jest than
+in earnest; more as an amusing scientific experiment for the sake of
+the pleasure-giving excitement they set up, than for the purpose
+Davy had suggested. Ether, it is true, was recommended even before
+Davy's day for the relief of the suffering in asthma, but until the
+fifth decade of the century no one had attempted to prevent
+suffering as inflicted by the surgeon or the dentist, by producing
+the state of unconsciousness brought about by the inhalation of such
+drugs as ether--a process now known to the world as anaesthesia.
+
+The persons who first made the bold experiments which resulted in the
+discovery of how to produce anaesthesia were Americans; and two men
+were prominently concerned in the discovery. Several others made
+isolated and successful efforts with both ether and nitrous oxide, but
+they lacked the confidence and the courage to make their success
+public and to persist in their experiments. Of these, Dr. Long, of
+Athens, Georgia, was one of the earliest; he is said to have
+successfully removed a tumour from a patient under the influence of
+ether in 1842, and in the Southern States he is regarded as the
+discoverer of anaesthesia. Dr. Jackson, of Boston--a scientific
+chemist--laid claim to the honour of the discovery after others had
+fought the fight and established the practice of anaesthesia. Neither
+of these men, for the reason already given, deserves the honour which
+is now universally attributed to their fellow-countrymen, Wells and
+Morton.
+
+Horace Wells was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1815, and was
+educated to the profession of dental surgeon. He gave much attention
+to the desire present in the minds of many men at that time to render
+dental operations painless. On December 10, 1844, he witnessed at a
+popular lecture the experiment of administering laughing-gas, and
+noticed that a Mr. Cooley, while still under the influence of the gas,
+struck and injured his limb against a bench without suffering pain.
+The idea at once occurred to Wells that here was the agent he was in
+search of, and the very next day he experimented upon himself. If it
+has ever been fortunate to have toothache it was so for Wells that
+day; he was troubled by an aching molar which was removed by a
+colleague named Rigg, whilst he was fully under the influence of
+nitrous oxide; and thus he began what he himself at once called on
+recovering consciousness, "a new era in tooth-pulling." He proceeded
+promptly to test the experiment upon others and with complete success;
+and then making his success known, he proceeded with his former pupil
+Morton to Boston, and gave a public demonstration of his method which
+unfortunately was so imperfectly carried out that he was laughed at
+for his pains and stigmatised an impostor. Wells himself stated that
+the failure was due to the premature withdrawal of the bag containing
+the gas, so that the patient was but partially under its influence
+when the tooth was extracted. Wells and Morton were ignominiously
+hissed by the crowd of practitioners and students gathered to see the
+operation. Wells never recovered from the disappointment and the
+illness which resulted, and although he was able to explain his
+discovery to the French Academy of Science in 1846, he unfortunately
+died insane in New York two years later. Undoubtedly he was the first
+to discover the practicability of nitrous oxide anaesthesia, and to
+proclaim the discovery with a discoverer's zeal. Although his career
+ended so sadly, his efforts had, nevertheless, inspired to greater
+endeavour his colleague Morton, who had not only been associated in
+his experiments, but had been deeply interested in the subject for
+many years.
+
+William Thomas Green Morton was born in 1819; his father was a farmer
+at Charlton, Massachusetts. He qualified as a dentist at Baltimore,
+and entered into successful practice at Boston. Fired with the same
+ambition as Wells, he made attempts to extract teeth painlessly with
+the assistance of drugs administered, or sometimes of hypnotism. In
+December, 1844, after Wells's failure with nitrous oxide gas, he
+wisely abandoned that agent and investigated another which promised
+better results. He experimented first with a drug known as _chloric
+ether_, but failing to get the desired effect, and at the suggestion
+of the aforementioned Dr. Jackson, he proceeded to investigate the
+effect of ordinary ether. The first experiments were made on animals,
+and were so encouraging that he believed he had at last found the
+desired agent, provided the effect on human beings corresponded with
+that upon dumb creatures. Boldly and heroically he made the necessary
+experiment upon himself, and on September 30, 1846, inhaled ether from
+a handkerchief while shut up in his room and seated in his own
+operating-chair. He speedily lost consciousness, and in seven or eight
+minutes awoke in possession of the greatest discovery that had ever
+been revealed to suffering humanity. We can picture the man gradually
+awakening in his chair first, to the consciousness of his surroundings
+and then to the consciousness of his great achievement; sitting with
+his physical frame excited by the influence of the drug which he had
+inhaled, and his soul stirred to its deepest depth by the expanding
+thought of the far-reaching effects of what he had done.
+
+"Twilight came on," he said, in subsequently relating the event. "The
+hour had long passed when it was usual for patients to call. I had
+just resolved to inhale the ether again and have a tooth extracted
+under its influence, when a feeble ring was heard at the door. Making
+a motion to one of my assistants who started to answer the bell, I
+hastened myself to the door, where I found a man with his face bound
+up, who seemed to be suffering extremely. 'Doctor,' said he, 'I have a
+dreadful tooth, but it is so sore I cannot summon courage to have it
+pulled; can't you mesmerise me?' I need not say that my heart bounded
+at this question, and that I found it difficult to control my
+feelings, but putting a great constraint upon myself I expressed my
+sympathy, and invited him to walk into the office. I examined the
+tooth, and in the most encouraging manner told the poor sufferer that
+I had something better than mesmerism, by means of which I could take
+out his tooth, without giving him pain. He gladly consented, and
+saturating my handkerchief with ether I gave it to him to inhale. He
+became unconscious almost immediately. It was dark. Dr. Haydon held
+the lamp. My assistants were trembling with excitement, apprehending
+the usual prolonged scream from the patient, while I extracted the
+firmly-rooted bicuspid tooth. I was so much agitated that I came near
+throwing the instrument out of the window. But now came a terrible
+reaction. The wrenching of the tooth had failed to rouse him in the
+slightest degree; he remained still and motionless as if already in
+the embrace of death. The terrible thought flashed through my mind
+that he might be dead--that in my zeal to test my new theory, I might
+have gone too far, and sacrificed a human life. I trembled under the
+sense of my responsibility to my Maker, and to my fellowmen. I seized
+a glass of water and dashed it in the man's face. The result proved
+most happy. He recovered in a minute, and knew nothing of what had
+occurred. Seeing us all stand around he appeared bewildered. I
+instantly, in as calm a tone as I could command, asked, 'Are you ready
+to have your tooth extracted?' 'Yes,' he answered, in a hesitating
+voice. 'It is all over,' I said, pointing to a decayed tooth on the
+floor. 'No,' he shouted, leaping from his chair. The name of the man
+who thus for the first time underwent an operation under anaesthesia
+induced by ether was Eben Frost."
+
+The nature of the agent used by Morton was kept secret only a short
+period; the steps he took to bring his discovery before the medical
+profession would have rendered it difficult if not impossible, even if
+ether had not a penetrating tell-tale odour. Morton laid his method
+before one of the surgical staff of the Massachusetts General
+Hospital, Boston, the same institution where Wells's ill-managed
+demonstration had taken place two years before; he requested, with
+complete confidence, to be allowed to exhibit the powers of his agent.
+The surgeon was sceptical, but wisely consented, after having
+satisfied himself that there was no risk to life. A patient suffering
+from a tumour was chosen, and readily consented to act as a subject
+for demonstration. A large crowd of professional men and students
+assembled in the surgical theatre on the morning of October 16, 1846,
+the day chosen for the trial. The senior hospital surgeon, Dr. J.
+Collins Warren, was to perform the operation. The spectators, many of
+whom no doubt recollected the failure with laughing-gas, were disposed
+to deride when the appointed hour passed and Morton did not appear;
+but the delay was due only to the desire of the dentist to bring a
+proper inhaler, and although the crowd received him with a chilling
+reserve, and the occasion was one fit to try the nerve of the
+strongest, Morton did not lose his presence of mind. He promptly
+anaesthetised the patient, and as unconcernedly as does the modern
+administrator, nodded to the surgeon that the patient was ready. From
+the first moment that the knife touched the patient, until the
+operation was concluded, no sound, no movement indicated that he was
+suffering. The men who had scoffed once and had come, even the surgeon
+himself, prepared to scoff again, realised the success and the wonder
+of it, and remained to admire. "Gentlemen, this is no humbug,"
+exclaimed Dr. Warren, as he finished his handiwork. When the patient
+recovered he was questioned again and again, but stoutly maintained
+that he had felt no pain--absolutely none. "Gilbert Abbott, aged
+twenty, painter, single," was the description of the man on whom was
+performed the first surgical operation under the influence of ether.
+
+News of the great success rapidly spread, and the experiment was
+repeated by Morton and others in America, and similar work was taken
+up throughout Europe. It cannot be said that Morton derived much
+benefit from his discovery. Although the greatness of it was
+recognised in his lifetime, and he received several honours and
+presents, he entered into prolonged squabbles concerning the discovery
+which worried him into a state of ill-health, ending in his death in
+1868. A monument was erected over his grave by the citizens of Boston,
+bearing the following concise description of his achievement:--
+
+          "WILLIAM T. G. MORTON,
+
+  "Inventor and revealer of anaesthetic inhalation,
+  By whom pain in surgery was averted and annulled;
+  Before whom in all time surgery was agony,
+  Since whom Science has control of Pain."
+
+Whilst the discoverer of nitrous-oxide anaesthesia was dying from
+chagrin and inaction, and the revealer of anaesthetic inhalation by
+ether was wasting time in unworthy disputes concerning priority, and
+fruitless endeavours to gain pecuniary reward, a bolder than either
+had taken up the work where they had left it, with the high object of
+pursuing it until he had for ever established the benefit to humanity
+which he recognised in it. He went straight forwards and onwards,
+strong in his endeavour; undeterred by the jeers of the ignorant, the
+opposition of the prejudiced or the attacks of the jealous, with no
+thought of or wish for reward except that which was to come daily from
+the depth of sufferers' hearts.
+
+During the Christmas holidays of 1846 Simpson was in London, and
+discussed the new discovery with Liston, who was one of the first to
+operate under ether in Great Britain at University College Hospital.
+The great surgeon thought that the chief application of the process
+would be in the practice of rapidly operating surgeons; it was at
+first generally believed that the inhalation could be borne for only a
+brief period. Simpson speedily showed that no evil resulted if the
+patient remained under the influence of the vapour for hours. In the
+month of January, 1847, he gained for the Edinburgh Medical School the
+proud honour of being the scene of the first use of anaesthetics in
+obstetric practice. In March of the same year he published a record of
+cases of parturition in which he had used ether with success; and had
+a large number of copies of his paper printed and distributed far and
+wide at home and abroad, so eager was he to popularise amongst the
+members of his profession the revolutionary practice which he
+introduced. From the day on which he first used ether in midwifery
+until the end of his career he constantly used anaesthetics in his
+practice. He quickly perceived, however, the short-comings of ether,
+and having satisfied himself that they were unavoidable, he set about
+his next great step, namely, to discover some substance possessing the
+advantages without the disadvantages of ether. In the midst of his now
+immense daily work he gave all his spare time, often only the midnight
+hours, to testing upon himself the effect of numerous drugs. With the
+same courage that had filled Morton he sat down alone, or with Dr.
+George Keith and Dr. Matthews Duncan, his assistants, to inhale
+substance after substance, often to the real alarm of the household at
+52, Queen Street. Appeal was made to scientific chemists to provide
+drugs hitherto known only as curiosities of the laboratory, and for
+others that their special knowledge might be able to suggest. The
+experiments usually took place in the dining-room in the quiet of the
+evening or the dead of night. The enthusiasts sat at the table and
+inhaled the particular substance under trial from tumblers or saucers;
+but the summer of 1847 passed away, and the autumn was commenced
+before he succeeded in finding any substance which at all fulfilled
+his requirements. All this time he was battling for anaesthesia, which,
+particularly in its application to midwifery, was meeting with what
+appears now as an astonishing amount of opposition, on varying grounds
+from all sorts and conditions of persons; but the vigour and power of
+his advocacy and defence of the practice in the days when laughing-gas
+and ether were the only known agents, were as nothing to that which he
+exerted after his own discovery at the end of 1847.
+
+The suggestion to try chloroform first came from a Mr. Waldie, a
+native of Linlithgowshire, settled in Liverpool as a chemist. It was a
+"curious liquid," discovered and described in 1831 by two chemists,
+Soubeiran and Liebig, simultaneously but independently. In 1835 its
+chemical composition was first accurately ascertained by Dumas, the
+famous French chemist. Simpson was apparently not aware that early in
+1847 another French chemist, Flourens, had drawn attention to the
+effect of chloroform upon animals, or he would probably have hastened
+to use it upon himself experimentally, instead of putting away the
+first specimen obtained as unlikely; it was heavy and not volatile
+looking, and less attractive to him than other substances. How it
+finally came to be tried is best described in the words of Simpson's
+colleague and neighbour, Professor Miller, who used to look in every
+morning at nine o'clock to see how the enthusiasts had fared in the
+experiments of the previous evening.
+
+"Late one evening, it was the 4th of November, 1847, on returning
+home after a weary day's labour, Dr. Simpson with his two friends
+and assistants, Drs. Keith and Duncan, sat down to their somewhat
+hazardous work in Dr. Simpson's dining-room. Having inhaled several
+substances, but without much effect, it occurred to Dr. Simpson to
+try a ponderous material which he had formerly set aside on a
+lumber-table, and which on account of its great weight he had
+hitherto regarded as of no likelihood whatever; that happened to
+be a small bottle of chloroform. It was searched for and recovered
+from beneath a heap of waste paper. And with each tumbler newly
+charged, the inhalers resumed their vocation. Immediately an
+unwonted hilarity seized the party--they became brighteyed, very
+happy, and very loquacious--expatiating on the delicious aroma of
+the new fluid. The conversation was of unusual intelligence, and quite
+charmed the listeners--some ladies of the family and a naval
+officer, brother-in-law of Dr. Simpson. But suddenly there was a
+talk of sounds being heard like those of a cotton mill louder and
+louder; a moment more and then all was quiet--and then crash! On
+awakening Dr. Simpson's first perception was mental--'This is far
+stronger and better than ether,' said he to himself. His second was to
+note that he was prostrate on the floor, and that among the friends
+about him there was both confusion and alarm. Hearing a noise he
+turned round and saw Dr. Duncan beneath a chair--his jaw dropped,
+his eyes staring, his head bent half under him; quite unconscious, and
+snoring in a most determined and alarming manner. More noise still
+and much motion. And then his eyes overtook Dr. Keith's feet and legs
+making valorous attempts to overturn the supper table, or more
+probably to annihilate everything that was on it. By and by Dr.
+Simpson having regained his seat, Dr. Duncan having finished his
+uncomfortable and unrefreshing slumber, and Dr. Keith having come to
+an arrangement with the table and its contents, the _sederunt_ was
+resumed. Each expressed himself delighted with this new agent, and
+its inhalation was repeated many times that night--one of the ladies
+gallantly taking her place and turn at the table--until the supply of
+chloroform was fairly exhausted."
+
+The lady was Miss Petrie, a niece of Mrs. Simpson's; she folded her
+arms across her breast as she inhaled the vapour, and fell asleep
+crying, "I'm an angel! Oh, I'm an angel"! The party sat discussing
+their sensations, and the merits of the substance long after it was
+finished; they were unanimous in considering that at last something
+had been found to surpass ether.
+
+The following morning a manufacturing chemist was pressed into
+service, and had to burn the midnight oil to meet Simpson's demand for
+the new substance. So great was Simpson's midwifery practice that he
+was able to make immediate trial of chloroform, and on November 10th
+he read a paper to the Medico-Chirurgical Society, describing the
+nature of his agent, and narrating cases in which he had already
+successfully used it. "I have never had the pleasure," he said, "of
+watching over a series of better and more rapid recoveries; nor once
+witnessed any disagreeable results follow to either mother or child;
+whilst I have now seen an immense amount of maternal pain and agony
+saved by its employment. And I most conscientiously believe that the
+proud mission of the physician is distinctly twofold--namely to
+alleviate human suffering as well as preserve human life." In a
+postscript to the same paper he states on November 15th that he had
+already administered chloroform to about fifty individuals without
+the slightest bad result, and gives an account of the first surgical
+cases in which he gave the agent to patients of his friends, Professor
+Miller and Dr. Duncan, in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. "A great
+collection," he says, "of professional gentlemen and students
+witnessed the results, and amongst them Professor Dumas, of Paris, the
+chemist who first ascertained and established the chemical composition
+of chloroform. He happened to be passing through Edinburgh, and was in
+no small degree rejoiced to witness the wonderful physiological
+effects of a substance with whose chemical history his own name was so
+intimately connected." Four thousand copies of this paper were sold in
+a few days, and many thousands afterwards.
+
+It is worthy of mention that, according to a promise, Professor Miller
+had sent for Simpson a few days after the discovery to give chloroform
+to a patient on whom he was about to perform a major operation;
+Simpson, however, was unavoidably prevented from attending, and Miller
+began the operation without him--at the first cut of the knife the
+patient fainted and died. It is easy to imagine what a blow to
+Simpson, and to the cause of anaesthesia this would have been had it
+happened while the patient was under chloroform.
+
+Thus in little more than a year from the date of Morton's discovery of
+the powers of ether, Simpson had crowned the achievement by the
+discovery of the equally wonderful and beneficial powers of
+chloroform. Already he had made two satisfactory answers to the
+question he had early set himself--first, the application of
+anaesthesia to midwifery practice; and, second, the discovery of the
+properties of the more portable and manageable chloroform; the third,
+and perhaps the greatest, the defence of the practice, and the beating
+down of the powerful opposition to anaesthesia was yet required to
+render his reply complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE FIGHT FOR ANAESTHESIA. 1847 ONWARDS
+
+  His faith in chloroform--Confused public opinion on the
+  subject--Personal attacks--Opposition on professional
+  grounds--His reply--Opposition on moral grounds--His
+  reply--Opposition on religious grounds--His reply--Her Majesty
+  the Queen anaesthetised--Indiscrete supporters--The Edinburgh
+  teaching of anaesthesia administration--The far-reaching effects
+  of the successful introduction of anaesthesia.
+
+
+Professor Simpson firmly believed that he possessed now in chloroform
+an anaesthetic agent "more portable, more manageable and powerful, more
+agreeable to inhale, and less exciting" than ether, and one giving him
+"greater control and command over the superinduction of the anaesthetic
+state." Fortified by this belief, full of facts relating to the
+subject, and fired with zeal and enthusiasm, he was prepared to meet
+the opposition which from his knowledge of human nature he must have
+anticipated. So bravely and so emphatically did he champion the cause
+that he became identified with it in the public mind. The revelation
+of anaesthesia, the discovery of chloroform, and the application of
+anaesthetics to surgery as well as to midwifery were attributed to him
+by all classes of the community, not even excepting many of his own
+profession. Chloroform was spoken of as if ether had never existed;
+and chloroform and chloroforming displaced the terms anaesthetic and
+anaesthetising in ordinary talk--such unwieldy terms were naturally
+abandoned when there was the excuse that chloroform was universally
+considered the best substance of its class. Simpson made no attempt as
+Morton had done to patent his discovery under a fanciful name for his
+own pecuniary profit; but widely spread abroad every particle of
+knowledge concerning it that he possessed, so that every practitioner
+was forthwith enabled to avail himself thereof for the benefit of his
+patients.
+
+Partly owing to his own enthusiasm and his strong belief in the
+superiority of chloroform over ether, and partly owing to the
+confusion prevailing in general circles as to the history of
+anaesthesia, no small number of attacks were directed against Simpson
+personally by those who either were jealous of his achievements, or
+who considered that the part taken by themselves or their friends in
+the establishment of this new era in medical science had been slighted
+or overlooked. Simpson took all these as part of the fight into which
+he had entered. His nature was not sensitive to such personal
+attacks; he replied to them, cast them off, and went on his way
+unaffected. He handled some of these opponents somewhat severely when
+they accused him of encouraging the public belief in him as the
+discoverer of anaesthesia. It is clear to us to-day after anaesthesia
+has been on its trial for fifty years that Simpson magnified the
+superiority of chloroform over ether, and was led by that feeling to
+look on the history of ether as but a stage in the history of the
+greater chloroform. He regarded chloroform as the only anaesthetic; his
+utterances betrayed this feeling, and offence was naturally taken by
+the introducers and advocates of ether. His opinion of chloroform was
+shared by the leading European surgeons to such an extent in his day
+that shortly after his death Professor Gusserow, of Berlin, stated
+that with a few exceptions almost all over the earth nothing else was
+used to produce anaesthesia but chloroform.
+
+The real fight for anaesthesia was against those who found in the
+practice something which ran contrary to their beliefs or principles.
+There were first those who objected on purely _medical_ grounds;
+secondly, those who took exception to it from a _moral_ point of view;
+and thirdly, those who found their _religious_ convictions seriously
+offended by the new practice.
+
+The _medical_ opponents were, perhaps, the most powerful; certainly it
+was they who had first to be won over, for without the support of the
+profession the cause was in danger. It was urged first of all that the
+use of anaesthetics would increase the mortality, then very great, of
+surgical operations, and those who took their stand upon this ground
+were men who had at first denied the possibility of making operations
+painless, and had been driven to abandon that opinion only by a clear
+demonstration of the fact. To meet this form of opposition he
+instituted a laborious and extensive statistical investigation in
+order to compare the results obtained in hospitals where anaesthetics
+were used with those where the operations were performed on patients
+in the waking state. He took care that the reports dealt with the same
+operations under, as nearly as possible, similar conditions in each
+case. He obtained returns from close upon fifty hospitals in London,
+Edinburgh, Dublin, and various provincial towns. One of the most fatal
+operations in those days, and one dreaded by patient and surgeon
+alike, was amputation of the thigh. In 1845 Professor Syme said that
+the stern evidence of hospital statistics showed that the average
+frequency of death after that operation was not less than 60 to 70 per
+cent., or above one in every two operated upon. Simpson fearlessly
+collated statistics of this operation amongst the others, and proved
+that when performed under anaesthetics amputation of the thigh had its
+mortality reduced to 25 per cent. His figures were as follows:--
+
+TABLE OF THE MORTALITY OF AMPUTATIONS OF THE THIGH.
+
+    Reporter.                     Cases.  Deaths.  % of Deaths.
+
+  Not anaesthetised.
+    Parisian hospitals--Malgaigne    201    126      62 in 100
+    Edinburgh   "     --Peacock       43     21      49  "
+    General collection--Phillips     987    435      44  "
+    Glasgow hospitals --Lawrie       127     46      36  "
+    British     "     --Simpson      284    107      38  "
+
+  Cases on patients in an
+   anaesthetised state                145      37     25  "
+
+He pointed to the above table as a proof that far from increasing the
+mortality of this operation the introduction of anaesthetics had
+already led to a saving of from eleven to twenty lives out of every
+hundred cases. He acknowledged that the number of cases he had
+collected (145) was somewhat small from a statistical point of view;
+but he confidently asserted that future figures would show greater
+triumphs. The tables of other operations showed similar results, and
+he entered exhaustively into the subject in a paper published in 1848.
+The paper was entitled, "Does Anaesthesia increase or decrease the
+mortality attendant upon surgical operations?" According to his wont,
+he headed it with a quotation from Shakspeare:
+
+  "Why doest thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
+    ... Shylock must be merciful.
+  On what compulsion must I? Tell me that!"
+
+Victorious in this encounter, he turned to those who urged that
+anaesthetics were responsible for various kinds of ills such as a
+tendency to haemorrhage, convulsions, paralysis, pneumonia, and various
+kinds of inflammatory mischief as well as mental derangement. He
+combated these contentions until the end of his career; and not only
+proved that the objections were visionary, but showed that for one of
+the alleged evils formerly often seen after operations, viz.,
+convulsions, chloroform, far from being a cause, was one of our most
+powerful remedies.
+
+But the professional opponents of anaesthesia were most emphatic in the
+denunciation of its use in midwifery. Pain in the process of
+parturition was, they said, "a desirable, salutary, and conservative
+manifestation of life-force": neither its violence nor its continuance
+was productive of injury to the constitution. Strong opposition on
+these grounds came from the Dublin School, and with characteristic
+boldness Simpson turned to the statistics of their own lying-in
+hospital to prove his contention that to abolish parturient pain was
+to diminish the peril of the process. Again the statistics stood him
+in good stead; he flourished them triumphantly before his opponents,
+and proceeded to deal with those who asserted that the use of
+anaesthetics was accompanied by danger to life. He pointed out that,
+although unquestionably there were some dangers connected therewith,
+they were insignificant compared with the dangers in both surgery and
+midwifery which their use averted. Pain itself was a danger; shock in
+surgery was responsible for many untimely deaths upon the operating
+table; by preventing these chloroform saved countless lives. His
+arguments were characterised by painstaking thoroughness and evidenced
+wide reading. In addressing Professor Meigs, of Philadelphia, he
+said:--
+
+"First, I do believe that if improperly and incautiously given, and in
+some rare idiosyncrasies, ether and chloroform may prove injurious or
+even fatal--just as opium, calomel, and every other powerful remedy
+and strong drug will occasionally do. Drinking cold water itself will
+sometimes produce death. 'It is well known,' says Dr. Taylor, in his
+excellent work on Medical Jurisprudence, 'that there are _many_ cases
+on record in which cold water, swallowed in large quantity and in an
+excited state of the system, has led to the destruction of life.'
+Should we therefore never allay our thirst with cold water? What would
+the disciples of Father Mathew say to this? But, secondly, you and
+others have very unnecessary and aggravated fears about the dangers of
+ether and chloroform, and in the course of experience you will find
+these fears to be, in a great measure, perfectly ideal and imaginary.
+But the same fears have, in the first instance, been conjured up
+against almost all other innovations in medicine and in the common
+luxuries of life. Cavendish, the secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, tells
+us in his life of that prelate, that when the cardinal was banished
+from London to York by his master--that regal Robespierre, Henry the
+Eighth--_many_ of the cardinal's servants refused to go such an
+enormous journey--'for they were loath to abandon their native
+country, their parents, wives, and children.' The journey which can
+_now_ be accomplished in six hours was considered then a perfect
+banishment.... In his Life of Lord Loughborough, John Lord Campbell
+tells us that when he (the biographer) first travelled from Edinburgh
+to London in the mail-coach the time had been reduced (from the former
+twelve or fourteen days) to three nights and two days; 'but,' he adds,
+'this new and swift travelling from the Scots to the English capital
+was wonderful, and I was gravely advised to stop a day at York as
+several passengers who had gone through without stopping had died of
+apoplexy from the rapidity of the motion' ('Lives of the Lord
+Chancellors'). Be assured that many of the cases of apoplexy, &c.,
+&c., alleged to arise from ether and chloroform, have as veritable an
+etiology as this apoplexy from rapid locomotion, and that a few years
+hence they will stand in the same light in which we now look back upon
+the apoplexy from travelling ten miles an hour. And as to the supposed
+great moral and physical evils and injuries arising from the use of
+ether and chloroform, they will by and by, I believe, sound much in
+the same way as the supposed great moral and physical evils and
+injuries arising from using hackney coaches, which were seriously
+described by Taylor, the water-poet, two or three centuries ago when
+these coaches were introduced. Taylor warned his fellow-creatures to
+avoid them, otherwise 'they would find their bodies tossed, tumbled,
+rumbled, and jumbled' without mercy. 'The coach,' says he, 'is a close
+hypocrite, for it hath a cover for knavery; they (the passengers) are
+carried back to back in it like people surprised by pirates, and
+moreover it maketh men imitate sea-crabs in being drawn sideways, and
+altogether it is a dangerous carriage for the commonwealth.' Then he
+proceeds to call them 'hell-carts,' &c., and vents upon them a great
+deal of other abuse very much of the same kind and character as that
+lavished against anaesthetics in our own day."
+
+Following out the same line of reasoning he brought to the minds of
+medical opponents how the introducers of such useful drugs as mercury,
+antimony, and cinchona bark had met with now long-forgotten but
+stubborn opposition; and he reminded surgeons of the stern obstinacy
+with which the introduction of the ligature of arteries had been long
+objected to and the barbarous method of arresting bleeding with
+red-hot irons had been preferred. But in the history of the discovery
+and introduction of vaccination by Jenner he found a strong parallel;
+and he wrote a pregnant article to prove that mere opinion and
+prejudgments were not sufficient to settle the question of the
+propriety or impropriety of anaesthetic agents, illustrating it from
+the story of vaccination. The result of vaccination had been to save
+during the half century since its introduction a number of lives in
+England alone equal to the whole existing population of Wales; and in
+Europe during the same period it had preserved a number of lives
+greater than the whole existing population of Great Britain. And yet
+Jenner, when he first announced his discovery, had encountered the
+most determined opposition on the part of many of his professional
+brethren, who ridiculed and bitterly denounced both him and his
+discovery; whilst ignorant laymen announced that smallpox was ordained
+by heaven and vaccination was a daring and profane violation of holy
+religion. He pointed out that these objections had been slowly and
+surely crushed out of existence by accumulated facts, and predicted
+that the ultimate decision concerning anaesthesia would come to be
+based, not upon impressions, opinions, and prejudices, but upon the
+evidence of "a sufficient body of accurate and well-ascertained
+facts." To these facts, as has been indicated, he subsequently
+successfully appealed.
+
+Those who objected to anaesthesia on _moral_ grounds directed their
+attacks chiefly against its use in midwifery. They not only condemned
+that application as iniquitous, but went the length of asserting that
+the birth of past myriads without it proved how unnecessary it was,
+and that Nature conducted the whole process of birth unaided in a
+greatly superior manner. The pains associated with parturition were
+actually beneficial, they said. Simpson answered this by showing that
+the proper use of anaesthetics shortened parturition, and by
+diminishing the amount of pain led to more rapid and more perfect
+recoveries. The leading exponent of the Dublin School of Midwifery at
+that time foolishly wrote that he did not think any one in Dublin had
+as yet used anaeesthetics in midwifery; that the feeling was very
+strong against its use in ordinary cases, merely to avert the ordinary
+amount of pain, which the Almighty had seen fit--and most wisely, no
+doubt--to allot to natural labour; and in this feeling he (the writer)
+most heartily concurred. Simpson's private comment on this remarkable
+epistle at once showed his opinion of it, and ridiculed the objection
+out of existence. He skilfully parodied the letter thus:--"I do not
+believe that any one in Dublin has as yet used a carriage in
+locomotion; the feeling is very strong against its use in ordinary
+progression, merely to avert the ordinary amount of fatigue which the
+Almighty has seen fit--and most wisely, no doubt--to allot to natural
+walking; and in this feeling I heartily and entirely concur."
+
+He twitted the surgeons who opposed him with their sudden discovery,
+now that anaesthetics were introduced, that there was something really
+beneficial in the pain and agony caused by their dreaded knife. Such a
+contention contraverted his cherished principle that the function of
+the medical man was not only to prolong life, but also to alleviate
+human sufferings. He quoted authorities of all times to show that
+pain had been always abhorred by physicians and surgeons, commencing
+with a reference to Galen's aphorism--"_Dolor dolentibus inutile est_"
+("pain is useless to the pained"); citing Ambroise Pare, who said that
+pain ought to be assuaged because nothing so much dejected the powers
+of the patient; and, finally, reproducing the words of modern authors,
+who asserted that, far from being conducive to well-being, pain
+exhausted the principle of life, and in itself was frequently both
+dangerous and destructive. He brought forward a collection of cases
+where in former days patients had died on the operating-table, even
+before the surgeon had begun his work, so great was the influence of
+the mere fear of pain; and reminded those who attributed occasional
+deaths on the operating-table to the influence of the anaesthetic of
+the numerous cases in bygone days where death occurred whilst the
+surgeon was at work. He recalled also how the great surgeon of St.
+Thomas's Hospital, Cheselden, had abhorred the pain which he caused in
+the process of his work, and longed for some means for its prevention.
+"No one," said Cheselden, "ever endured more anxiety and sickness
+before an operation" than himself.
+
+Simpson did not forget to look at the subject from the patient's point
+of view, and reproduced the letter from an old patient, which has been
+already quoted (Chapter VI.).
+
+The soldier and sailor, brave unto heroism in facing the enemy, never
+fearing the death which stared them in the face in its most horrible
+form whilst answering the call of duty, would quail like children at
+the mere thought of submitting to the deliberate knife of the
+surgeon. Were quibbles about the efficacy of pain to stand in the way
+of the merciful prevention of such suffering by the process of
+anaesthetisation?
+
+Those who opposed him with this curious idea, that pain after all was
+beneficial, were some of them men of no mean standing in the
+profession. Gull, Bransby Cooper, and Nunn were amongst those whom
+he had to silence. After replying to their arguments _seriatim_ with
+all his polemic power, he referred them once more to the evidence
+of facts and of facts alone as set forth by his statistics. Had he
+lived but a twelvemonth longer than he did he would have been able
+to conjure up a picture of the incalculable amount of suffering
+prevented by the eighteen hundred pounds of chloroform which were
+forwarded to the rival armies from one firm of chemists alone during
+the Franco-Prussian war; happily for the wounded within and around
+Paris, there was then no longer any doubt as to the propriety of
+employing anaesthetics.
+
+The _religious_ objections to the use of anaesthetics could scarcely be
+met with statistics. Foolish as they now appear to us after the lapse
+of time, and with the practice they attempted to repel universally
+adopted, they were nevertheless urged in good faith by clergy and
+laity of various denominations. The same kind of bigotry had met the
+introduction of vaccination, and Simpson himself remembered how many
+people had opposed the emancipation of the negroes on the ground that
+they were the lineal descendants of Ham, of whom it was said "a
+servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." Sir Walter Scott
+reminds us, in "Old Mortality," of the spirit which met the
+introduction of fanners to separate the chaff from the corn, which
+displaced the ancient method of tossing the corn in the air upon broad
+shovels. Headrigg reproved Lady Bellenden for allowing the new process
+to be used on her farm, "thus impiously thwarting the will of Divine
+Providence by raising a wind for your leddyship's ain particular use
+by human art, instead of soliciting it by prayer or waiting patiently
+for whatever dispensation of wind Providence was pleased to send upon
+the sheeling hill."
+
+To-day in South Africa the same spirit is seen. Honest countryfolk of
+European descent are earnestly counselled by their spiritual advisers
+to submit patiently to the plague of locusts on the ground that it
+comes as a punishment from Providence. These worthy men stolidly
+witness their cornfields and their grass lands being eaten bare before
+their eyes in a few hours, whilst their more enlightened neighbours,
+brought up in another faith, resort with success to all sorts of
+artifices to ward off the destructive little invaders.
+
+It is pleasant to be able to record that Dr. Chalmers, one of the
+heroes of Scots religious history, not only countenanced chloroform
+by witnessing operations performed under it in the Royal Infirmary,
+but when requested to deal in a magazine article with the theological
+aspect of anaeesthesia refused on the ground that the question had no
+theological aspect, and advised Simpson and his friends to take no
+heed of the "small theologians" who advocated such views. This was
+futile advice to give to one of Professor Simpson's controversial
+propensities; he entered with keen enjoyment into the fray with these
+"religious" opponents. His famous pamphlet, entitled, "Answer to the
+Religious Objections advanced against the employment of Anaeesthetic
+Agents in Midwifery and Surgery," fought his enemies with their own
+weapons by appealing with consummate skill to Scripture for
+authority for the practice. The paper was headed with two scriptural
+verses:--"For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be
+refused if it be received with thanksgiving" (1 Timothy iv. 4).
+"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it
+is sin" (James iv. 17).
+
+The principal standpoint of the religious opponents was the primeval
+curse upon womanhood to be found in Genesis. Simpson swept the ground
+from under his opponents' feet by reference to and study of the
+original Hebrew text. The word translated--"sorrow" ("I will greatly
+multiply thy sorrow ... in sorrow shalt thou bring forth")--was the
+same as that rendered as "sorrow" in the curse applied to man ("in
+sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life"). Not only did
+the Hebrew word thus translated sorrow really mean labour, toil, or
+physical exertion; but in other parts of the Bible an entirely
+different Hebrew word was used to express the actual pain incident to
+parturition. The contention, then, that sorrow in the curse meant pain
+was valueless. Chloroform relieved the real pain not referred to in
+the curse, whereas it had no effect upon the sorrow or physical
+exertion.
+
+If, however, the curse was to be taken literally in its application to
+woman as these persons averred, and granting for the moment that
+sorrow did mean pain, their position was entirely illogical. If one
+part of the curse was to be interpreted literally, so must be the
+other parts, and this would have a serious effect of a revolutionary
+nature upon man and the human race all over the face of the earth.
+Literally speaking, the curse condemned the farmer who pulled up his
+thorns and thistles, as well as the man who used horses or oxen,
+water-power, or steam-traction to perform the work by which he earned
+his bread; for was he not thereby saving the sweat of his face?
+
+Pushed further, the same argument rendered these contentions more
+absurd and untenable. Man was condemned to die--"dust thou art
+and unto dust thou shalt return." What right had the physician or
+surgeon to use his skill to prolong life, at the same time that he
+conscientiously abstained from the use of anaesthetics on the
+ground that they obviated pain sent by the Deity? Nay, more; sin
+itself was the result of the Fall; was not the Church herself
+erroneously labouring to turn mankind from sin?
+
+In a truer and more serious religious spirit he reminded his foolish
+opponents of the Christian dispensation, and pointed out how the
+employment of anaesthesia was in strict consonance with the glorious
+spirit thereof.
+
+Some persons broadly stated that the new process was unnatural; even
+these he condescended to answer. "How unnatural," exclaimed an Irish
+lady, "for you doctors in Edinburgh to take away the pains of your
+patients." "How unnatural," said he, "it is for you to have swam over
+from Ireland to Scotland against wind and tide in a steam-boat."
+
+A son of De Quincey in his graduation thesis humorously supported
+Professor Simpson. He argued that the unmarried woman who opposed
+anaesthetics on the ground that her sex was condemned by the curse to
+suffer pains, broke the command herself "in four several ways,
+according to the following tabular statement":--
+
+"1. She has no conception.
+
+2. She brings forth no children.
+
+3. Her desire is not to her husband.
+
+4. The husband does not rule over her."
+
+De Quincey himself supported his son in a letter appended to the
+thesis thus:--"If pain when carried to the stage which we call agony
+or intense struggle amongst vital functions brings with it some danger
+to life, then it will follow that knowingly to reject a means of
+mitigating or wholly cancelling the danger now that such means has
+been discovered and tested, travels on the road towards suicide. It is
+even worse than an ordinary movement in that direction, because it
+makes God an accomplice, through the Scriptures, in this suicidal
+movement, nay, the primal instigator to it, by means of a supposed
+curse interdicting the use of any means whatever (though revealed by
+Himself) for annulling that curse."
+
+But the Bible furnished Simpson with the most powerful argument of all
+in Genesis ii. 21, where it is written: "And the Lord God caused a
+deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and he slept; and He took one of his
+ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof." He strengthened his
+position by explaining that the word rendered "deep sleep" might more
+correctly be translated "coma" or "lethargy." He had taken the full
+measure of his opponents when he answered them with this quotation; it
+was a reply characteristic of the man, and completely defeated these
+self-constituted theologians with their own weapons. They had attacked
+him as a man of science, and found that his knowledge of the
+Scriptures excelled their own. He did not fail to read these people a
+lesson, and point out the harm done to true religion by such conduct
+and arguments as theirs, reminding them that if God had willed pain to
+be irremovable no possible device of man could ever have removed it.
+
+Such was the great fight--the fight for anaesthesia--which Simpson
+fought and won. He was the one man who by his own individual effort
+established the practice of anaesthesia, while Morton has the honour of
+being the one man without whom anaesthesia might have remained unknown.
+Such was the opposition encountered, and such was the timidity of his
+professional brethren, that but for Simpson's courageous efforts it
+would have been the work of years to bring about what it was granted
+to him to accomplish in a brief period; if fear, ridicule, contempt,
+and bigotry had not perhaps sunk the new practice into oblivion. Of
+the hundreds who are daily mercifully brought under the influence of
+chloroform and ether, few are aware what they owe to Simpson, even if
+they know how great is the suffering which they are spared.
+
+Simpson felt that the victory was indeed complete when in April, 1853,
+he received a letter from Sir James Clark, physician in ordinary to
+Her Majesty, informing him that the Queen had been brought under the
+influence of chloroform, and had expressed herself as greatly pleased
+with the result. It was at the birth of the late Prince Leopold that
+Her Majesty set her subjects this judicious example.
+
+Much trouble to the cause was occasioned by enthusiasts who
+administered chloroform with more zeal than discretion, and
+without any study of the principles laid down by Simpson. As a result
+of imperfect trials, some persons went the length of saying that
+there were people whom it was impossible to anaesthetise at all, and
+others who could be only partially anaesthetised. Wrong methods of
+administration were used. Simpson patiently corrected these, and
+carefully instructed his students, so that the young graduates of
+Edinburgh University carried his teaching and practice into all
+parts of the world. Syme also took up the cause, and valuable work
+was done in London by Snow, and later by Clover. The teaching of
+Simpson and Syme led to such successful results that their methods
+are followed by the Edinburgh School to this day practically
+unaltered. So satisfactory an agent is chloroform in Edinburgh
+hands, that other anaesthetics are in that city but rarely called
+into requisition. All the world over it is the anaesthetic in which
+the general practitioner places his trust.
+
+Having seen what Simpson did for anaesthesia, we may briefly review
+what anaesthesia has done for humanity. That it has entirely abolished
+the pain attendant upon surgery is easily recognised by the profession
+and patients alike. The patient never begs for mercy nowadays; he
+dreads the anaesthetic more than the knife; he has no anxiety as to
+whether he will feel pain or not, but rather as to whether he will
+come round when the operation is over; happily after one experience he
+realises that his fears were unfounded, and, if need be, will submit
+cheerfully to a second administration.
+
+The horrors of the operating-room referred to in the preceding chapter
+were vanquished with the pain; the surgeon has no longer to steel
+himself for the task as formerly, to wear a stern aspect and adopt a
+harsh manner. The patient has no longer to be held down by assistants;
+instead of having to be dragged unwillingly to the operating-table--a
+daily occurrence sickening to the hearts of fellow-patients and
+students, while it served only to harden the surgeon and the
+experienced old nurse of those days--he will walk quietly to the room,
+or submit patiently to be carried there, and at a word from the
+surgeon prepare
+
+          "... to storm
+  The thick, sweet mystery of chloroform,
+  The drunken dark, the little death-in-life."
+
+The operation is no longer a race against time; order, method,
+cleanliness, and silence prevail, where there was formerly disorder,
+bustle, confusion, dirt, and long-drawn shrieks. Nothing illustrates
+better the progress of surgery than a picture of the operating-room in
+the first decade placed beside that of an operating theatre in one of
+our leading hospitals in this the last decade of the nineteenth
+century. In the quiet of the patient, in the painlessness of the
+operation, in the calm deliberation of the operator, and the
+methodical order of all around him, in the respectful silence that
+prevails in the room so soon as the patient is laid on the table, we
+see the direct results of the introduction of anaesthetics. But there
+are other great, if less direct, results, each making its presence
+known to the professional spectator. By anaesthesia successful
+operations previously unheard of and unthought of were made possible
+after the principle of antiseptic surgery had been established; by
+anaesthesia experimental research, which has led to numerous beneficent
+results in practical surgery and medicine, was made possible. Its
+introduction is an achievement of which the Anglo-Saxon race may well
+be proud. Wells, Morton, and Simpson are its heroes. The United States
+has by far the greater share of the honour of its discovery; but to
+Scotland is due the glory which comes from the victorious fight. No
+event in surgery up to 1847 had had such far-reaching effects. Simpson
+himself looked forward to the discovery of some agent, better than
+both chloroform and ether; and it is still possible that there may be
+an even greater future in store for anaesthesia than was ever dreamt of
+in his philosophy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOME LIFE--CONTROVERSIES
+
+  The foundations of his fame; Comparison with Boerhaave--Family
+  letters--Home amusements--Affection for children--And for
+  animals--Puck--Holidays--Wide area of practice--"The arrows of
+  malignancy"--Squabbles--Homoeopathy--Mesmerism--Refuses to leave
+  Edinburgh.
+
+
+Great as was Simpson's contemporary fame, the chief part of it had its
+origin in his indescribable personal power over his fellows, and in
+his inexhaustible energy. When to these was added the reputation won
+by the discovery of chloroform's anaesthetic properties, he stood not
+only as the most famous physician of his day, but also as a man marked
+out for posthumous fame. The personal characteristics of the man were
+speedily forgotten after his death, save by those who had been brought
+under their influence; the marked prominence given to Simpson and the
+"discovery of chloroform" in the numerous recent reviews of Queen
+Victoria's reign on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, indicates
+that it is by chloroform that Simpson will ever be remembered. His
+lasting reputation depends on this work, not upon the characteristics
+which made him famous in the judgment of his contemporaries. The only
+physician in comparatively modern times, whose reputation approached
+Simpson's in magnitude was Hermann Boerhaave (1668 to 1738), the Dutch
+physician, whose fame and influence during his own lifetime were
+immense. Boerhaave's leading characteristics greatly resembled
+Simpson's: he had an enormous capacity for acquiring information, and
+a wonderful facility for imparting instruction to others; his energy
+and industry were indefatigable, and his memory prodigious. He taught
+from separate chairs in Leyden the Theory of Medicine, the Practice of
+Medicine, Botany, Chemistry, and Clinical Medicine, and at the same
+time carried on his large practice. Patients of both sexes flocked to
+him from all quarters of the globe, and he is said to have accumulated
+from his practice a fortune of L200,000 in five and thirty years.
+Although his treatment and method were, according to our modern
+knowledge, unscientific, his success in practice was as great as
+Simpson's; it sprang from the same cause; a wonderful magnetic
+personal influence, which commanded confidence and faith, so that he
+succeeded with the same possibly quite simple means which were
+fruitless in the hands of others. In his day all Europe rang with
+Boerhaave's name. To-day he is practically unknown. His books are
+antiquated, and if known, are neglected by modern physicians. He
+achieved nothing of lasting benefit to humanity. His fate, at least so
+far as the public is concerned, would undoubtedly have been Simpson's,
+in spite of his obstetric and gynaecological work, had it not been for
+the discovery of chloroform.
+
+The increased fame and greatly increased professional income which
+followed the successful struggle for anaesthesia did not affect
+Simpson's homely characteristics. He found time in the midst of it all
+to enjoy the pleasures of home in the society of those he loved best,
+and of intimate friends. He took a keen delight in quite the smallest
+enjoyments of the home circle. A characteristic letter was written to
+his wife in the summer of 1849; she had gone with the children to the
+Isle of Man; he told her the great and small events of his daily
+life:--
+
+"Delighted to hear from you that all were so well. Everything goes on
+nicely here. I have been looking out for a headache (but keep
+excellently well), for I have been working very busily, and scarcely
+with enough of sleep. Yesterday _beat_ (as Clark writes it) any day I
+ever yet saw in the house. Did not get out till half-past four, and
+the drawing-room actually filled beyond the number of chairs and
+seats! Have had a capital sleep, and got up to look at the ducks; but
+none laying this morning, so I write instead. To-day I have a fancy to
+run out to Bathgate, and I think I will.... Yesterday dined with
+Miller, and Williamson, the Duke of Buccleuch's huntsman, enlightened
+us about dogs. Miller and I go to Hamilton Palace on Saturday.... My
+ducks won't lay any more eggs, at which I feel very chagrined.... Two
+salmon came as presents last week. I gave one to Mrs. Bennet. We are
+beginning a new batch of examinations at the college. _Such_ a sleep
+as I had yesterday morning! I came home by the last Glasgow train,
+_very_ tired. Tom came to waken me at eight, but I snored so that he
+didn't. He called me at half-past nine. I don't think I had stirred
+from the moment I lay down. This morning I have been reading in bed
+since six. I did not rise till now (half-past seven), because there
+was no duck laying."
+
+In another letter written on the same occasion he says:--
+
+"... Tell Davie I expect a letter from him. Say to Walter that
+yesterday Carlo jumped into the carriage after me and saw with me
+several patients. He usually mounted a chair at the side of each bed
+and looked in. But Mrs. S. gave him too much encouragement. He leaped
+into bed altogether and tramped upon a blister! which was very
+painful."
+
+It was his custom to keep open house at breakfast and luncheon time;
+but the evening meal was, as a rule, reserved so that he might see and
+enjoy his own family and intimates. He lived exceedingly plainly
+himself; he did not smoke; his drink was water: but he delighted in
+setting a goodly repast before his guests. He loved a romp with his
+children, and spared an occasional hour from the afternoon for that
+enjoyment. The same energy entered into his play that was seen in his
+work. A craze ran through fashionable circles in the fifties for
+_tableaux vivants_, and was taken up by the Simpson household. He
+entered with spirit into the new amusement, perhaps more keenly
+because he saw an opportunity of combining in such representations
+instruction with amusement. Historical personages and scenes were
+represented, as well as illustrations of poetry and fiction. With his
+infective enthusiasm he pressed poets and painters, grave and gay,
+into service, and there is a record of one highly successful
+entertainment at 52, Queen Street, in 1854, to which young and old
+alike were invited. On this occasion most of the scenes represented
+serious events in Scots history, but Simpson himself seems to have
+supplied a little comedy. Sandwiched between a scene of "Flora
+Macdonald watching Prince Charlie" and one of "Rebecca and Eleazar at
+the Well" came that of "The Babes in the Wood." Simpson and a
+professional colleague disported themselves as the Babes, and appeared
+sucking oranges and dressed as children--short dresses, pinafores,
+frilled drawers, white socks, and children's shoes. They wandered
+about a while, and then lay weeping down to die to an accompaniment of
+roars of laughter and to the great delight of the juveniles. It is
+but a small incident to chronicle, but it shows in his home life the
+great physician who was beloved by thousands. His deep sympathies made
+him delight in the society of children. As years increased, and with
+them work became overwhelming and worries and troubles persistent, he
+appreciated more and more the refreshment of a frolic with his
+children. He echoed Longfellow's pure words:--
+
+  "Come to me, oh ye children,
+    For I hear you at your play,
+  And the questions that perplexed me
+    Have vanished quite away.
+
+  . . . . . . . . . .
+
+  For what are all our contrivings,
+    And the wisdom of our books,
+  When compared with your caresses
+    And the gladness of your looks."
+
+His affectionate disposition and kindly manner gained the devotion of
+his many child patients; and his own family bereavements made him a
+sympathetic physician and friend to many a sorrowing mother. There was
+no cant or affectation in his sympathy; it grew out of his large
+heart.
+
+Animals also he was fond of and gentle to, as we know from the history
+of the dogs who successively reigned in the household, so charmingly
+given to us by his daughter. One episode in the life of Puck, a black
+and tan terrier more intelligent than "breedy," deserves repetition.
+The dog had accompanied the Professor and some of his children into
+the country one afternoon on an expedition to dig for antiquarian
+relics. "After tea Puck, seeing every one carrying something to the
+station, demanded the honour of relieving his master of a _Lancet_,
+and went off with his small burden looking very important.... At the
+station the dog was missing. All got into their places but Puck. 'I
+will follow in the next train,' said the Professor; 'Puck is too dear
+a little friend to lose....' All he found of Puck was a muddy
+_Lancet_, and the last that had been seen of the old dog was that he
+was pushing his way through a crowd of idle colliers, where it was
+supposed his energies had been so engrossed in guarding the _Lancet_
+that he had lost sight of his party.... His master stayed there until
+next morning, and some remembered afterwards how Puck's loss gave them
+another evening's talk with one they loved, though he broke in on the
+reminiscences with 'I wonder where little Puck is,' or 'Is that his
+bark?' No Puck came to demand entrance, and hope of his return was
+given up after three days passing without news of him. His master was
+thinking of the sorrowful letter he would have to write to Puck's
+companions when late one night, as he paced wearily up and down the
+room, he thought he heard a faint bark. There had been a great deal of
+listening of late for the little dog's bark; but it seemed vain to
+think of Puck's retracing his steps through an unknown country for so
+many miles. Still the Professor opened the door and called. Up the
+area steps something did limp into the hall. That it was Puck seemed
+doubtful at first, for he was quick and bright, and this animal was a
+lame ball of mud hardly able to crawl. The bright eyes, however, were
+Puck's; and he confirmed his identity by exerting his remaining
+energies to give one leap gratefully to kiss the friendly face that
+bent over him.... His truant play-fellows received a long letter from
+their father telling them of Puck's adventure and imagining Puck's
+feelings and trials through his long wanderings.... That letter always
+recalls Puck and his never-resting master bending over his desk,
+despite press of business, to send the news to Puck's companions."
+
+Simpson looked no further than his own nursery and circle of close
+friends for the refreshment and recreation which nature demanded in
+the course of his busy daily life. But holidays were necessary
+sometimes. He exhibited all the aversion of an enthusiastically
+busy man to leaving his work, but would yield sometimes to the
+solicitations of friends and would more readily leave his patients for
+a time if a prospect was held out of some interesting archaeological
+research to be indulged in. In 1850 he suffered from an abscess,
+caused by blood-poisoning contracted during professional work. At
+the request of his friends Professor Syme was called in, somewhat
+to the chagrin of Simpson's old friend and colleague, Miller. It is
+interesting to note that in spite of the recent controversy on
+anaesthetics, Montgomery of Dublin, who had keenly opposed him, was
+amongst the first to write a sympathetic note on hearing of his
+illness; although dissenting from some of Simpson's professional
+utterances, Montgomery was influenced by the Professor's personality
+to respect him as a man and a worker.
+
+After this illness Simpson took a rapid run round the Continent,
+visiting those cities where anything professional was to be picked up.
+As he expressed it himself he "scampered" round the Universities,
+Museums, and Hospitals, seeing and hearing all that was to be seen and
+heard. He stowed away the newly acquired knowledge in the recesses of
+his mighty brain, and hastened on to the next place of interest before
+his companions had gained their breath sufficiently to regard with
+intelligent interest the objects he had already left behind. In Paris,
+on the occasion of one of his flying visits into a hospital, he was
+present at an operation, unknown to the surgeon, in which chloroform
+was used not only as a preventive of pain, but also for its remedial
+effect; after the operation the surgeon addressed his students upon
+the subject of chloroform, and Simpson had the pleasure of listening
+to a hearty eulogy of it. When, at the end, he handed in his card, the
+operator's delight was genuine and effusive, and the students
+enthusiastically appreciated the somewhat dramatic scene. On such
+occasions when he had to submit to the embraces of delighted foreign
+scientists, the exuberant manner in which they kissed him was not to
+his liking; even the remote strain of French blood in his own veins
+did not help him to enjoy the Continental mode of salutation. All over
+Europe his name was honoured and revered. It is said that when in
+later years an Edinburgh citizen was presented at the Court of Denmark
+the King remarked, "You come from Edinburgh? Ah! Sir Simpson was of
+Edinburgh!"
+
+The last trip to the Continent, indeed his last real holiday, was
+taken in 1868, when he ran over to Rome. So public was the life he
+led, such matters of interest to his fellow-countrymen were his
+comings and goings, that the _Scotsman_ newspaper chronicled his
+doings, relating the sights and places of interest which he visited,
+and noting that his professional services were taken advantage of by
+many Roman citizens during the few days that he was there; and that if
+time had permitted a public reception would have been given to him. In
+all his foreign trips his object was to learn, not to teach; he
+followed Sir Isaac Newton's advice to Ashton, and let his discourse be
+more in queries than in assertions or disputings. He took care neither
+to seem much wiser nor much more ignorant than his company.
+
+Sometimes feeling the need of rest himself he would take one or
+perhaps three days for a rapid run to the Lakes, or would spend
+another in the country unearthing some antiquarian object. It was
+always a pleasure to him to visit Bathgate, where his uncle and
+friend Alexander had latterly resigned the baker's business and taken
+up the _role_ of banker. One of his favourite resorts was a small
+house called Viewbank which he had taken, situated on the shores of
+the Firth of Forth. Here he was close to the fishing village of
+Newhaven; the fisher folks--the men and the picturesquely attired
+"fish-wives"--a sturdy and original set of people, were a great
+interest to him. They knew him well both as an occasional visitor and
+as the good physician.
+
+One of his letters written in 1856 gives an indication of the wide
+area over which his services were requisitioned and rendered.
+
+  "_Sunday._
+
+  "I write this at Viewbank, which is very pretty this afternoon,
+  but where I have not been for a week or more. This year I have not
+  yet had one single holiday, and scarcely expect one now. I have
+  had many long runs during the past few months. I have been often
+  up in England, professionally, during the summer; once as far as
+  Brighton seeing a consumptive case; once at Scarboro' where my
+  wife went with me; once or twice in London where I saw the Queen;
+  once at Ambleside. I long and weary for a _real_ jaunt without a
+  sick patient lying at the end of it. And I had a great fancy to
+  run from Manchester to Douglas and send all the patients far
+  enough; I have been too hard worked to write, but I _must_ write
+  one or two papers now. Queen Street has been a little hotel
+  during the summer--always some sick lady or another sleeping in
+  it, sometimes several at night."
+
+Even on these professional journeys he found time to examine objects
+of interest in the neighbourhood; or if he was unable to leave the
+immediate proximity of his patient, he brought pen and paper to the
+bedside and worked while he waited; thus he economised time as he
+advised his students always to do. It is doubtful if any one less
+great than Simpson would have ever been allowed to labour thus by a
+sufferer's bedside; indeed even he was not always permitted to do so.
+It is recorded that, at least, one lady rose hastily and seized his
+pen so that he was obliged to desist.
+
+The striking form with which Nature had endowed him, became more
+remarkable when affected by years, work, and domestic afflictions.
+Though of medium height his presence, even beside typically large-built
+and large-boned fellow-countrymen, was never insignificant. His
+features, overhung by his massive forehead, surrounded by the long and
+thick hair, spoke his character. Firm, concentrated mouth and piercing
+eyes, when his mind was fixed on a scientific or practical object. A
+soft, womanly tenderness about the lips, and a genial, sympathetic
+emotion in his deep-set eyes when aroused by an object of pity or
+pleasure. His hand was "broad and powerful, but the fingers were
+pointed and specially sensitive of touch." To see him was to see one of
+the sights of the modern Athens. His features are familiar to us
+to-day as one of the ring of brilliant, intellectual faces forming a
+frame to the picture of Queen Victoria in this the year of her Diamond
+Jubilee--a year of triumphant retrospection, unprecedented in the
+history of nations.
+
+It was impossible that a man holding Simpson's position, engaged in
+his work, and possessed of distinct fighting characteristics, should
+not make enemies. He could say, as Jenner said before him, "As for
+fame, what is it? A gilded butt for ever pierced by the arrows of
+malignancy. The name of John Hunter stamps this observation with the
+signature of truth."
+
+The arrows of malignancy did not hurt Simpson. He was very little, if
+at all, affected by them; but he paid, perhaps, more attention to them
+than we might have expected him to pay; certainly more than they
+deserved. His love of the fray led him oftentimes to answer what had
+better have been left unnoticed, and dragged him into prolonged,
+sometimes bitter, and, it is to be regretted, often unworthy,
+controversies. There was so much valuable work to be done, and his
+efforts were always so fruitful in result that we grudge the time
+spent in these squabbles; there arises an instinctive feeling that had
+he devoted the energy wasted in these contests to furthering some
+single branch of science, he would have made distinct advances
+therein. There was nothing superficial about his work; whatever the
+object it was thoroughly entered into; his writings convey to one a
+sense of the power he had of seeing all round and through a question,
+and of weighing and judging evidence. There was likewise no scamping
+in his mode of treating his opponents in these squabbles; he used his
+weapons fearlessly and administered many a trouncing to weak
+opponents.
+
+It was a time of upheaval in things medical. The microscope and
+stethoscope had been introduced into the science and practice of the
+healing art. Scientific experiment and research were beginning to lay
+the foundations of rational medicine and surgery. Edinburgh was in the
+front rank of modern progress, as she has ever been. Men like Simpson,
+Syme, Miller, Alison, and Christison, were not likely to lag behind.
+But, unfortunately, it was equally unlikely that such great minds
+could all think alike in matters concerning the principles of the
+science and art which they taught and practised. Thus it happened that
+the Edinburgh School became notorious for its internal quarrels, and
+in these Simpson was, as a rule, to be found busy.
+
+Quite apart from these professional differences were the disputes
+arising from attacks made upon Simpson by professional brethren
+and laymen, who accused him of wrong treatment or neglect of
+patients. His fame endowed him with almost superhuman powers in the
+minds of patients and their friends. When all other means had failed
+Simpson was hastened to as a last but sure resource; bitter the
+disappointment, bitter was the grief, and also sometimes bitter the
+things said of him when the anxious friends of a sufferer found
+that even Simpson's powers of healing were limited. These attacks were
+some of the "arrows of malignancy," which naturally fell about the
+over-busy man. He thought it necessary to stop, pick up these arrows,
+and challenge the assailants; we may regret that he stooped so often
+to this action, but we feel that it sprang as much from the love of
+truth and justice as from the dictates of a disposition inclined
+towards quarrel.
+
+It is impossible to pass over the great controversy which raged in
+Edinburgh about 1850 on the merits of homoeopathy, in which Simpson,
+of course, took a leading part. About the beginning of the century the
+practice of medicine by the apothecaries, as the general practitioners
+were then called, consisted in the most unscientific, nay, haphazard
+administration of drugs in large quantities and combinations. It was
+an age of drugging doctors, and the custom had become so thoroughly
+established that it is doubtful whether any less completely opposite
+system than that introduced by Hahnemann would have convinced the
+public that after all so many drugs were not required, nor such large
+quantities of them. Homoeopathic practice was founded on facts
+improperly interpreted, and laid down for general use a procedure
+that was applicable in only a limited number of cases. As Dr. Lauder
+Brunton has recently pointed out, it is in many instances only a
+method of faith-cure, and as such has its value. The success which its
+practitioners certainly obtained in many cases where the ordinary
+wholesale drugging of the day had proved futile, at once made men
+pause ere allowing their bodies to be made receptacles for the
+complicated preparations of the physician. In Edinburgh at this time
+the influence of homoeopathy had been felt. Alison, a physician of
+great renown, was to the end a pronounced polypharmacist, and was said
+scarcely ever to leave a patient without a new bottle or prescription.
+Graham, another university professor, was also a thorough-going old
+school therapeutist. On the other hand, Syme treated all medicine
+except rhubarb and soda with disdain; and Henderson, the professor of
+Pathology, and also a practising physician, after professing to
+consider no medicine of very much value, became a pronounced sceptic,
+and finally horrified his colleagues by making trials of homoeopathy,
+and gradually becoming enamoured of it until he confessed himself a
+full follower of Hahnemann's doctrines. Christison was leading the
+school which urged that the action of medicines should be studied
+experimentally if their administration was to be founded on scientific
+grounds. The behaviour of Henderson, who so greatly owed his position
+as professor to Simpson, stirred the wrath of the latter. He examined
+and condemned the irrational system of Hahnemann, and threw himself
+into an attitude of strong opposition. Syme and Christison ably
+seconded him in strong public action. Henderson was obliged to resign
+his chair owing to "loss of health." Homoeopathy was thoroughly
+crushed in Edinburgh. The contest between the old system of drugging
+with large complicated doses of powerful remedies, and the new one of
+giving on principle infinitesimal doses of the same medicines, served
+a good purpose. It gave an opportunity for establishing rational
+therapeutics, a science which is making daily progress, and in the
+presence of which neither the old system nor homoeopathy can stand.
+
+About this same period mesmerism was again coming to the front, this
+time cloaked as a science termed electro-biology. Simpson acknowledged
+that there was a great deal in mesmerism demanding scientific
+investigation; but with his reasoning powers he could not realise the
+existence of the mystically-termed higher phenomena of animal
+magnetism, _e.g._, lucidity, transference of the senses, and, above
+all, clairvoyance. It happened that a professional mesmerist gave a
+performance in Edinburgh; learning that the "professor's" daughter was
+stated to be able to read anything written on paper, or to divine any
+object enclosed in a sealed box while under her father's mesmeric
+power, Simpson attended the performance. He took with him a
+specially-prepared test--a sealed box with certain unknown contents;
+this he presented at a suitable opportunity. Against their own wishes,
+but on the insistence of the audience, the performers made an attempt
+by their methods to detect the nature of the contents of this
+test-box. They pronounced it to be money; on opening it millet seed
+was found, and a piece of paper, on which was written, "humbug."
+
+An accusation, couched in bitter terms, that Simpson was really a
+supporter of mesmerism as it was then known, was published in one of
+the leading professional journals in London. He indignantly repudiated
+the suggestion and proposed to settle the matter finally by a simple
+expedient. He offered to place five sealed boxes each containing a
+line from Shakspeare written by himself on paper, in the hands of the
+editor of the journal who had permitted the attack to appear in his
+columns. To any clairvoyant who read these lines according to the
+professed method, and to the satisfaction of a committee of eminent
+medical men, he promised the sum of five hundred pounds. The offer,
+however, was not accepted.
+
+The brilliant attainments of many of its teachers at this period not
+only placed the Edinburgh school at the head of the British schools of
+medicine, but also led to tempting offers being made to individual
+professors by rival schools anxious to secure their services.
+
+London was a much more lucrative field for practice than the Scots
+metropolis, and several of the most eminent Edinburgh men had from
+time to time yielded to the temptation to migrate southwards. Indeed,
+London as a medical school owes a great deal to the Scotsmen whom she
+imported. Liston had left for London in 1834, and Syme followed, for a
+brief period, on Liston's death. In 1848 a strong effort was made to
+secure Simpson as a lecturer on midwifery at St. Bartholomew's
+Hospital; without any hesitation he decided to remain in the city
+where he had fought his way to fame, and where he enjoyed popularity,
+and a practice sufficiently lucrative to satisfy the most ambitious
+man. Every patriotic Scot applauded the decision.
+
+During these years of fame and prosperity Simpson concerned himself in
+schemes for the improvement of the surroundings of the working
+classes, and helped with speech and purse those who worked among the
+poor. He strongly supported the establishment of improved dwellings
+for workpeople and gave much attention to the subject of Cottage
+Hospitals. He did not neglect the poor amongst whom he had laboured in
+his early days. He loved old Edinburgh, and the poor inhabitants of it
+were near his heart. "The Professor" was known in many a "wynd" and
+"stair," where his services were rendered willingly and without
+reward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ARCHAEOLOGY--PRACTICE
+
+  His versatility--The Lycium of the Muses--The Catstane--Was the
+  Roman Army provided with medical officers?--Weems--His lack of
+  business method--Fees and no fees--Generosity often imposed
+  upon--His unusual method of conducting private practice--The
+  ten-pound note--Simpson and the hotel proprietors.
+
+
+Professor Simpson's versatility was remarkable. He turned from one
+subject to another and displayed a mastery over each; it was not
+merely the knowledge of principles which astonished but the intimate
+familiarity with details. He was able to discuss almost any subject in
+literature, science, politics, or theology with its leading exponent
+on equal terms. He had the power of patient listening as well as the
+gift of speech; more than that he had the ability to charm speech from
+others, of making each man reveal his inmost thoughts, betray his most
+cherished theories, or narrate his most stirring experiences; the most
+reticent man would not realise until he had left Simpson's presence,
+that in a brief interview, perhaps the first, he had told his greatest
+adventures, or laid bare his wildest aspirations before this student
+of mankind who was summarising his life and character as he spoke.
+Simpson built up his knowledge not so much from books as by the
+exercise of his highly developed faculty of observation aided by his
+memory. He enjoyed the study of his fellowmen and extracted all that
+was worth knowing from those with whom he came into contact. He never
+undertook work without a definite object in view, and rarely abandoned
+his task before that object was accomplished. Quite small researches
+would lead to considerable and unexpected labour. He preserved his
+scientific method, his desire to appeal only to the evidence of
+facts--not to other men's fancies--through his archaeological work as
+well as in more professional lines of study. He laboured long and
+carefully over such an object as the study of old skulls dug up in
+antiquarian excursions; setting before himself the object of finding
+out by the condition and wear of the teeth what kind of food had been
+consumed by the owners, probably primeval inhabitants of some
+district. He impressed his methods upon those who worked for him or
+with him. We find him writing to his nephew, who was about to visit
+Egypt, telling him when there to gather information as to the
+suitability of the country for invalids, and directing him how to
+employ his leisure in furthering this object. He was to study German
+on the voyage thither, and to take with him as models Clarke's book on
+Climate and Mitchell's on Algiers, and any French or German books on
+the subject he might hear of. He would require to collect (1) The
+average daily temperature; (2) The hygrometric and barometric states
+daily; (3) The temperature of the Nile; (4) The temperature of any
+mineral springs; (5) The general character of the geology; (6) The
+general character of the botany of the country. He asked him to
+inquire specially as to the effect of the climate on consumption, and
+pointed out that Pliny described Egypt seventeen centuries ago as the
+best climate for phthisical patients. For amusement he was to take
+some good general book on Egypt and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The
+serious study of a succession of inquirers was to be the young man's
+holiday amusement!
+
+Simpson's most notable contributions to archaeology were made when his
+time was most occupied professionally. The researches on Leprosy were
+first enlarged and improved. In 1852, when in the British Museum, his
+eye was attracted by a small leaden vase bearing a Greek inscription
+signifying the _Lycium of the Muses_. By a painstaking inquiry he
+established that this lycium was the _Lykion indikon_ of Dioscorides,
+drug used by ancient Greeks as an application to the eyes in various
+kinds of ophthalmia. It was obtained from India, and is still used for
+these purposes in that country. He discovered that there were three
+other examples of this ancient receptable for the valued eye-medicine
+in modern museums.
+
+He had correspondents in different parts of Scotland engaged in making
+researches into antiquities, which he encouraged and directed. Among
+such were inquiries into the whereabouts of a church said to possess
+holy earth brought from Rome; and a hunt for ancient cupping-vessels.
+The work on the Catstane of Kirkliston was elaborate, and a perfect
+example of his method. Probably this stone, a massive unhewn block of
+greenstone-trap, had been a familiar object to him in his youth, for
+it lay alone in a field close to the Linlithgow road. In his monograph
+he endeavoured to show by close reasoning, with profuse references to
+forgotten authorities and ancient history, that the stone was the tomb
+of one Vetta, the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa. His argument ran
+as follows: The surname Vetta, which figured on the inscription carved
+upon the stone, was the name of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa,
+as given by the oldest genealogists, who described him as the son of
+Victa. The inscription ran thus: VETTA F(ilius) VICTI. Vetta was an
+uncommon Saxon name, and no other Vetta, son of Victa, was known in
+history. Two generations before Hengist and Horsa arrived in England a
+Saxon host was leagued with the Picts, Scots, and Attacots in fighting
+a Roman army, and these Saxons were probably commanded by an ancestor
+of Hengist and Horsa. The battlefield was situated between the two
+Roman walls, and consequently included the tract where the stone is
+now placed. The palaeographic characters of the inscription indicated
+that it was carved about the end of the fourth century. Latin (with a
+very few exceptions in Greek) was the only language known to have been
+used at that time by Romanised Britons and foreign conquerors for the
+purpose of inscriptions. The occasional erection of monuments to Saxon
+leaders is proved by the fact mentioned by Bede that in his time, the
+eighth century, there stood in Kent a monument commemorating the death
+of Horsa. In 1659 a writer had described this tomb of Horsa as having
+been destroyed by "storms and tempests under the conduct of time."
+
+In 1861 Simpson was president of the Society of Antiquaries of
+Scotland, and delivered an address on the past and present work of
+archaeology which greatly stimulated antiquarian study in his country.
+Amongst the honours which his antiquarian achievements brought upon
+him was that of being appointed Professor of Antiquities to the Royal
+Academy of Scotland; he was also elected a member of the Archaeological
+Societies of Athens, Nassau, and Copenhagen.
+
+He made researches into the subjects of lake dwellings, primeval
+pottery, and burial urns. One of his most valuable writings was upon
+the subject, "Was the Roman Army provided with Medical Officers?" He
+answered the question in the affirmative after a laborious hunt
+amongst votive and mortuary tablets; no Roman historians had left
+clear indications of the existence of any army medical department. He
+found that several tablets were preserved bearing inscriptions
+referring to army surgeons, which suggested that although they were
+all known as _medicus_ there were degrees of rank amongst them,
+notably the _medicus legionis_ and the _medicus cohortis_. There is a
+well-preserved tablet in the Newcastle Museum found in that
+neighbourhood, commemorating a surgeon of the first Tungrian cohort,
+and one in Dresden, referring to a _medicus duplicatorius_, a term
+which indicates that the surgeon had been fortunate enough by his
+attainments to merit, and, we hope, receive double fees for his
+services.
+
+All his antiquarian study was looked upon by Simpson himself as no
+more than a relaxation. Fatigued by days and nights of anxious
+consecutive professional work, he would suddenly dash off for a day
+into some part of the country where he knew there was a likely "find,"
+leaving patients and students to the care of his assistants. Here he
+would press into service and infect with his spirit all sorts of local
+worthies from the squire or laird down to the labourer, who woke up at
+his stimulation to find that what had been of no concern to them and
+their fathers before them--perhaps objects of vituperation or
+superstitious dread--were objects of keen delight and interest, and
+actually valuable to this astonishing man. Once on a professional
+visit to Fifeshire he quite casually discovered some remarkable though
+rough carvings in caves, representing various animals and curious
+emblems, and he was able to show that they presented features hitherto
+unnoticed. Fifeshire was famous for its underground dwellings, or, as
+they are locally called, "weems"--a term which gave origin to the
+title of the Earldom of Wemyss. After such an excursion he would
+return to Queen Street full of boyish spirits, eager to narrate his
+discoveries to interested friends, and refreshed ready to resume the
+daily round of work. Archaeology was his hobby--the hobby on which he
+rode away for refreshment and relief from the monotony of his life's
+work; not only did the hobby constantly restore his flagging energies,
+but as it is given to few men to do, he put new life into his hobby
+whenever he bestrode it.
+
+In the conduct of his practice he was somewhat negligent. He was one
+of the old school in these matters; he trusted his head rather than
+paper, and his head had had such a careful self-imposed training since
+childhood that it was a good servant. But where the brain has such
+enormous duties to perform, those which appear to it unimportant must
+of necessity be comparatively neglected.
+
+Had he been more careful of pounds, shillings, and pence, he would
+have been more attentive to the details of practice. To Simpson,
+provided he had sufficient money for all his wants--and his wants
+were wide, for they included those of many others--pecuniary and
+business matters were of secondary consideration. In his student days
+he had lived carefully, accounting, as has been seen, for every
+trivial expenditure to those to whom he was indebted. But now he was
+free from the harassing necessity of exercising rigid economy, he cast
+aside the drudgery of business methods and disdained commercial
+considerations. He certainly received some very large fees, but the
+curious mixture of human beings who crowded his waiting-rooms were
+treated all alike whether they paid princely fees or no fee at all;
+lots were drawn daily for precedence, and they entered his presence
+according as they drew. His valet seems to have attained considerable
+skill in estimating the probable remunerative value of a roomful of
+waiting patients, and would grumble at night if on emptying the
+professor's pockets, as was his duty, the result fell short of his
+calculated anticipations. The man did not approve of the master's
+habit of giving gratuitous service. There were many who were never
+asked for a fee, and many others whose proffered guineas were refused.
+Simpson would not ask for money from those to whom he thought it was a
+struggle to pay him; the magnitude of his profit-yielding practice
+rendered this form of charity possible for him; from the really poor
+he always refused remuneration. His house was filled with all sorts
+of presents from patients, grateful for benefit conferred, grateful
+for generosity and consideration. He was also a free giver, and
+besides supporting orthodox charities made many gifts of goodly sums
+to persons who appeared to him to be in want, or who succeeded in
+impressing on him their need for help. He was imposed upon often
+enough; not seldom by pseudo-scientists full of some great discovery
+which a little more capital might enable them to complete. Once he
+corresponded with an enthusiast of this description who confessed that
+he had been breakfasting on a waistcoat, dining on a shirt, and
+supping on a pair of tough old leather boots, with the object of
+finding a solid substance, which combined with lead or tin would form
+gold--nothing more or less than the time-honoured philosopher's stone!
+To such a man Simpson gave freely not only once.
+
+To young students entering upon professional life with no other
+capital than their newly acquired qualifications to practice, he was
+ever generous. The Scots Universities sent forth many such youths,
+sturdy and independent, and with feelings that would be easily wounded
+by any attempt to patronise. But his gentleness, and the sympathy born
+of his own early experiences and shining in his eyes, made help from
+him something to be proud of.
+
+It could never be urged against Simpson that he was avaricious. Just
+as when honours were showered upon him he accepted them with less
+thought of the personal honour than of the appreciation of his
+friends and the public, and rejoiced that they were pleased; so he
+rejoiced in the acquisition of ample means chiefly because of the
+pleasure he might derive therefrom by helping others.
+
+His method of seeing patients was boldly haphazard; we learn with
+astonishment that he kept no list of his visits to be made, and
+started a day's round with only his prodigious memory to guide him as
+to where he should go. Such a method must have had the result that
+only cases of interest or urgency were seen. No doubt the able staff
+of assistants attended to the others, but these comprised not only
+sufferers from trivial complaints but those afflicted with imaginary
+ills who had come to see Simpson, not his assistant. Possibly they had
+already suffered many things of many physicians and were none the
+better. Such persons blamed Simpson with some reason. In the case of
+neurotic persons only was his method not reprehensible; continued
+attendance might have undone the benefit of the one application, if we
+may so term it, of his strong personality, which sometimes was all
+that was required, so superstitious was the reverence for his powers.
+A precise system of registration of engagements and visits ought
+certainly to have been adopted. We can sympathise with those who felt
+aggrieved that they could not obtain more attention from the great
+man, but it must be remembered that by his own method he saw a great
+number of difficult and dangerous cases, and was able to originate out
+of his wide and unprecedented experience, modes of treatment which are
+to-day valued highly and successfully made use of by his professional
+successors. He never wittingly left a fellow-creature's life in
+danger, but would hasten at all hours to cases of real urgency.
+
+As is usual where large numbers are striving after the same object
+some were highly careless in their communications with him. Fees were
+sent to him with a request for a receipt, but no address was given.
+Engagements were asked for by persons who neglected to say at what
+hotel they were staying; and others worried him for letters on quite
+trivial subjects. On one occasion, it is authentically related, a
+ten-pound note was forwarded to him by a man who might more reasonably
+have paid one hundred pounds. The note was somewhat carelessly not
+acknowledged, and the sender kept writing letters demanding an answer
+in increasing severity of tone. But he was left to rage in vain. A few
+nights later Simpson's sleep was disturbed by a rattling window; in
+the dark he rose and groped for a piece of paper wherewith to stuff
+the chink and stop the irritating noise. His only comment next morning
+when his wife, having removed the paper and discovered its nature came
+to him with it, was, "Oh! it's _that_ ten pounds!"
+
+There was a great want of method in all his arrangements, and Dr. Duns
+confesses to having had considerable difficulty in arranging
+Simpson's letters and papers, so carelessly were they kept.
+
+The leading hotels in the city benefited by Simpson's reputation.
+Patients and pilgrims filled their rooms long before tourists began to
+crowd Scotland as they do to-day. When Simpson was elected to the
+Chair of Midwifery loud complaints were uttered by the hotel
+proprietors. His predecessor, Professor Hamilton, had been a man of
+such wide reputation that they derived much profit from the patients
+sent in from the surrounding country to be attended by him. How could
+a young man like Simpson equal this? And yet when he died there was
+more than one hotel proprietor who could attribute no small measure of
+his own success to the patients and visitors who crowded not only from
+the country districts of Scotland but from the most remote parts of
+the British Empire, as well as from the great cities of Europe and
+America, to gain help or speech from or perhaps only to see this same
+Simpson. And his fame had reached the high point it ever after
+maintained when he was but a young man--before he was forty years of
+age. It was estimated that no less than eighty thousand pounds per
+annum was lost to the hotel, lodging, and boarding-house keepers of
+Edinburgh when he died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PERSONAL--PROFESSORIAL--PROFESSIONAL
+
+  His genius--Fertility of resource--Personal influence--Work in
+  obstetrics and gynaecology and surgery--His lecturing and
+  teaching--The healing of wounds--Acupressure--Hospitalism--Proposal
+  to stamp out infectious diseases.
+
+
+Professor A. R. Simpson has said that his uncle Sir James Simpson's
+genius showed itself in his power of seeing things, in his power of
+adapting means to ends, and in his power of making others see what he
+had seen and do what he had done. We have seen these characteristics
+displayed in his work upon anaesthesia; it is literally true that he
+left no stone unturned to gain his end and to make others look upon
+anaesthesia in the same light as he regarded it. He declared all the
+while that if he found the opposition to the administration of
+chloroform in midwifery practice too powerful to conquer alone, he
+would finally overcome it by bringing about such a state of public
+opinion on the subject as would compel the profession to adopt his
+methods.
+
+Whether we regard Simpson as a physician or as a surgeon, as a
+gynaecologist or as an accoucheur, we find that his success was always
+due to the same causes. He possessed no secret remedies such as an
+ignorant and imaginative section of the public often credit to
+successful medical men. He performed no operations with which other
+surgeons were not equally familiar and equally capable of performing;
+indeed he frequently sent his surgical cases to operators in whose
+hands he considered they would be more skilfully treated than in his.
+In obstetrics and gynaecology his skill arose not only from his
+unrivalled experience, but also from his power of rapid diagnosis, and
+his promptness and boldness in treatment.
+
+His readiness in resource was unfailing. On one occasion, it is
+related, during an operation the bottle of chloroform was knocked over
+and its contents were spilled upon the carpet before the surgeon had
+completed his work; whilst his colleagues were wondering what was to
+be done or how a further supply of the anaesthetic could be obtained
+with sufficient speed, Simpson was on his knees hacking out with his
+knife the portion of carpet on which the chloroform had just fallen;
+and by means of this extemporised inhaler the operation proceeded
+uninterrupted to the end.
+
+He carried his distinguishing energy and thoroughness into every
+branch of his work; even in extempore speeches made at meetings of
+professional societies, he placed facts before his listeners in so
+convincing and lucid a manner out of the extensive variety of his
+knowledge, and aided by his great memory, that if he did not in
+reality gain the point he argued in favour of he generally appeared to
+do so. On such occasions too his imperturbable temper was a valuable
+weapon.
+
+There is no doubt that the genial professor availed himself fully of
+the unbounded confidence placed in him by his patients. Those of us
+who did not know him cannot appreciate what we have already said, that
+the charm of his personality was one of the greatest factors of his
+success in practice, and of his social success; there is the risk of
+the appearance of exaggeration in any description of this personal
+influence. The sympathy of his heart, a real sympathy, not a thin
+professional veneer, was made manifest by deed as well as word. It
+aroused in his patient, quite unconsciously to both, a feeling that
+this man, above all other men, understood his complaint; that he, the
+sufferer was the chief, if not the only object of his thought and
+care. It was said over and over again of him that his words and look
+did more good than all his physic, so able a wielder was he of that
+healing power which reaches the body through the mind. Those who knew
+him not, but falling sick hastened to Edinburgh to be healed by him,
+were oftentimes cured simply because they felt beforehand that he
+would cure them. They followed unconsciously the ancient command of
+the Talmud, where it says, "Honour your physician before you have
+need of him," and went to him full of respect and fired by faith. Wise
+men have striven through all ages to take advantage of this influence
+of the mind over the body, and the necessity of possessing a healthy
+mind if the body is also to be healthy. A striking proof of the
+antiquity of the thought has been recently furnished in a fashion that
+would have delighted Simpson. On a papyrus, dated A.D. 200, brought to
+light by Egyptian explorers, it is written that Christ said: "A
+prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician
+work cures upon them that know him."
+
+The advances which Simpson made in the science and practice of both
+midwifery and gynaecology were due to the magnitude of his experience
+and the readiness of his genius to profit by experience. His one
+thought being the relief of suffering and the prolongation of life, he
+approached the bedside as a man with less high aspirations would fail
+to do. He considered only the patient's interest, and gave his genius
+free play. He took midwifery and gynaecology by storm, and urged them
+on to great developments; he believed in observing, helping, or
+imitating nature rather than acting, as his predecessors had done,
+upon preconceived ideas which oftener than not ran contrary to
+nature's commands. He avoided meddlesomeness, and stepped in only as
+the ally of nature. He took numerous hints from bygone practitioners
+and writers, and developed them. To-day we are profiting by his
+teaching, and the instruments which he devised or perfected.
+
+To mention all his suggestions and all his contributions to the arts
+which he specially practised would here be obviously impossible as
+well as out of place; but to medical readers the mention of one
+instrument associated with his name, and known as _the sound_, will
+give a small indication of how much we are in his debt. The principle
+of this instrument had been known long before he took it in hand, but
+it was left for him to introduce it into practice, perfect it, and
+preach its value in diagnosis and treatment. So thorough was his work,
+so farseeing his science, that our knowledge of its utility has
+scarcely been added to since he first drew attention to it in 1843.
+
+Towards operative work his attitude was characteristically conscientious.
+We are told that he habitually put the following question to himself when
+contemplating a serious operation: "Am I conscientiously entitled to
+inflict deliberately upon my fellow-creature with my own hands the
+imminent and immediate chance of death for the problematic and
+prospective chance of his future improved health and prolonged life?"
+The fact that he habitually thus questioned himself is an evidence of the
+state of surgery at that time. Operations were undertaken only as a last
+resource to save life; the surgeon knew full well that he placed his
+patient in further peril merely by cutting through the skin, in a manner
+which has now happily become a thing of the past.
+
+His work was so pre-eminently practical that he never stopped to
+collect together his experiences into a scientific treatise. Although
+he revivified midwifery, and was one of the original founders of
+gynaecology, he left to aftercomers the labour of studying what he had
+done, and drawing the conclusions on which to strengthen the fabric of
+the science. His pamphlets, papers, and reports are very numerous. It
+would be wrong to say that modern thought has approved all that he
+wrote; but however much time and increased knowledge may have modified
+his teaching, they have not detracted from the value of his
+researches, discoveries, and suggestions, or from the stimulating
+influence of his work upon contemporary practice and thought.
+
+As a lecturer and teacher Simpson succeeded as in the other branches
+of his work. His brilliant exposition of his subjects and his careful
+practical manner of teaching his young listeners doubled the fame
+which had begun with his predecessor, Professor Hamilton, and has ever
+since belonged to the Edinburgh school of obstetricians. But here
+again his personal attractiveness and power gained for him the greater
+part of his success. In the words of the _Lancet_, written when
+reviewing a posthumous collection of some of his writings, his
+lectures used to brighten the gloomy days of the Edinburgh winter; in
+perusing the publication under review, Edinburgh men would "almost
+think they saw the big head and face of the great obstetrician, as
+they used to see him beaming with satisfaction or twinkling with
+genial humour as he told a good story, or related a happy case,
+illustrative of his own bold and original practice." Both as a
+lecturer and as a bedside teacher he captured his students by the
+charm of his diction, the wide range of his knowledge, and as
+Professor Gusserow has pointed out in his masterly memoir, by his
+peculiar talent of having his knowledge at his fingers' ends, and that
+often in very remote details.
+
+Year by year he never failed to obtain the affection of his students;
+scarcely a man that had been taught by him but would proudly boast
+that he was his friend as well as his teacher. He treated his large
+class in a confiding spirit--not as the superior person delivering _ex
+cathedra_ utterances, but as the friend rejoicing in his function of
+admitting those around him into the knowledge in which he seemed to
+revel. He had a happy method of getting on good terms with his
+audience before proceeding to the serious business of the lecture.
+When his health began to fail he was sometimes unwillingly laid aside,
+and the lectures were delivered by a substitute. On one occasion he
+re-appeared pale, weak, and lame, after such an enforced holiday, and
+was greeted enthusiastically by a crowded class. He told them that his
+servant had said to him that a rumour was abroad that he was in
+Morningside Asylum. He had asked what answer he had made, and heard
+that he had replied that so far from being wrong in his mind his
+master was writing a book in bed. While he did not say that this
+answer was strictly correct, he was happy to assure them, his pupils,
+that he was quite right in his mind, although a friend had hinted that
+morning that he was rather weak in his _understanding_!
+
+Old fellow-students meeting each other in after life as staid
+practitioners take pleasure in recalling the idiosyncrasies and
+peculiarities of their teachers; it is probable that no professor has
+ever been talked over with the appreciation which breathes through the
+reminiscences of Simpson conjured up by those whom he taught.
+
+Simpson left his mark in other departments besides those of the
+subject of his professorial chair and of anaesthesia. About ten
+years after the introduction of chloroform he turned his attention
+to the process of wound-healing--the repair of necessary wounds
+inflicted by surgeons in the course of their work--and although he
+was promptly told to go back to his midwifery, he worked persistently
+at the subject. In those days the subject was the most burning one in
+surgery and the methods employed to bring about successful results
+varied in different schools. The object of all methods was the
+same, viz., to obtain a healthy, clean, and sightly result after
+an operation; to leave the part which had been of necessity cut in a
+condition as nearly as possible approaching that in which it had
+been found, without the incidence of any of the too frequent grave
+complications. Surgeons did not recognise at first the power of
+nature to effect for them what they strove after; they thought to
+attain their object by compelling the tissues to heal as they
+desired by complicated applications, and many were the layers of
+ointments and masses of dressings heaped on wounds for this
+purpose. For a long time all efforts were directed to the discovery
+of some specific substance, the application of which would give the
+necessary impulse towards healing in the desired manner. Before
+Simpson's day it had been generally recognised that the cause--but
+its nature was quite undreamt of--of the trouble lay in the air
+surrounding the wound, and more dressings were piled on to keep
+out the air. But at the same time bleeding was arrested by tying the
+cut arteries with ligatures--chiefly silken--and these were left
+with long ends hanging out of the wound to work their way out by a
+process of ulceration, or irritation of the tissues until liberty was
+obtained. This process was practically incompatible with the ideal
+form of healing, known as healing by _first intention_, _i.e._,
+union without appreciable loss of substance or the formation of
+_pus_ or matter. So-called "surgical fever," secondary haemorrhage,
+and blood-poisoning were the frequent fatal results of operation
+wounds treated in this manner. Simpson and others thought to prevent
+these alarming diseases by devising other means of closing the
+arteries; thinking that if some method or material were used,
+which nature resented less, the wound would more readily close by
+first intention. In 1858 Simpson stated that he had for some time
+past been experimenting with substitutes for the ordinary silk and
+thread ligatures, and in the course of his experiments had made use
+of iron, silver, and platinum wires. In his usual way he hunted up
+old authorities, and found a record of both silver and gold threads
+having been experimentally used by bygone practitioners. He seems to
+have been pleased with his results, stating that he found the
+tissues much more tolerant of these metallic ligatures than they were
+of the ordinary organic ones; that only "adhesive inflammation," not
+ulcerative suppurative inflammation, was excited. This success,
+however, was probably due to the superior cleanliness of the metal,
+but this he did not recognise; had he done so he might have been led
+to strive after surgical cleanliness, and have partly anticipated the
+great work done subsequently by others. He went off, however, on a
+different line, and searched for some readier method of using
+metallic means of closing the blood vessels, being stimulated by
+the desire to abolish ligatures altogether. Thus he was led, after
+ten years' careful research, to the introduction of a method entirely
+original--that of _Acupressure_. This consisted in the introduction
+of a fine needle through the tissues across the course of the
+artery, so that while the needle pressed upon one side of the artery
+the resisting tissues of the body exerted counter-pressure on the
+opposite side. He claimed for his method the merits of simplicity,
+elegance, and cleanliness, and urged that not only did the tissues
+tolerate the needle as they did not tolerate silk or hemp, but that
+unlike the ligature the needle could be withdrawn as soon as
+nature had closed the blood vessel by the process of coagulation of
+the blood within it set up by the pressure; thus the prolonged
+irritating presence of a body within the wound which delayed
+healing until it had ulcerated its way out was rendered unnecessary,
+and a better and more rapid result was attained. He verified his
+theoretical considerations by experiments on animals and in one or
+two operations on the human subject, and in 1859 read a communication
+on the subject to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
+
+The paper was written under great pressure of work, indeed he stated
+that at that time he was hardly ever able to write except when himself
+"confined"; it was hastily prepared to take the place of that of
+another Fellow which had failed to be forthcoming a few days before
+the appointed meeting. It was composed at a country house where he had
+to sleep for two or three nights watching a case of diphtheria. It was
+headed as usual by a Shakspearian quotation, this time briefly in
+Justice Shallow's words, thus:--"Tut, a pin!" On the evening of its
+delivery an abstract of the paper was forwarded to the leading
+surgeons in England, Europe, and America, and diverse were the
+opinions expressed.
+
+In Scotland the new method met with the greatest favour and the
+strongest opposition at one and the same time. Throughout Europe and
+America it was everywhere received with applause and support.
+Excellent results were obtained when the method was properly applied,
+but technical considerations, particularly the difficulty of using it
+upon blood vessels far removed from the surface, rendered it
+unsuitable for universal application.
+
+Professor Syme met the innovation with vehement opposition;
+possibly he resented this intrusion of the gynaecologist into the
+regions of general surgery. He took into his class-room one pamphlet
+on the subject by Simpson, which had especially aroused his wrath; he
+stormed at the author before his students for "his vulgar insolence,"
+and then, in a dramatic scene, expressed the violence of his contempt
+by savagely tearing the pamphlet into pieces and casting it away.
+In a subsequent controversy between these two old opponents, who
+had been temporarily united by Simpson's conduct in consulting Syme
+professionally, by their joint action against homoeopathy, and by
+Simpson's defence of Syme when publicly attacked by an English
+surgeon, the feud was renewed.
+
+Simpson persisted for years in collecting reports of operations in
+which acupressure was employed, and published them from time to time
+in the _British Medical Journal_ and elsewhere. In 1864 his work
+on the subject took the form of a volume containing 580 quarto pages.
+His friends endeavoured to rank acupressure with chloroform as one
+of the blessings to humanity made manifest by him. He himself
+recognised that he had failed to gain for acupressure a place in
+practice such as he had gained for chloroform, but he looked forward
+to a time, perhaps a quarter of a century distant, when his method
+would be beginning to be thought about. In this he was mistaken for,
+on the contrary, acupressure was beginning to be forgotten long before
+twenty-five years had elapsed. Another worker on more strictly
+scientific lines had by that time made healing by first intention,
+without complications, the rule instead of the exception, and
+conferred a benefit on humanity as great if not greater than that of
+anaesthesia. In 1867, while Simpson was still alive, Mr. (now Lord)
+Lister (then a hospital surgeon in Glasgow, and subsequently Syme's
+successor in Edinburgh) enunciated the new principle of "antiseptic
+surgery," which recognised the living infective micro-organisms of
+the air as the cause of the trouble in wounds. He directed that as
+these invisible organisms (known only by means of the microscope)
+were present everywhere in the air, found their way into all sorts of
+wounds, and set up the decomposition which led to disastrous
+results, they were to be destroyed or excluded from wounds; and he
+suggested effective means of accomplishing this end. He further
+abolished the long ligatures which irritated by their presence, and
+by the organisms they conveyed into the wound when imperfectly
+cleansed as they usually were; and substituted non-irritating
+ligatures which nature herself was able to remove by the process of
+absorption. The recognition of this antiseptic principle effected a
+much needed revolution in surgery, and in this revolution acupressure
+was practically annihilated. Simpson did not live long enough to
+see the complete establishment of the Listerian principle; at
+first he vigorously opposed what he considered to be an attempt to
+retain the old-fashioned ligatures in preference to his new
+acupressure; but with his penetrative eye he must have foreseen
+that should the new practice prevail and short absorbable ligatures
+be made possible, acupressure would be completely superseded.
+
+In the estimation of the writer of the obituary notice of Professor
+Simpson in the _British Medical Journal_, the greatest of all his
+works was that undertaken in the subject of Hospitalism. As early as
+1847 he had been horrified to read in a report of the work done in the
+Edinburgh Infirmary, that out of eighteen cases of primary amputation
+performed during a period of four years only two survived. He faced
+this fact with the courage of the reformer, and sought far and near
+for other facts to support the theory which he gradually evolved, that
+this melancholy failure of surgeons to save their patients' lives was
+due not so much to the operation or the operator as to the
+environment of the patient. In later years he himself often shrank, on
+account of unfortunate experiences, from performing capital operations
+which he had formerly unhesitatingly undertaken. The unhealthiness of
+hospitals had long been recognised; and was especially observed at
+times when they were overcrowded, as happened during war time. When
+the public had thoroughly grasped the utility of anaesthetics, and
+recognised that operations could be performed painlessly, there were
+fewer refusals to submit to the knife; there was a rush to the
+hospitals, and the surgical wards throughout the length and breadth of
+the land became crowded with men and women actually longing for
+operation. Amongst these all the dreaded sequelae of surgical
+interference, which no power seemed able to check, ravaged with
+alarming severity.
+
+It is to Simpson's credit that he perceived how the introduction of
+anaesthesia had taxed the hospitals and bewildered the operators, who
+sought diligently but unsuccessfully in every direction for some means
+of reducing hospital mortality. He was one of the first to set to work
+with method to investigate this question of Hospitalism.
+
+It was towards the end of his career, when the old Edinburgh Infirmary
+stood condemned, and various proposals for rebuilding it on a new site
+and improved plan were under discussion, that his voice was most
+loudly heard. For many years he had thought and taught that the great
+mortality after operations in hospitals was due to the impure state of
+the air therein, derived from the congregation of a large number of
+sick persons under one roof. He picturesquely stated that the man laid
+on a hospital operating table was exposed to more chances of death
+than the English soldier was on the field of Waterloo. His original
+suggestion was that hospitals might be changed from being crowded
+palaces, with a layer of sick on each floor, into villages or
+cottages, with one, or at most two, patients in each room; the
+building to be of iron, so that it could be periodically taken down
+and reconstructed, and presumably thoroughly renovated. This drastic
+proposal brings nowadays a smile to the lips, for we see now how he
+was groping in the dark; but the magnitude of it is but the shadow of
+the evil it was designed to cure. The change was so great as to be
+impracticable in the eyes of most men; he, on the other hand,
+contended that it was to be of incalculable benefit to humanity, and,
+therefore, no difficulty, however great, should be allowed to stand in
+the way. He did not understand that the evils arose not from the air
+itself but from what was in the air, known to us now as the
+micro-organisms. His remedy was a proposal to run away from the evils
+without receiving any guarantee that they could not and would not
+successfully pursue. Had Lister not arisen, Simpson's proposals might
+have possibly prevailed, for he laboured with all his persistent
+energy.
+
+The general belief of the profession--but it was no more than a
+belief--was that operations performed in country practice were not so
+frightfully fatal as those performed in town hospitals. This was
+Simpson's opinion, and he determined to test its truth by appeal to
+facts. He drew up a circular with a schedule for the insertion of
+results in a statistical form, and sent it far and wide amongst
+country practitioners. He awaited the result with anxious expectation;
+the circular asked for a plain statement of facts only, and for all he
+knew the facts might be against his theory; but they were not. From
+all over England and Scotland, particularly from mining districts,
+where severe operations after accidents were common, the filled-up
+schedules flowed in, to the number of 374. These were collected,
+carefully classified and summarised. The operations selected were
+amputations, and the result briefly was this:--
+
+  Total number of cases   2,098 }     Mortality,
+    "     "       deaths    226 }     10.8 per cent.
+
+The relative mortality of the different amputations was also shown:--
+
+  669 Thigh cases; deaths, 123; mortality, 18.3 per cent.
+  618 Leg     "  ;   "      82;     "      13.2    "
+  433 Arm     "  ;   "      19;     "       4.3    "
+  378 Forearm "  ;   "       2;     "       0.5    "
+
+The table on the next page compared the results of operations for
+injury with those performed for disease.
+
+FOR INJURY.
+
+          Cases.  Deaths.  Mortality.
+                           per cent.
+  Thigh      313    80       25.5
+  Leg        409    57       13.4
+  Arm        344    14        4.0
+  Forearm    313     2        0.6
+
+FOR DISEASE.
+
+          Cases.  Deaths.  Mortality.
+                           per cent.
+  Thigh      356    43       12.0
+  Leg        209    25       12.0
+  Arm         89     5        5.6
+  Forearm     60     0        --
+
+These statistics were accompanied by an exhaustive detailed
+examination and explanation; every possible point of attack was
+considered and protected. "I doubt not," he said, "that the
+segregation of the sick from the sick--every diseased man being a
+focus of more or less danger to the diseased around him--is a
+principle of no small moment and value." He attributed the comparative
+brilliancy of these statistical results to the _isolation_ of the
+patients only; he endeavoured to show that the operations were often
+performed amidst dirty and squalid surroundings, on dirty and squalid
+persons. He did not attribute sufficient importance to the fact urged
+by many of his correspondents, who supported his general contentions
+almost to a man out of their own experience, that where fresh air,
+ventilation, and cleanliness prevailed, the results were always the
+most satisfactory.
+
+The next step was to take hospital statistics of similar operations,
+and the general result appears in the table on page 183.
+
+This testimony to the truth of Simpson's opinion was more pronounced
+than even he himself had anticipated. "Shall this pitiless and
+deliberate sacrifice of human life to conditions which are more or
+less preventable be continued, or arrested? Do not these terrible
+figures plead eloquently and clamantly for a revision and reform of
+our existing hospital system?" This was his cry until at length
+breath failed him. The opposition was not strong, but the support
+was weak. Although there was much criticism, his conclusions were
+scarcely called in question at all; trifling holes were picked in
+his statistics, but his contentions were universally acknowledged
+to be correct; a few reformers only, persuaded as he was of the
+evils of hospitalism and working at the subject, lent him their
+advocacy. But he alone stood unperturbed at the extent of the evils
+and the magnitude of the change which he proposed in order to
+uproot them; death laid him low as he stood, but not before he had
+modified his proposals by suggesting that existing hospitals might be
+reconstructed, and new hospitals built on the now almost universally
+adopted pavilion system on which the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was
+one of the first to be built.
+
+  Column Headings--
+  C: Cases.
+  D: Deaths.
+   _______________________________________________________________________
+  |                       |                                               |
+  |      HOSPITAL.        |                  FOR INJURY.                  |
+  |_______________________|_______________________________________________|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  |                       |  Thigh.   |    Leg.   |    Arm.   |  Forearm. |
+  |                       |___________|___________|___________|___________|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  |                       | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Edinburgh Infirmary   | 134 |  48 |  28 |   9 |   7 |   3 |  19 |   7 |
+  | Glasgow   "           | 100 |  60 |  93 |  50 | 101 |  38 |  66 |   9 |
+  | Nine London Hospitals | 320 | 123 | 173 |  53 |  48 |  13 |  37 |   7 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Total                 | 631 | 239 | 283 |  89 |  78 |  22 |  75 |  15 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  | Mortality per cent.   |   64.4    |   54.8    |   40.1    |   14.8    |
+  |_______________________|___________|___________|___________|___________|
+
+   _______________________________________________________________________
+  |                       |                                               |
+  |      HOSPITAL.        |                 FOR DISEASE.                  |
+  |_______________________|_______________________________________________|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  |                       |  Thigh.   |    Leg.   |    Arm.   |  Forearm. |
+  |                       |___________|___________|___________|___________|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  |                       | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] | [C] | [D] |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Edinburgh Infirmary   |  65 |  48 |  58 |  29 |  21 |  12 |  39 |   5 |
+  | Glasgow   "           | 177 |  68 |  82 |  27 |  23 |   6 |  19 |   1 |
+  | Nine London Hospitals | 139 |  88 | 179 | 102 |  97 |  33 |  64 |  11 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
+  | Total                 | 304 | 196 | 330 | 181 | 219 |  88 |  169|  25 |
+  |_______________________|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
+  |                       |           |           |           |           |
+  | Mortality per cent.   |   37.8    |   31.4    |    28.2   |     2.0   |
+  |_______________________|___________|___________|___________|___________|
+
+  The total number of cases  2,089 } mortality 41 per cent.
+  The total number of deaths   855 }
+  Placed side by side the Town (hospital only) and Country (private
+        practice only) figures compared as follows:--
+    _Hospital_ cases 2,089; deaths 855; mortality 41 per cent. or 1 in 2.4
+    _Country_    "   2,098;   "    226;    "      10.8     "      1 in 9.2
+
+The steady advance of aseptic surgery has slowly but surely brought
+about the results which Simpson strove to attain by a radical measure.
+The enemy which had baffled surgeons for centuries was revealed by
+Lister. He sent surgeons smiling into the operating-room practically
+certain of success instead of dreading the terrible onslaught upon
+their own handiwork of the formerly unseen and unknown destroyer. The
+death rate of operations is being daily brought nearer and nearer to
+vanishing point. In his review of the progress of wound treatment
+during the Victorian Era published in the Diamond Jubilee number of
+_The Practitioner_, Mr. Watson Cheyne says the mortality of major
+operations does not now exceed in hospitals more than three or four
+per cent., and this is made up practically entirely by cases admitted
+almost moribund and operated on _in extremis_ with faint hope of
+survival. The field of surgery, too, has been vastly enlarged, and the
+term "major operation" includes not merely operations of necessity,
+undertaken through ages past as the only possible means of saving
+life, but also operations which have become possible only in recent
+years--some of them performed merely to make the patient "more
+comfortable," or even only "more beautiful." And this glorious result
+is due, as Mr. Cheyne truly says, to the immortal genius of Lister.
+
+In 1867 Simpson propounded in the _Medical Times and Gazette_ a
+proposal for stamping out smallpox and other infectious diseases such
+as scarlet fever and measles. In spite of vaccination, which, however,
+was imperfectly carried out, smallpox alone carried off five thousand
+lives annually in Great Britain. A serious outbreak of rinderpest in
+the British Islands amongst cattle had recently been arrested and
+exterminated by the slaughter of all affected animals. The disease
+spread as smallpox did by contagion, and Simpson fell to wondering why
+smallpox could not also be exterminated. His paper was a noteworthy
+contribution to the then infant science of Public Health, and his
+proposal, which was, however, universally regarded as impracticable,
+sprang from his courageous enthusiasm as did that concerning
+hospitals. He suggested that the place of the pole-axe in the
+extermination of rinderpest might in the arrest of smallpox be taken
+by complete isolation, and he laid down simple but rigid rules for its
+enforcement. An attempt was made to utilise these a few years after
+when an epidemic of fatal violence broke out in Edinburgh. He was in
+no way an anti-vaccinationist, but his isolation measures were too
+strong for the people in those days. We are not surprised that he
+boldly proposed this measure, for he related glaring instances of
+neglect of the simplest precautions. Beggars held up infants with
+faces encrusted with active smallpox into the very faces of passers-by
+in the streets of Edinburgh; and on one occasion a woman was found in
+Glasgow serving out sweetmeats to the children of a school with her
+hands and face covered by the disease. He cried aloud for legislation
+to prevent such gross abuses, which he did not hesitate to stigmatise
+as little short of criminal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FURTHER REFORMS--HONOURS
+
+  Professional and University Reform--Medical women--Honours--The
+  Imperial Academy of Medicine of France--Baronetcy--Domestic
+  bereavement--The University Principalship--Freedom of the City of
+  Edinburgh--Bigelow of Boston--Views on education--Graduation
+  addresses.
+
+
+Professor Simpson took a warm interest in medical politics, and made
+himself heard as a member of the Senatus of the University. That body
+was not renowned for any spirit of harmony prevailing in its midst; it
+included the medical professors many of whom were in professional
+opposition to each other and were actuated by conflicting interests.
+The rivalry prevailing amongst the leaders of the profession in the
+Scots capital was amusingly shown in one of Sir James's letters, where
+he related how Professor Miller had just given a capital address to
+the young graduates and recommended them to marry chiefly because Mr.
+Syme had advised the reverse two years before. "At least," he said,
+"so Mr. Syme whispered to me, and so, indeed, did Miller himself
+state to Dr. Laycock!"
+
+On the principles of Medical Reform and University Reform the
+professors were, however, practically unanimous, but their interests
+came into conflict with those of the extra-academical school. The
+two opposing bodies worked hard to gain their own ends when a
+Parliamentary Committee was appointed in 1852 to inquire into
+medical reform. The modern Athens became once more disturbed by
+wordy warfare. The general ends aimed at by the reformers were the
+obtaining of a proper standing for qualified practitioners; some
+satisfactory means of enabling the public to distinguish between
+regular and irregular, quack, practitioners; and to define the amount
+of general and professional knowledge necessary for degrees and
+qualifications. It was also desired to remove the absurd anomaly
+whereby, although Scots medical education was then ahead of English,
+Scots graduates had no legal standing in England. The Medical Act
+which was passed in 1858 carried out many of the best suggestions
+made before the Committee, and effected desirable improvements both
+in the status of practitioners and in medical education; but it was
+inadequate, as time has shown, and the question of reform still
+burns. Simpson took an active interest in the proceedings before the
+Committee, and made several dashes up to London to further the
+projects which he had at heart. The annual meeting of the British
+Medical Association was held in Edinburgh in July, 1858, at the
+moment when the fate of the Bill hung in the balance. As the journal
+of the Association said at the time the fruit of a quarter of a
+century's growth was plucked in the midst of the rejoicings. Sir
+Robert Christison publicly stated that owing to Simpson's energetic
+efforts certain far-reaching and objectionable clauses, which had
+been allowed to creep into the Bill, were expunged at the last
+moment. Simpson went up to London by the night train, employed the
+following day in effecting his purpose, and returned the next night;
+this was when the journey took nearly twice as many hours as now.
+
+The Universities (Scotland) Act was also passed in 1858; by it the
+complete control of the University, and with it the patronage of many
+of the Chairs, was lost to its original founders, the Town Council,
+who had so carefully and successfully guided it through nearly three
+centuries. The Council did not part from their charge without a
+struggle; in urging their cause they proudly pointed to the fact that
+they had appointed Simpson to the Chair of Midwifery against the
+opposition of the medical faculty. To have elected him, they thought,
+under such circumstances displayed their discernment, vindicated their
+existence, and pleaded for the perpetuation of their elective office.
+
+When the question of the admission of women to the study of medicine
+came up in Edinburgh and divided the ancient city once more into two
+hostile camps, Simpson's sympathies appear to have gone with the sex
+to which he was already a benefactor. He recognised that there was a
+place, if a small one, within the ranks of the profession for women;
+and when the question came to the vote he cast his in their favour.
+The proposal, however, was rejected, and has only quite recently
+become law in the University.
+
+Numerous honours were heaped upon him during the last five-and-twenty
+years of his life. In 1847 he filled the office of President of the
+Edinburgh College of Physicians, and in 1852 held the corresponding
+post in the Medico-Chirurgical Society. In the following year the
+Imperial Academy of Medicine of France--a body which lacks an analogue
+in this country--conferred upon him the title of Foreign Associate.
+This was a jealously guarded honour awarded only to the most highly
+distinguished men of the day, and it was conferred upon Simpson in an
+altogether unprecedented manner which doubled its value. According to
+custom a commission of members prepared a list of renowned men whom
+they advised the Academy to elect; in the list no British name
+appeared although Owen, Faraday, and Bright were entered as
+"reserves." On the day of election the members accepted all the
+candidates named in the original list until the last was reached. When
+the president asked for the vote for this individual a sensational
+and truly Gallic scene was enacted. Almost to a man the members rose,
+and loud and long proclaimed Simpson's name. Excited speeches were
+made, and amidst great enthusiasm he was elected to the one remaining
+vacancy by an overwhelming majority. It had remained for Simpson to
+prove, as the President courteously pointed out at the time, that
+there existed a greater honour than that of being elected by the
+Academy--viz., that of being chosen in _spite_ of the will of the
+Academy itself.
+
+This was by no means the only honour awarded to him by France. In 1856
+the French Academy of Sciences voted him the Monthyon Prize of two
+thousand francs for "the most important benefits done to humanity."
+Other foreign societies added their compliments, and he was elected
+Foreign Associate of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, of the
+Parisian Surgical and Biological Societies, and of the Medical
+Societies of Norway, Stockholm, Copenhagen, New York, Massachusetts,
+Leipsic, and other places.
+
+In 1866 his own country made an acknowledgment of his eminent
+attainments when the Queen offered him a baronetcy on the advice of
+Lord John Russell. Twice before he had refused a title, but this
+time he wrote to his brother that he feared he _must_ accept
+although it appeared so absurd to take a title. This honour was the
+first of its kind ever conferred upon a doctor, or even upon a
+professor, in Scotland. It was entirely unsought, and scarcely
+welcomed by its recipient for its own sake; he regarded it not merely
+as a personal honour but also as a tardy recognition of the services
+of the Edinburgh school in the cause of medicine. He enjoyed the
+congratulations which showered upon him, and felt glad when the
+citizens flocked to Queen Street to express their feelings, much to
+Lady Simpson's delight. The medical papers unanimously approved of
+the honour, the _Lancet_ remarking that apart from his connection with
+chloroform, Simpson was distinguished as an obstetric practitioner, as
+a physiologist, as an operator, and as a pathologist of great
+research and originality.
+
+Domestic bereavement quenched the rejoicings over the baronetcy, and
+condolences displaced congratulations. He fell ill for a time himself,
+and in a condition of unusual mental depression spoke of the baronetcy
+as appearing even more of a bauble in sickness than in health. In less
+than a fortnight after the offer of the title his eldest son David
+died after a short illness. He had been educated for the medical
+profession, and was a youth of considerable promise and of an earnest
+temperament; his death fell as a severe blow, and Simpson even
+contemplated abandoning the baronetcy which had not yet been formally
+conferred. The words of his friends, however, and the thought that his
+dead son had particularly insisted on its acceptance, persuaded him.
+
+A coat of arms had to be drafted for the new Baronet, and this was a
+pleasant interest for one of his tastes. The family history was
+searchingly entered into, and the arms of his father's family were
+differenced on the most correct lines with those of the Jervays from
+whom his mother had sprung. In the matter of a crest he was able to be
+boldly original, and adopted the rod of AEsculapius over the motto
+_Victo dolore_, and thus handed down to his family the memory of his
+great victory over pain. In June of the same year, 1866, the
+University of Oxford conferred upon him one of the few honours which
+reached him from England in awarding him the honorary degree of Doctor
+of Civil Law. The University of Dublin made him an honorary Doctor of
+Medicine, and he was created an honorary Fellow of the King's and
+Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland.
+
+By the death of the veteran Sir David Brewster, in February, 1868, the
+office of Principal of Edinburgh University fell vacant. This post is
+a survival from the earliest days. The College out of which the
+University grew was established in 1583 by the Town Council under a
+charter granted by James VI. Only one regent or tutor was necessary at
+first to teach the "bairns," as the students were termed in the
+contract entered into between Rollock, the first regent, and the city
+fathers. Rollock was promised that as the college increased "in policy
+and learning" he should be advanced to the highest post created. By
+his own efforts the number of students increased so greatly that
+within the first few years several other regents were appointed, and
+the Council, remembering their promise, dignified him with the title
+of Principal or First Master in 1586. This office was held during the
+succeeding two centuries by a series of more or less worthy men,
+prominent among whom were Leighton, afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow,
+and William Carstares, better known as a statesman and for his
+connection with the Rye House Plot in 1684. During Carstares's tenure
+the tutors were turned into professors, and the college became more
+strictly speaking a university, although from the first it had assumed
+without any right by charter the function of degree-granting. Although
+the utility of the post quite vanished when the college became a
+university, and the principal had no place in the constitution of a
+university, nevertheless the principalship was not abolished. The
+Universities Act of 1858 recognised the office, but only as that of an
+ornamental head, acting as president of the assembly of professors
+constituting the Senatus Academicus. The salary is a thousand pounds a
+year with an official residence, not within the precincts or the
+University. The former head master of the college, known by and
+knowing every student, became a sinecurist of whose existence it is no
+exaggeration to say many of the students are, through no fault of
+their own, unaware. Brewster had been a distinguished occupant of the
+post--distinguished not as a principal, for he received the
+appointment only at the age of seventy-eight, but as a scientist. To
+the public he was best known as the author of the "Life of Sir Isaac
+Newton," and as the inventor of the kaleidoscope. It is said that
+Brewster never spoke as much as five lines at the meetings of the
+Senatus Academicus without having previously written them down; and it
+is probable that this lack of spontaneous utterance from the Chairman
+gave the tone to the assembly. The rival professors doubtless nursed
+their animosities for some less dignified meeting-place, differing
+there only on the most correct academic lines.
+
+It is not surprising that Simpson at first refused to be a candidate
+for the vacant post. He would undoubtedly have made an unrivalled
+figure-head for his _Alma Mater_; he was the leading figure in
+Scotland already and "did the hospitalities" of Edinburgh to
+distinguished visitors of all classes. But he would probably have been
+obliged to resign his professorship and have thus been cut off from
+his sphere of greatest usefulness; and although he would have grasped
+with ease the details of university affairs it is open to question
+whether he would have suitably filled the post of president over men
+to many of whom he was in professional opposition. The most that the
+suggestion that he should be a candidate conveyed was a well-meant
+compliment, but it would have been a greater compliment on his part if
+he had really ended his life as the ornamental head of the University
+he had already done so much to adorn. He would certainly have turned
+his position to good account, and perhaps might have earned the
+gratitude of all succeeding students by improving their position in
+the University and bettering their relationship with their teachers--a
+much needed reform at that time. But he was a man for more active
+occupation, and it was more fitting that he should persevere to the
+end in the work of his life. Simpson expressed his opinion that the
+most suitable man for the post was the one already named by Brewster
+and desired by a majority of the Senatus; but that man, Professor
+Christison, then over seventy years of age, generously said that Sir
+Alexander Grant, an active candidate, would better fill the post. A
+strong section of Edinburgh folks persisted in pushing Simpson, and in
+deference to their wishes he consented to enter the lists. It cannot
+be said that he displayed any of the eager energy which had marked his
+candidature for the midwifery chair; but his friends made up for his
+comparative apathy. They were met by a strong opposition, not
+instigated by his rivals for the post, but offered by insignificant
+persons who cherished ill-will against him and spread untrue
+statements with the object of damaging his character. Greatly owing to
+the reports spread in this manner he was not elected. Sir Alexander
+Grant became the new Principal. The fact that he could not gain the
+post was communicated to him in a letter which reached him one morning
+before prayers. He conducted the worship as usual after reading the
+letter, and when the family had afterwards all assembled at the
+breakfast table he intimated the fact to them and dismissed the
+subject from his mind with the quiet remark, "I have lost the
+Principalship."
+
+An interesting episode pertaining to this period was narrated by the
+Free Church minister of Newhaven. "The election," he wrote to Dr.
+Duns, "took place on a Monday, and it was on the Sabbath preceding,
+between sermons, that one of my people, a fisherman, called on me
+stating that his wife was apparently dying, but that she and all her
+friends were longing most intensely for a consultation with Sir James.
+I did not know well what to do, for I knew that his mind was likely to
+be very much harassed, and I shrank from adding to his troubles. But
+in the urgency of the case I wrote him a note simply stating that one
+of the best women in the town was at the point of death and longed for
+his help, leaving the matter without another word to himself. The
+result was that he came down immediately, spent three hours beside his
+patient, performed, I am told, miracles of skill, and did not leave
+her till the crisis was over. She would, I am assured, have died that
+evening, but she was one of the sincerest mourners at his funeral, and
+she still lives to bless his memory. After all was over he went into a
+friend's house and threw himself down on a sofa in a state of utter
+exhaustion. This was the way in which, without hope of fee or reward,
+and while others were waiting for him able to give him both, Sir James
+spent the evening preceding the election. Some will say it was no
+great matter after all. Why, for that part of it, neither was the cup
+of cold water which the dying Sir Philip Sidney passed from his own
+lips to those of a wounded soldier in greater agony than himself. But
+the incident is recalled whenever his name is mentioned as adding to
+the glory of the knight _sans peur et sans reproche_, and the incident
+I have mentioned in the Newhaven fisherman's house surely gives to Sir
+James a place beside him in the glorious order of chivalrous
+generosity."
+
+Among the last of the honours offered to Simpson was the Freedom of
+the City of Edinburgh; a fitting tribute from the City in which and
+for which he had so nobly and untiringly laboured. It was proposed to
+present him with the burgess-ticket at the same time that it was
+publicly presented to another hero in a different sphere, Lord Napier
+of Magdala; but by his own desire the ceremony was postponed so far as
+he was concerned in order that full honour might be paid to Lord
+Napier. At the eventual presentation the Lord Provost made a short
+speech recapitulating the achievements for which they desired to
+honour him, and referring to his reputation as being great on the
+banks of the Thames and the Seine, as well as on the shores of the
+Firth of Forth; he likewise expressed the pride of his fellow-citizens
+that Sir James had remained amongst them and had not been drawn away
+like other men of genius before him by the attractions of the greater
+metropolis of the south. Simpson's reply took the form of an impromptu
+review of his career from the time he first entered the City as a
+wonderstruck boy. "I came," he proudly said, "to settle down and fight
+amongst you a hard and up-hill battle of life for bread and name and
+fame, and the fact that I stand here before you this day so far
+testifies that in the arduous struggle I have--won."
+
+The accounts of the speeches delivered on this occasion which reached
+America raised the indignation of Dr. Bigelow, of Boston. Reference
+had been made to chloroform in a manner which appeared to slight
+Morton's work in introducing ether as an anaesthetic before chloroform
+was heard of. In Bigelow's estimation Simpson posed as a hero at the
+expense of Morton. Simpson had certainly been far from liberal in his
+allusions to Morton and others in his article upon Anaesthesia in the
+_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and had written almost entirely about his
+own discovery. A controversy was excited, and on his deathbed Simpson
+wrote a letter to Bigelow to prove that he had duly considered the
+priority and the value of Morton's and Wells's work. In his concluding
+sentences he expressed regret at having taken up so much of his own
+and his correspondent's time in such a petty discussion, but blamed
+his illness which prevented him from writing with the force and
+brevity required. "With many of our profession in America," he said,
+"I have the honour of being personally acquainted, and regard their
+friendship so very highly that I shall not regret this attempt--my
+last, perhaps--at professional writing as altogether useless on my
+part if it tend to fix my name and memory duly in their love and
+esteem."
+
+The widespread national expression of the sense of loss and of
+sympathy which reached Edinburgh from the United States after Sir
+James's death testified to the regard in which he was held from one
+end to the other of that country. In Boston itself the Gynaecological
+Society, of which he had been the first honorary member, convened a
+special memorial meeting, which was solemn and impressive. He had not
+been mistaken in presuming with his last breath that he held the
+regard of his American _confreres_.
+
+On the subject of education Simpson held what were considered advanced
+opinions, but which had already been expressed by Mr. Lowe. A few
+years before his death he delivered a lecture on Modern and Ancient
+Languages at Granton, in which he lamented the common neglect of
+modern languages in the education of the day. He had personally felt
+the want of a mastery over French and German, both in the course of
+his studies and during his travels; nor did he feel the want
+compensated for by his ability to write and talk in Latin. He
+strongly advocated the paying of more attention to the modern and
+less to the dead languages, and he urged that natural science should
+take its place in the ordinary curriculum of the great public schools.
+These views were used as an argument against his fitness for the post
+of Principal of the ancient University.
+
+On three separate occasions it fell to Simpson's lot to deliver the
+annual address to the newly-fledged graduates, which is the duty of
+the professors of the medical faculty in rotation. This ceremony
+remains deeply impressed in the memory of Edinburgh men, simple and
+dull as it undoubtedly is. The homily delivered by the orator of the
+day contains excellent counsels appropriate to the occasion, but
+the young man eager to rise and confidently try his wings pays
+little attention to the words of wisdom; unless it be to feel wonder
+that just as he is about to leave them, probably for ever, his _Alma
+Mater_ and her priests have discovered an affectionate regard for
+him and his welfare. A few years later the struggling young
+practitioner may perhaps turn to the copy of this graduation address,
+forwarded to him by post with the author's compliments, and find
+in such an one as Simpson delivered much to strengthen and encourage
+him. In 1842 and 1855 he delivered addresses from which quotations
+have already been made; and in the third one, spoken in 1868, he
+made a forecast of the future of medical science, predicting _inter
+alia_ that by concentration of electric or other lights we should yet
+be enabled to make many parts of the body sufficiently diaphanous for
+inspection by the practised eye of the physician. It was his habit
+to commit such lectures to memory and to deliver them without notes.
+He was a ready public speaker on any subject in which he was
+interested; speeches made on the spur of the moment teemed with
+pleasantly-put facts and apt anecdotes from the vast storehouse of
+his memory. A speech from Sir James was one of the treats in which
+Edinburgh folks delighted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+FAILING HEALTH--DEATH
+
+  Poetical instincts--Religious views--Religious and emotional
+  influences in his life--Doubts--Revivalism--Health--Overwork
+  tells--Bed--Gradual failure--Death on May 6, 1870--Grave offered
+  in Westminster Abbey--Buried at Warriston--Obituary notices--Bust
+  in the Abbey--His greatness.
+
+
+The emotional part of Sir James Simpson's nature found some small
+expression in versifying both, as we have seen, in early years and in
+later days. We know that he was a close student of Shakspeare, but
+Miss Simpson states that her father probably never entered a theatre,
+so that he can never have seen a representation. He was familiar with
+modern poets, especially with Burns. It is related that he once tested
+a lady friend's insight into the vernacular by quoting from memory for
+explanation the following lines from the national bard:--
+
+  "Baudrons sit by the ingle-neuk,
+    An' wi' her loof her face she's washin',
+  Willie's wife it nae sae trig,
+    She dichts her grunzie wi' a hooschen."
+
+His own verses were neither better nor worse than those written by
+other men whose abilities have led them to excel in more practical
+pursuits. In youth they celebrated student life, or were, as usual,
+dedicated to Celia's eyebrows; in mature life they were of a more
+serious, and latterly of a strong religious description. At all times
+he delighted in writing little doggerel verses to his children or
+friends; valueless as such efforts are, they served a useful purpose;
+their composition was a recreation and pleasant relief to his
+over-taxed brain, while it was an amusement to him to watch their
+effect upon the recipients, and perhaps to receive a reply clothed
+also in the garb of rhyme.
+
+Sir James's example so influenced the people amongst whom he lived
+that it is impossible to omit reference to his attitude throughout
+life towards religion and an account of what is one of the most
+interesting phases in his history. Up to Christmas, 1861, he had
+been, in the eyes of the religious public, an ordinary citizen; as
+regular in church-going as his professional engagements permitted;
+thoroughly interested in Church affairs, and a strong supporter of
+his own Church; possessing to the full the national characteristic
+of intimate acquaintance with the letter of the Old and New
+Testaments; and something of a theologian as well, as his answer to
+the religious objections to anaesthesia showed. At that period, to
+the delight of many, and the genuine astonishment of others among
+his fellow-citizens, he became a leading spirit in the strong
+Evangelical movement which was then spreading through the country,
+"Simpson is converted," cried the enthusiastic revivalist. "Simpson
+is converted now," laughed those who had opposed every action of
+his. "If Professor Simpson is converted, it is time some of the rest
+of us were seeing if we do not need to be converted," wisely
+answered one of his friends. In the ordinary sense of the word Simpson
+was not converted. Had he passed away without developing this
+latter-day Evangelical enthusiasm, all sects would still have
+united in thankfulness that such a man had lived. Why this religious
+revival during the sixties affected him as it did becomes evident
+in looking at the religious, moral, and emotional influences which
+affected him throughout his career.
+
+The simple-minded, devout mother, strong in faith and strong in works,
+who passed out of his life when he was but nine years old, left a
+vivid impression on the boy's mind. In after years he would call up
+the picture of the good woman retiring from the shop and the worries
+and troubles of daily life into which she had so vigorously thrown
+herself and so bravely faced even with failing health, into the quiet
+little room behind, to kneel down in prayer; and would describe how at
+other times she went about her work chanting to herself one of the old
+Scots metrical psalms:
+
+  "Jehovah hear thee in the day, when trouble He did send
+  And let the name of Jacob's God thee from all ill defend.
+  Let Him remember all thy gifts, accept thy sacrifice,
+  Grant thee thine heart's wish and fulfil thy thoughts and counsel
+        wise."
+
+He used to relate one memory of her, touching in its simplicity: how
+one day he entered the house with a big hole in his stocking which she
+perceived and drew him on to her knee to darn. As she pulled the
+repaired garment on she said, "My Jamie, when your mother's away, you
+will mind that she was a grand darner." He remembered the words as if
+they had been spoken but yesterday, and subsequently offered to a lady
+who had established a girls' Industrial School in his native village a
+prize for the best darning.
+
+The simple faith which beat in the life of the Bathgate baker's
+household was ingrained into James Simpson; he went forth into the
+world full of it, and full of the determination that by his fruits he
+should be known.
+
+The tender, loving care for his welfare of his sisters and brothers,
+particularly of Sandy, who never faltered in his inspired belief in
+James's great future, kept alive in Simpson something of his mother's
+affectionate nature, and kindled the sympathies and emotions which
+bulked so large in his character. His goodness was displayed in his
+kindly treatment of the poor, who formed at first the whole and
+afterwards no small part of his patients. When name and fame and bread
+were his, he did not turn his back on the poor, but as we have seen,
+ever placed his skill at their disposal for no reward, as readily as
+he yielded it to the greatest in the land. As in his daily practice,
+so in his greatest professional efforts, the revelation of chloroform,
+the fight for anaesthesia, the introduction of acupressure, the crusade
+against hospitalism, one thought breathed through his work--that he
+might do something to better the condition of suffering humanity. He
+never attempted to keep discoveries in his own hands, to profit by the
+monopoly, but scattered wide the knowledge which had come to him that
+it might benefit mankind and grow stronger and wider in the hands of
+other workers.
+
+In his domestic life he was a tender, loving, and companionable
+husband and father, a charming host, and a warm-hearted friend. "In
+this Edinburgh of ours," says a recent writer, "there are familiar
+faces whose expression changes greatly at the mention of his name;
+there are men whose speech from formal and precise turns headlong and
+extravagant, as if it came from a new and inspired vocabulary." In
+Scotland his personal influence was immense. As was afterwards written
+of him, "Great in his art, and peerless in resource, yet greater was
+he in his own great soul;" such a man stood in no need of the violent
+revolution in mode of life implied in conversion. A gradual process of
+development led to his feeling that although to labour was to pray,
+there was a need for more attention to the spiritual, even in his
+self-sacrificing life.
+
+There is evidence that during a brief period of his career Simpson
+became affected by speculative doubts; indeed it would have been
+surprising if his mind had not been affected by some of the new
+schools of thought which sprang up in the footsteps of Charles Darwin,
+and appeared for a time to threaten a mortal antagonism to all that
+was dear to orthodox Christians. But these did not influence him long;
+true to his character he examined every new thought and finding it
+wanting remained firm in his old and tried faith, and ranged himself
+on the side of those who perceived nothing seriously incompatible
+between religion and modern science.
+
+In his bearing, when the angel of sorrow afflicted his household with
+no unsparing hand, we find him always a religious-minded man. The
+first trial was the loss of the eldest child, his daughter Maggie,
+in 1844. Another daughter, Mary, was lost in early infancy. In
+1848 his friend of boyhood and student days, Professor John Reid, was
+smitten with a painful malady and died after a prolonged period of
+suffering during which, knowing that the shadow of death was hanging
+over him, he devoted himself in retirement to religious thoughts.
+Experiences such as these made Simpson pause and question himself.
+Brimful of life and vigour, however much he came in contact with
+death in his professional rounds, the sight of it in his own inner
+circle powerfully stirred his emotional nature. His friend the Rev.
+Dr. Duns noticed in him after these sad events a gradually
+increasing earnestness in his spiritual life, and a closer inquiry
+into the meanings of the Scriptures. He sought out the company, and
+placed himself under the influence of those among his patients whom he
+knew to possess fervid religious temperaments. The last mental
+stumbling-block was the question of prayer; he had seriously
+doubted in examining the question intellectually that human prayer
+could influence the purpose of the Deity. It is difficult, if not
+presumptuous, to inquire into the process whereby, under the
+guidance of spiritually minded friends, his doubts were satisfied.
+
+          "... One indeed I knew
+  In many a subtle question versed."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "He fought his doubts and gathered strength,
+    He would not make his judgment blind,
+    He faced the spectres of the mind,
+  And laid them--thus he came at length"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "To find a stronger faith his own."
+
+The simple earnest faith of his fathers in which he had commenced
+life, ran all through his mature years and prompted his strong
+purposeful energies. After the combat with the only seriously
+perplexing doubt he re-embraced his faith with the simplicity of a
+child and the strength of a giant. For one accustomed to apply to
+every subject taken in hand the rigid process of careful scientific
+investigation, it required no small effort to lay aside his usual
+methods and suffer himself to be led wholly by faith.
+
+It was impossible for Simpson to enter into any movement without
+taking a prominent part in it. That Christmas Day on which all doubts
+left him was followed by days of extraordinarily zealous work, such as
+would have been expected of him after he had convinced himself that he
+had a mission to spread abroad this, the latest, and, in his opinion,
+the greatest, of his discoveries. He plunged at once into the midst of
+Evangelical societies, missions, and prayer-meetings, amongst the
+upper and lower classes of Edinburgh, and made excursions into the
+mining districts of his native county to deliver addresses. He
+interested himself in the education of theological students, and in
+foreign missions, and added to his literary work the writing of
+religious addresses, tracts and hymns. His example had a powerful
+influence in Edinburgh. It is said that he frequently addressed on a
+Sunday evening Evangelical assemblies of two thousand persons. The
+news of his so-called conversion was gleefully spread by well-meaning
+folks, who had given credence to statements published by his enemies,
+and imagined that here was a bad if a great man turned aside from the
+broad to the narrow path. This enthusiastic revival movement died down
+in time, and Simpson returned to his ordinary everyday life.
+
+More sorrow soon fell to his lot. In 1862 his fifth child, James, who
+had always been an invalid, was taken from him at the age of fifteen.
+In 1866 the sad death of Dr. David Simpson, the eldest son, which has
+already been referred to, was followed in about a month's time by that
+of the eldest surviving daughter, Jessie, at the age of seventeen. The
+death of James, a sweet-natured child, stimulated him in the revival
+work. Pious friends had surrounded the little sufferer and led him to
+add his innocent influence in exciting his father's religious
+emotions.
+
+There is reason to believe that Simpson perceived much insincerity in
+the revival movement, and attempted to dissociate himself from active
+participation in it, on account of finding it impossible to work in
+harmony with some who, though loud in profession, flagrantly failed in
+practice.
+
+The subject of Simpson's health has been little referred to in these
+pages, because throughout his life he paid little attention to it. The
+chief remedy for the feeling of indisposition was change of work. He
+found it impossible to be idle, and sought as recreation occupations
+such as archaeological research, or a scamper round foreign hospitals,
+which to most people would have savoured more of labour. The part of
+his body which was most worked, his nervous system, was naturally the
+one which most often troubled him with disorder; like other great men
+of high mental development he suffered from time to time with severe
+attacks of megrim, which necessitated a few hours of rest. The
+blood-poisoning, for which he availed himself of Professor Syme's
+services, was soon recovered from with prompt treatment ending in a
+foreign tour; but after it little illnesses became more frequent, and
+he was perforce occasionally confined to the house. During these times
+he busied himself, for the sake of occupation and to distract his
+attention from his sufferings, in professional reading or the
+preparation of literary papers. Rheumatic troubles became frequent,
+and soon after his eldest son's death he had to run over to the Isle
+of Man to free himself from a severe attack of sciatica.
+
+Long, weary nights spent at the bedside of patients or in tiresome
+railway journeys, and exposure to all varieties of weather, had a
+serious effect upon him. Travelling was slow, according to modern
+ideas, and long waits at wayside stations in winter-time helped to
+play havoc with his constitution. He was well known to the railway
+officials in Scotland. The figure of the great Edinburgh professor was
+familiar at many a station, striding up and down the platform with the
+stationmaster, chaffing the porter, or cheerily chatting to the driver
+and stoker leaning out of the engine. After his death many of these
+men would proudly produce little mementoes of their services to him,
+which he never forgot to send.
+
+The little rest house, Viewbank, on the Forth, had to be more
+frequently sought refuge in, if only to get away from the harassing
+night-bell and secure a full night's sleep. In the last year or two of
+his existence he found the work of his practice and chair hard to
+carry on, not because of any defined illness, but on account of the
+loss of that buoyant elasticity of constitution which had enabled him
+to bear without apparent effort or injury the fatigue which would have
+been sufficient to prostrate more than one ordinary man. He had early
+trained himself to do with a minimum of sleep; to snatch what he could
+and when he could, if it were only on a sofa, a bare board, or in one
+of the comfortless railway carriages of the day. He took full
+advantage during his career of the modern facilities for travelling
+which he had seen introduced and developed. Many a night was spent in
+the train, going to or returning from a far-distant patient, or after
+a combined professional and archaeological excursion; the next morning
+would find him busy in his usual routine. On the day after receiving
+the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1866, he started for Devizes, which
+was reached the same evening; here he had a hasty meal and drove on to
+Avebury to see the standing stones there. He returned at midnight, and
+at five o'clock next morning set off for Stonehenge, a place he had
+long desired to see, thoroughly examined the remarkable remains, and
+on his return took train to Bath, where he found time to examine more
+antiquities. At midnight a telegram reached him calling him
+professionally to Northumberland. He snatched a few hours' sleep, and
+taking the four a.m. train to London set out for Northumberland, where
+he saw his patient, and then proceeded to Edinburgh. This is no
+solitary instance of his journeyings, but an example of many.
+
+When the year 1870 had been entered upon, he awoke to the fact that
+his flesh was too weak for his eager spirit; despite this, he held on
+his course, and worked without ceasing, never refusing an urgent call,
+although he now suffered from angina pectoris. On February 12th he
+hastened to London to give evidence in a notorious divorce case. He
+arrived only to find that the trial had been postponed for four days.
+He returned to Edinburgh on the 14th, spent the next day in
+professional visits in the country, and arrived again in London in
+time to appear in the witness-box on the 16th, although chilled to the
+bone by the coldness of the long journey. On the following day he
+stopped at York on his way home, dined with Lord Houghton, and
+visited, at 11 p.m., his friend Dr. Williams, in Micklegate. During
+the remainder of the journey from York to Edinburgh he suffered
+severely, and "was glad to rest for awhile upon the floor of the
+railway carriage."
+
+A few days after this last run to London he was summoned to see a
+patient in Perth, but was this time so fatigued by the effort, that
+after his return on February 25th he was obliged to take to bed. The
+news sped to all quarters of the globe that Simpson was gravely ill,
+for nothing but grave illness could compel that vigorous man to
+completely lay down his work.
+
+His symptoms improved at first under appropriate treatment
+sufficiently to allow him to be placed on a bed in the drawing-room;
+and he even once more took up his favourite archaeology, revising some
+of his work in that subject. Patients also were not to be denied; many
+were seen and prescribed for in his sick room, some even being carried
+up to his presence. But the fatal disease regained ascendancy, and the
+fact became apparent to all, not excepting himself, that the last
+chapter of the closely written book of his life had been entered upon.
+Towards the end of March, by his own request, his eldest surviving son
+was telegraphed for to be near him, and he wrote a touching letter to
+his youngest son, then a student in Geneva, encouraging him in his
+studies, asking him to look for cup-markings cut in the curious islet
+rock in Lake Geneva, and ending with an expression of his feeling of
+impending death, for which he felt perfectly and happily prepared. In
+these last days he loved to have his nearest and dearest around him;
+Lady Simpson and others read to him, and his daughter tells us how she
+daily prepared her school lessons in the sick room with his help; to
+the last he interested himself in the work of his relations and
+friends. He answered the attack of Bigelow, of Boston, conscious that
+it was his last effort on behalf of chloroform, and wrote to all his
+old opponents asking their forgiveness if at any time words of his had
+wounded their feelings. He might well have spared himself the
+regrets--such as they were--which troubled him. "I would have liked
+to have completed hospitalism," he said, "but I hope some good man
+will take it up." On another occasion he asked, "How old am I?
+Fifty-nine? Well, I have done some work. I wish I had been busier."
+
+He expressed a desire that his nephew should succeed him in the Chair
+of Midwifery--he would, he thought, help to perpetuate his treatment.
+
+There was much communing with himself on his future, and all his
+sayings on the subject breathed the simple faith first inculcated in
+him in the Bathgate cottage. His great sufferings, sometimes allayed
+by opiates and his own chloroform, were bravely borne, but the days
+dragged sadly on. On the evening of May 5th Sandy took his place at
+his side, and the last conscious moments of the great physician were
+spent with his head in the arms of him who had helped and guided him
+through the difficult days of his career. At sunset on May 6th he
+passed peacefully away.
+
+The extent of the feeling evoked by the tidings of his death was
+represented in Mr. Gladstone's remark that it was a grievous loss to
+the nation and was truly a national concern. There was a universally
+expressed opinion that he merited without a shadow of doubt the rare
+national honour of public interment in Westminster Abbey. A committee
+was formed out of the leading medical men in London to carry out this
+suggestion. Their task was light, for the Dean acceded to the request
+at once. Much as his family and the Scots people valued this tribute
+to his greatness, they decided otherwise. Scotland has no counterpart
+of Westminster in which to lay to rest those whom she feels to have
+been her greatest; but Edinburgh felt that she could not part with him
+who in life had been her possession and her pride. He had long ago
+chosen a piece of ground in the Warriston cemetery, and Lady Simpson
+decided, to the gratification of his fellow-citizens, that he should
+be buried there beside the five children who had preceded him. His
+resting place was well chosen; it nestled into the side of the
+beautiful city, and from it could be viewed some of the chief objects
+of the scene he knew so well--on the south the stately rock crowned
+with the ancient castle, and the towering flats of the old town
+stretching away to Arthur's Seat; on the north the long stretch of the
+Firth of Forth and in the distance on the one hand the Ochills; on the
+other the Bass Rock.
+
+The funeral was one of the most remarkable ever witnessed in Scotland.
+It took place on May 13th in the presence of a crowd estimated to
+consist of thirty thousand persons. The hearse was followed by a
+representative procession comprising close upon two thousand persons.
+His own relatives assembled at 52, Queen Street, the general public
+and the Town Council in the Free Church of St. Luke, and the
+representatives of the University, the Colleges of Physicians and
+Surgeons, and the Royal Society and many other public bodies, in the
+Hall of the College of Physicians. At each of these meeting-places
+religious services were held. The whole city ceased to labour that
+afternoon in order to pay the last tribute to its dearly loved
+professor. The poor mourned in the crowd as deeply and genuinely as
+those with whom he had been closely associated in life mourned as they
+followed his remains in the procession. Every mourner grieved from a
+sense of personal loss, so deeply had his influence sunk down into the
+hearts of the people.
+
+The companion of his troubles and his triumphs, who had bravely joined
+him to help him to the fame he strove after, was soon laid beside him.
+Lady Simpson died on June 17th of the same year.
+
+But two notes were struck in the countless obituary notices and
+letters of condolence which appeared from far and near--those of
+appreciation of his great nature, and sorrow for the terrible loss
+sustained by science and humanity. The Queen caused the Duke of Argyle
+to express to the family her own personal sorrow at the loss of "so
+great and good a man." A largely attended meeting was held in
+Washington to express the feeling of his own profession in the United
+States, at which Dr. Storer moved, "that in Dr. Simpson, American
+physicians recognise not merely an eminent and learned Scots
+practitioner, but a philanthropist whose love encircled the world; a
+discoverer who sought and found for suffering humanity in its sorest
+need a foretaste of the peace of heaven, and a devoted disciple of the
+only true physician, our Saviour Jesus Christ."
+
+The following original verses from the pen of a well-known scholar in
+the profession, were given prominence in the columns of the
+_Lancet_:--
+
+PROMETHEUS.
+
+(Our lamented Sir James Simpson was the subject of angina pectoris.)
+
+          1
+
+  "Alas! alas! pain, pain, ever forever!"
+  So groaned upon his rock that Titan good
+  Who by his brave and loving hardihood
+  Was to weak man of priceless boons the giver,
+  Which e'en the supreme tyrant could not sever
+  From us, once given; we own him in our food
+  And in our blazing hearth's beatitude;
+  Yet still his cry was "Pain, ever forever!"
+
+  Shall we a later, harder doom rehearse?
+  One came whose art men's dread of are repressed:
+  Mangled and writhing limb he lulled to rest,
+  And stingless left the old Semitic curse;
+  Him, too, for these blest gifts did Zeus amerce?
+  He, too, had vultures tearing at his breast.
+
+          2
+
+  Hush, Pagan plaints! our Titan is unbound;
+  The cruel beak and talons scared away;
+  As once upon his mother's lap he lay
+  So rests his head august on holy ground;
+  Spells stronger than his own his pangs have found;
+  He hears no clamour of polemic fray,
+  Nor reeks he what unthankful men may say;
+  Nothing can vex him in that peace profound.
+
+  And where his loving soul, his genius bold?
+  In slumber? or already sent abroad
+  On angels' wings and works, as some men hold?
+  Or waiting Evolution's change, unawed?
+  All is a mystery, as Saint Paul has told,
+  Saying, "Your life is hid with Christ in God."
+
+In a peaceful corner of the St. Andrew Chapel in Westminster Abbey,
+alongside memorials of Sir Humphry Davy and a few other scientists of
+note, stands a speaking image in marble--perhaps the most expressive
+representation that exists--of this wonderful man,
+
+          "To whose genius and benevolence
+          The world owes the blessings derived
+          From the use of chloroform for
+          The relief of suffering.
+          LAUS DEO."
+
+Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, when writing to the medical journals in
+support of the proposal to secure Simpson's burial in Westminster
+Abbey, foretold that his reputation would ripen with years, that
+jealousies would be forgotten, and antagonism would be buried.
+Twenty-seven years have elapsed since then, and few remain with whom
+he came in conflict; those who do remain exchanged, along with others
+of his opponents, friendly words of reconciliation in the end, and
+took the hand which he held out from his deathbed. As a man, Simpson
+had his faults; but they were exaggerated in his lifetime by some,
+just as his capabilities and achievements were magnified by those who
+worshipped him as inspired. He was full of sympathy for mankind,
+benevolent and honest to a fault, and forbearing to his enemies. He
+rushed eagerly into the combat and oftentimes wounded sorely, and
+perhaps unnecessarily. His genius was essentially a reforming genius,
+and impelled him to fight for his ends, for genius is always the
+"master of man." We can forgive him if sometimes it caused him to
+fight too vigorously, where the heart of a man of mere talent might
+have failed and lost. His social charms were excelled only by his
+marvellous energy, his prodigious memory, and his keenness of insight;
+but he was regrettably inattentive to the details of ordinary everyday
+life and practice.
+
+He approached the study of medicine when the darkness of the Middle
+Ages was still upon it, and was one of the first to point out that
+although many diseases appeared incurable, they were nevertheless
+preventable. Although no brilliant operator himself, he so transformed
+the surgical theatre by his revelation of the power of chloroform, and
+by his powerful advocacy of the use of anaesthetics, that pain was shut
+out and vast scientific possibilities opened up; many of which have
+been brilliantly realised by subsequent workers. He devoted himself
+specially to the despised obstetric art, fighting for what he
+recognised as the most lowly and neglected branch of his profession,
+ranging his powerful forces on the side of the weak, and left it the
+most nearly perfect of medical sciences.
+
+He was enthusiastic in his belief in progress, and in the power of
+steady, honest work to effect great ends. With the exception of the
+time of that temporary burst into revivalism in 1861, his motto
+throughout life might very well have been _laborare est orare_. He was
+no believer in speculations, but curiously enough kept for recreation
+only the subject of archaeology, in which he entered into many
+intricate speculative studies. In his professional work he avoided
+speculation, and never adopted a theory which was not built upon firm
+fact.
+
+If we are asked for what we are most to honour Simpson, we answer, not
+so much for the discoveries he made, not for the instruments he
+invented, not for his exposure of numerous evils, not for the
+introduction of reforms, not for any particular contribution to
+science, literature, or archaeology; but rather for the inspiring life
+of the man looked at both in outline and in detail. He was guided by
+high ideals, and a joyous unhesitating belief that all good things
+were possible--that right must prevail. He was stimulated by a genius
+which, as has been pointed out, gave him the energy to fight for his
+ends with herculean strength. The fact that chloroform was by his
+efforts alone accepted as _the_ anaesthetic, and ether, which from the
+first was generally thought to be safer in ordinary hands, was
+deliberately put on one side practically all over the world, testified
+to his forcible and convincing method, and to his power of making
+others see as he saw. As a man of science alone, as a philanthropist
+alone, as a worker alone, as a reformer alone, he was great. But
+although to the popular mind he is known chiefly because of his
+introduction of chloroform, medical history will record him as greater
+because of his reforming genius, and will point to the fight for
+anaesthesia, and his crusade against hospitalism as the best of all
+that he accomplished or initiated. And he who, while making allowances
+for the weaknesses of human nature which were Simpson's, studies the
+life which was brought all too soon to a close, will recognise the
+great spirit which breathed through all his life.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+I.
+
+The following is a list of Sir James Simpson's contributions to
+_Archaeology_. His professional writings, in the form of contributions
+to the medical journals, or of papers read to various societies or
+meetings, number close upon two hundred.
+
+1. "Antiquarian Notices of Leprosy and Leper Hospitals in Scotland and
+England." (Three papers read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society,
+March 3, 1841.) _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, October,
+1841, and January and April, 1842.
+
+2. "Notice of Roman Practitioner's Medicine Stamp found near Tranent."
+Royal Society of Edinburgh; Dec. 16, 1850.
+
+3. "Ancient Roman Medical Stamps." _Edinburgh Journal of Medical
+Science_, Jan., March, April, 1851.
+
+4. "Was the Roman Army provided with any Medical Officers?" Edinburgh,
+1851, private circulation.
+
+5. "Notes on some Ancient Greek Medical Vases for containing Lykion;
+and on the modern use of the same in India." Edinburgh, 1856.
+
+6. "Notice of the appearance of Syphilis in Scotland in the last years
+of the fifteenth century." 1860.
+
+7. "Note on a Pictish Inscription in the Churchyard of St. Vigeans."
+Royal Society, April 6, 1863.
+
+8. "Notes on some Scottish Magical Charm-Stones or Curing Stones."
+_Proceedings of Antiquarian Society of Scotland_, vol iv., 1868.
+
+9. "An Account of two Barrows at Spottiswoode, Berwickshire, opened by
+the Lady John Scott." _Proceedings of Antiquarian Society of
+Scotland_, vol iv., 1868.
+
+10. "Did John de Vigo describe Acupressure in the Sixteenth Century?"
+_British Medical Journal_, Aug. 24, 1867; _Medical Times and Gazette_,
+1867, vol. ii., p. 187.
+
+11. "Account of some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves in
+Fife." 1867.
+
+12. "Notices of some Ancient Sculptures on the Walls of Caves."
+_Proceedings of the Royal Society_; Edinburgh, 1867.
+
+13. "Cup-cuttings and Ring-cuttings on the Calder Stones, near
+Liverpool." 1866. _Transactions of the Historical Society of
+Lancashire and Cheshire._
+
+14. "Archaeology--its past and its future work." Annual Address to the
+Society of Antiquarians of Scotland, January 28, 1861.
+
+15. "The Cat Stane, Edinburghshire." _Proceedings of the Society of
+Antiquaries, Scotland_, 1861.
+
+16. "Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, &c., upon Stones and Rocks
+in Scotland, England, and other countries." 1867.
+
+17. "Is the Pyramid at Gizeh a Meteorological Monument?" _Proceedings
+of the Royal Society_; Edinburgh, 1868.
+
+18. "Pyramidal Structures in Egypt and elsewhere." _Proceedings of the
+Royal Society_; Edinburgh, 1868.
+
+19. "Cell at Inchcolm."
+
+The above list is founded on that given by Professor Gusscrow in his
+"Zur Erinnerung an Sir James Y. Simpson." Berlin, 1871.
+
+
+II.
+
+On _post mortem_ examination the following observations on Sir James
+Simpson's head were made:--
+
+  Skull--circumference round by occipital protuberance and below
+        frontal eminences, 22-1/2 inches.
+        --from ear to ear, 13 inches.
+        --from occipital protuberance to point between superciliary
+        ridges, 13 inches.
+  Brain--weight of entire brain (cerebrum and cerebellum) was 54
+        ounces; the cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata weighed
+        5-1/4 ounces.
+
+The convolutions of the cerebrum were remarkable for their number,
+depth, and intricate foldings. This was noticed more particularly in
+the anterior lobes and the islands of Reil.
+
+Extract from _British Medical Journal_, May 14, 1870.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  A
+
+  Academy of Sciences (France), 194
+  Acupressure, 173
+  Adam Street, Simpson's lodgings in, 20, 30
+  Addresses, Graduation, 74-77, 200
+  Alcohol as an anaesthetic, 93
+  Alison, Professor, 56, 59, 73, 148
+  America, United States of, and anaesthesia, 83, 96, 199
+  Anaesthesia, 88, 178
+    opposition to:
+      (1) medical, 113
+      (2) moral, 120
+      (3) religious, 123.
+    Discovery of, 88
+    results of, 130
+  Antiquarians, Scots Society of, 8, 71, 156
+  Appendix, 223
+  Archaeological works, Simpson's, 223
+  Archaeology, 4, 8, 152, 223
+  Argyle, Duke of, 217
+  Arts, curriculum of, 14, 19, 20
+  Aytoun, 27
+
+
+  B
+
+  Baden, Princess Marie of, 69
+  Ballingall, Professor, 60
+  Baronetcy, Simpson's, 190
+  Bathgate, 4, 7, 8, 34, 142
+  Bell, Sir Charles, 60, 61
+  Bennet, 42
+  Bigelow, Dr., of Boston, 198, 214
+  Blantyre, Lord, 80
+  Boerhaave, 134
+  Boston, U.S.A., 97, 98, 199
+  Braid, Dr., 95
+  Brewster, Sir David, 27, 192
+  British Medical Association, 188
+  _British Medical Journal_, 176, 177, 188, 225
+  Bruce, Robert, 72
+  Brunton, Dr. Lauder, 148
+  Burke and Hare, 23
+  Bursary won by Simpson, 20
+
+
+  C
+
+  Carstares, William, 192
+  Catstane, the, of Kirkliston, 8, 155
+  Chalmers, Dr., 27, 125
+  Cheselden, 122
+  Cheyne, Mr. Watson, 184
+  Children, Simpson's, 85, 207
+  Chirurgeons, incorporation of, 58
+  Chloric ether, 99
+  Chloroform, 215, 221, 219
+    discovery of, 105
+    composition described by Dumas, 106
+    Flouren's experiments, 106
+    discovery of properties, 106
+    used in obstetrics, 108
+    Simpson's opinion of, 111
+    administration, teaching of, 130
+  Christison, Professor, 56, 59, 84, 148, 188, 195
+  Clark, Sir James, 129
+  Clover, 130
+  Cockburn, Lord, 23, 27
+  College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 53, 58, 189
+  Cooley, Mr., 97
+  Cooper, Bransby, 123
+  Crest, Simpson's, 192
+  Cullen, 2, 27, 41
+
+
+  D
+
+  Davy, Sir Humphry, 95, 96, 219
+  Dawson, Dr., 69
+  De Quincey, 127, 128
+  Disruption, the, 85
+  Doctor of Medicine, degree of, 38
+  Dumas, 106
+  Dunbar, Professor, 18
+  Duncan, Dr. Matthews, 105
+  Duns, Dr., 34, 162, 196, 207
+  Du Potet, 94
+
+
+  E
+
+  Edinburgh, 17, 27, 197
+  _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, 52, 72
+  Education, Simpson on, 199
+  Elliotson, Dr. John, 94, 95
+  _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 198
+  Erskine House, Simpson's visit to, 80
+  Esdaile, Dr., 95
+  Ether, 99, 104, 112
+  Evangelical work, Simpson's, 209
+  Extra-mural Medical School, Edinburgh, 26, 31
+
+
+  F
+
+  Faraday, 96
+  Fohman, Professor, 45
+  Forbes, Edward, 41
+  Foreign tour, Simpson's, 43-46
+  Free Church, 85
+  Freedom of Edinburgh city, 197
+  Funeral, Simpson's, 216
+
+
+  G
+
+  Gairdner, Dr., 37
+  Girdwood, Dr., 37
+  Gladstone, Mr., 215
+  Goodsir, Professor, 42
+  Graduation addresses, 74-77, 200
+  Graham, Professor R., 59, 148
+  Grant, Sir Alexander, 195
+  Gregory, Dr., 32, 33
+  Grindlay, Miss Jessie, 46, 55, 57
+  Grindlay, Mr., 46, 61, 68
+  Gusserow, Professor, 113, 170, 225
+  Gynaecological Society of Boston, 199
+  Gynaecology, 86
+
+
+  H
+
+  Hahnemann, 147
+  Hamilton, Duchess of, 69
+  Hamilton, Professor James, 32, 40, 56, 59, 69, 163,
+        169
+  Hamilton, Sir William, 27
+  Health, Simpson's, 210
+  Henderson, Professor, 148
+  Home, Professor James, 59
+  Homoeopathy, 74, 147
+  Hope, Thomas, 56, 59
+  Hospitalism, 177-184
+  Hospitality, Simpson's, 81-83
+  Hotels, the Edinburgh, and Simpson, 163
+  Houghton, Lord, 213
+  Hutchinson, Mr. Jonathan, 219
+  Hypnotism, 94, 149
+
+
+  I
+
+  Imperial Academy of Medicine (France), 189
+  Indian hemp, 92
+  Infirmary, Royal, of Edinburgh, 31, 109, 177, 178, 187
+
+
+  J
+
+  Jackson, Dr., of Boston, U.S.A., 96
+  James VI., 192
+  Jameson, Professor R., 59
+  Jeffery, Lord, 27
+  Jenner, 119, 145
+
+
+  K
+
+  Keiller, Dr., 30
+  Keith, Dr. George, 105
+  Kennedy, Dr. Evory, 61, 63
+  Knox, Robert, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28
+
+
+  L
+
+  _Lancet_, the, 95, 169, 191, 218
+  Laughing-gas, _vide_ nitrous oxide
+  Laycock, Professor, 186
+  Leighton, Archbishop, 193
+  Leprosy and leper-houses, 70
+  Lippi, 45
+  Lister, Lord, 176, 179, 184, 188
+  Liston, Professor, 26, 31, 91, 95, 104, 151
+  Lizars, John, 26
+  London, Simpson's journeys to, 80, 187, 213
+  Long, Dr., of Athens, U.S.A., 96
+  Lycium, the, of the Muses, 154
+
+
+  M
+
+  MacArthur, Mr., 20, 21, 22, 26, 39
+  Macintosh, Dr., 55
+  Maclagan, Sir Douglas, 43
+  Maclaren, Mr. Duncan, 61
+  _Maga_, the university, 41
+  Mandrake, 93
+  Master of Arts, the degree of, 19
+  Medical faculty, the, 57, 59, 60, 187
+  Medical Reform Act, the, 187
+  Medical student, the Edinburgh, 33
+  _Medical Times and Gazette_, the, 184
+  Medicine, condition of, at Simpson's birth, 1-3
+  Medico-Chirurgical Society, the Edinburgh, 189
+  Meigs, Professor, 117
+  Melbourne, Lord, 28, 73
+  Mesmerism, 94, 149
+  Midwifery, 3, 32, 39, 40, 53, 86, 104
+  Midwifery Chair, 55-65, 188, 215
+  Midwifery class, Simpson's, 67
+  Miller, Professor, 106, 109, 186
+  Moncrieff, Lord, 27
+  Monro (Primus), 57
+  Monro (Secundus), 56
+  Monro (Tertius), 23, 59
+  Montgomery, Dr., 140
+  Monthyon Prize, the, 190
+  Morton, W. T. G., 97, 98, 129, 132, 198
+
+
+  N
+
+  Napier, Lord, of Magdala, 197
+  _Nepenthe_, 93
+  Newhaven, 143, 196
+  Nitrous oxide gas, 97
+  North, Christopher, 18
+  Nunn, Mr., 123
+
+
+  O
+
+  Oineromathic, the Society, 42
+  Oxford, D.C.L., degree of, 192, 212
+
+
+  P
+
+  Pare, Ambroise, 90
+  Pathology, 39, 53, 55, 73, 74
+  Petroleum, 84
+  Physician-Accoucheur to the Queen, Simpson appointed, 86
+  Pillans, Professor, 18
+  _Post mortem_, 225
+  _Practitioner_, the, 184
+  Principalship, the, of Edinburgh University, 192
+  "Prometheus," 218
+  "Puck," 138
+
+
+  Q
+
+  Queen Street, No. 52, 78, 81, 105, 137
+  Queen, the, 17, 86, 129, 190
+
+
+  R
+
+  Reform, medical, 187
+  Reform, university, 187
+  Regents, the, of Edinburgh University, 192
+  Reid, Professor John, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 39,
+        41, 42, 55, 207
+  Religious views, Simpson's, 203
+  Rinderpest, epidemic of, 185
+  Rollock, the Regent, 192
+  Roman army, the, 156
+  Royal Medical Society, 41, 52, 53
+  Royal Physical Society, 41
+  Russell, Lord John, 27, 190
+
+
+  S
+
+  _Scots Observer_, the, 82
+  _Scotsman_, the, 61, 142
+  Scott, Sir Walter, 27, 124
+  Senatus Academicus, the, of Edinburgh University, 29, 186,
+        194.
+  Simpson, Alexander, 10, 37, 40, 61, 205, 215
+  Simpson, David, 5
+  Simpson, David (secundus), 37
+  Simpson, David (tertius), 191, 210
+  Simpson, Lady, 191, 216, 217
+  Simpson, Mary, 10
+  Simpson, Miss E. B., 138, 202, 214
+  Simpson, Mrs., 5, 6, 204
+  Simpson, Professor A. R., 51, 86, 164, 219
+  Smallpox, 184
+  Snow, Dr., 130
+  Snowball riot, the, 42
+  Sound, the, 168
+  Squabbles, Simpson's, 78
+  Stafford House, Simpson's visit to, 80
+  St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 151
+  Stevenson, R. L., 80
+  Storer, Dr., 217
+  Student, the Edinburgh medical, 33
+  Superstitions, 4, 5, 12
+  Surgery at Simpson's birth, 3
+    before anaesthesia, 88-91
+    after anaesthesia, 131
+  Sutherland, the Duchess of, 80, 86
+  Syme, Professor, 26, 31, 60, 61, 73, 114, 175, 130,
+        140, 148, 151, 186
+
+
+  T
+
+  Thatcher, Dr., 37, 63
+  Thesis, Simpson's, for M.D. degree, 39
+  Thomson, Professor, 39, 60, 72
+  Town council of Edinburgh, the, 28, 58, 60, 63, 65, 73,
+        188, 192
+  Traill, Professor, 60
+
+
+  U
+
+  Universities (Scots) Act, 188, 193
+  University of Edinburgh, 14, 18, 26, 28, 31, 130
+
+
+  V
+
+  Verses, Simpson's, 33, 202
+  Viewbank, 143, 211
+
+
+  W
+
+  Waldie, Mr., 105
+  Wallace, Professor, 18
+  Warren, Dr. J. Collins, 102
+  Warriston cemetery, 216
+  Weavers, the, of Bathgate, 8, 9
+  Wells, Horace, 97, 132, 198
+  Wesley, John, 71
+  Westminster Abbey, 215, 219
+  Williams, Dr., of York, 213
+  Wilson, George, 42
+  Wilson, Professor John, 18, 27
+  Women, medical, 188
+  Wound-healing, 176
+
+
+  Y
+
+  York, Simpson's visit to, 213
+  Young, Professor Thomas, 59
+
+
+
+
+The Gresham Press, UNWIN BROTHERS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+THE CENTURY DICTIONARY
+
+  _Six volumes bound in cloth, gilt lettered, sprinkled edges, per
+        vol._ =L2 2s.=
+  _Do. in half morocco, marbled edges, per vol._ =L2 16s.=
+  _24 Parts, strongly bound in cloth, per part_, =10s. 6d.=
+  BOOKCASE _for holding the Dictionary, price_ =L3 3s.=
+  Size of each volume 13 in. x 9-1/2 In. x 2-1/4 In.
+
+_PRESS NOTICES._
+
+"The exceptional merits of the 'Century Dictionary' are beyond
+dispute."--_Times._
+
+"One of the most notable monuments of the philological industry of the
+age."--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+"It is a work of great ability, fine scholarship, and patient research
+in many widely different departments of learning."--_Standard._
+
+"As we turn the leaves of this splendid work, we feel acutely the
+inadequacy of any description apart from actual handling of the
+volumes."--_Daily Chronicle._
+
+"It is fuller, more complete, with fewer faults than any rival."--_Pall
+Mall Gazette._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE CYCLOPAEDIA OF NAMES
+
+  _Cloth, =L2 2s.= net.; half morocco, =L2 15s.= net._
+  Size--13 in. x 9-1/2 x 2-1/4 in.
+
+_PRESS NOTICES._
+
+"A book of ready reference for proper names of every conceivable
+kind."--_Daily News._
+
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+reference, for though its facts on any given subject are of course,
+elementary, they can be quickly found, and, on the whole, they are
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+
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+
+"A most valuable compilation, and one which will be valued for the
+great mass of information which it contains."--_Glasgow Herald._
+
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+richer for having it ... may be consulted freely without the
+inconveniences of human haulage."--_Scotsman._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN
+
+EDITED BY H. F. WILSON
+
+_A Set of 10 Volumes, each with Photogravure Frontispiece, and Map,
+large crown 8vo., cloth, =5s.= each_.
+
+The completion of the Sixtieth year of the Queen's reign will be the
+occasion of much retrospect and review, in the course of which the
+great men who, under the auspices of Her Majesty and her predecessors,
+have helped to make the British Empire what it is to-day, will
+naturally be brought to mind. Hence the idea of the present series.
+These biographies, concise but full, popular but authoritative, have
+been designed with the view of giving in each case an adequate picture
+of the builder in relation to his work.
+
+The series will be under the general editorship of Mr. H. F. Wilson,
+formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and now private
+secretary to the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain at the Colonial Office.
+Each volume will be placed in competent hands, and will contain the
+best portrait obtainable of its subject, and a map showing his special
+contribution to the Imperial edifice. The first to appear will be a
+Life of Sir Waiter Ralegh, by Major Hume, the learned author of "The
+Year after the Armada." Others in contemplation will deal with the
+Cabots, the quarter-centenary of whose sailing from Bristol has
+recently been celebrated in that city, as well as in Canada and
+Newfoundland; is Sir Thomas Maitland, the "King Tom" of the
+Mediterranean; Rajah Brooke, Sir Stamford Raffles, Lord Clive, Edward
+Gibbon Wakefield, Zachary Macaulay, &c., &c.
+
+The Series has taken for its motto the Miltonic prayer:--
+
+  "Thou Who of Thy free grace didst build up this Brittannick
+  Empire to a glorious and enviable height. With all her
+  Daughter Islands about her, stay us in this felicitie."
+
+  1. =SIR WALTER RALEGH.= BY MARTIN A. S. HUME, Author of "The
+        Courtships of Queen Elizabeth," &c.
+  2. =SIR THOMAS MAITLAND=; the Mastery of the Mediterranean. By
+        WALTER FREWEN LORD.
+  3. =JOHN CABOT AND HIS SONS=; the Discovery of North America. By C.
+        RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A.
+  4. =LORD CLIVE=; the Foundation of British Rule in India. By Sir A.
+        J. ARBUTHNOT, K.C.S.I., C.I.E.
+  5. =EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD=; the Colonisation of South Australia
+        and New Zealand. By R. GARNETT, C.B., LL.D.
+  6. =RAJAH BROOKE=; the Englishman as Ruler of an Eastern State. By
+        SIR SPENSER ST. JOHN, G.C.M.G
+  7. =ADMIRAL PHILIP=; the Founding of New South Wales. By LOUIS BECKE
+        and WALTER JEFFERY.
+  8. =SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES=; England in the Far East. By the Editor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE STORY OF THE NATIONS
+
+A SERIES OF POPULAR HISTORIES.
+
+_Each Volume is furnished with Map, Illustrations, and Index. Large
+Crown 8vo., fancy cloth, gold lettered, or Library Edition, dark
+cloth, burnished red top, =5s.= each.--Or may be had in half Persian,
+cloth sides, gilt tops; Price on Application._
+
+  1. =Rome.= By ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A.
+  2. =The Jews.= By Professor J. K. HOSMER.
+  3. =Germany.= By the Rev. S. BARING-GOULD.
+  4. =Carthage.= By Professor ALFRED J. CHURCH.
+  5. =Alexander's Empire.= By Prof. J. P. MAHAFFY.
+  6. =The Moors in Spain.= By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
+  7. =Ancient Egypt.= By Prof. GEORGE RAWLINSON.
+  8. =Hungary.= By Prof. ARMINIUS VAMBERY.
+  9. =The Saracens.= By ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A.
+  10. =Ireland.= By the Hon. EMILY LAWLESS.
+  11. =Chaldea.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  12. =The Goths.= By HENRY BRADLEY.
+  13. =Assyria.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  14. =Turkey.= By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
+  15. =Holland.= By Professor J. E. THOROLD ROGERS.
+  16. =Mediaeval France.= By GUSTAVE MASSON.
+  17. =Persia.= By S. G. W. BENJAMIN.
+  18. =Phoenicia.= By Prof. GEORGE RAWLINSON.
+  19. =Media.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  20. =The Hansa Towns.= By HELEN ZIMMERN.
+  21. =Early Britain.= By Professor ALFRED J. CHURCH.
+  22. =The Barbary Corsairs.= By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
+  23. =Russia.= By W. R. MORFILL.
+  24. =The Jews under the Roman Empire.= By W. D. MORRISON.
+  25. =Scotland.= By JOHN MACKINTOSH, LL.D.
+  26. =Switzerland.= By R. STEAD and LINA HUG.
+  27. =Mexico.= By SUSAN HALE.
+  28. =Portugal.= By H. MORSE STEPHENS.
+  29. =The Normans.= By SARAH ORNE JEWETT.
+  30. =The Byzantine Empire.= By C. W. C. OMAN, M.A.
+  31. =Sicily: Phoenician, Greek and Roman.= By the late E. A.
+        FREEMAN.
+  31. =The Tuscan and Genoa Republics.= By BELLA DUFFY.
+  33. =Poland.= By W. R. MORFILL.
+  34. =Parthia.= By Prof. GEORGE RAWLINSON.
+  35. =The Australian Commonwealth.= By GREVILLE TREGARTHEN.
+  36. =Spain.= By H. E. WATTS.
+  37. =Japan.= By DAVID MURRAY, Ph.D.
+  38. =South Africa.= By GEORGE M. THEAL.
+  39. =Venice.= By the Hon. ALETHEA WIEL.
+  40. =The Crusades=: The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. By T. A. ARCHER
+        and CHARLES L. KINGSFORD.
+  41. =Vedic India.= By ZENAIDE A. RAGOZIN.
+  42. =The West Indies and the Spanish Main.= By JAMES RODWAY, F.L.S.
+  43. =Bohemia.= By C. E. MAURICE.
+  44. =The Balkans.= By W. MILLEM.
+  45. =Canada.= By Dr. BOURINOT.
+  46. =British India.= By R. W. FRAZER, LL.B.
+  47. =Modern France.= By ANDRE LE BON.
+  48. =The Franks.= By LEWIS SERGEANT, B.A.
+
+"Such a universal history as the series will present us with in
+its completion will be a possession such as no country but our
+own can boast of.... Its success on the whole has been very
+remarkable."--_Daily Chronicle._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MERMAID SERIES
+
+The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists. Literal Reproductions of the Old
+Text.
+
+_Post 8vo., each Volume containing about 500 pages, and an etched
+Frontispiece, cloth, =3s. 6d.= each_.
+
+  1. =The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe.= Edited by HAVELOCK
+        ELLIS, and containing a General Introduction to the Series by
+        JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
+  2. =The Best Plays of Thomas Otway.= Introduction by the Hon. RODEN
+        NOEL.
+  3. =The Best Plays of John Ford.=--Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS.
+  4 and 5. =The Best Plays of Thomas Massinger.= Essay and Notes by
+        ARTHUR SYMONS.
+  6. =The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood.= Edited by A. W. VERITY.
+        Introduction by J. A. SYMONDS.
+  7. =The Complete Plays of William Wycherley.= Edited by W. C. WARD.
+  8. =Nero=, and other Plays. Edited by H. P. HORNE, ARTHUR SYMONS, A.
+        W. VERITY, and H. ELLIS.
+  9 and 10. =The Best Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher.= Introduction by
+        J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
+  11. =The Complete Plays of Congreve.= Edited by ALEX. C. EWALD.
+  12. =The Best Plays of Webster and Tourneur.= Introduction by JOHN
+        ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
+  13 and 14. =The Best Plays of Thomas Middleton.= Introduction by
+        ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.
+  15. =The Best Plays of James Shirley.= Introduction by EDMUND
+        GOSSE.
+  16. =The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker.= Notes by ERNEST RHYS.
+  17, 19, and 20. =The Best Plays of Ben Jonson.= Vol. I. edited, with
+        Introduction and Notes, by BRINSLEY NICHOLSON and C. H.
+        HERFORD.
+  18. =The Complete Plays of Richard Steele.= Edited, with Introduction
+        and Notes, by G. A. AITKEN.
+  21. =The Best Plays of George Chapman.= Edited by WILLIAM LYON
+        PHELPS, Instructor of English Literature at Yale College.
+  22. =The Select Plays of Sir John Vanbrugh.= Edited, with an
+        Introduction and Notes, by A. E. H. SWAEN.
+
+_PRESS OPINIONS._
+
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+humbler student of slender resources, who knows the bitterness of not
+being able to possess himself of the treasure stored in expensive
+folios or quartos long out of print, will assuredly rise up and thank
+Mr. Unwin."--_St. James's Gazette._
+
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+
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+
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+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SIX-SHILLING NOVELS
+
+_In uniform green cloth, large crown 8vo., gilt tops,_ =6s.=
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+  =Effie Hetherington.= By ROBERT BUCHANAN, Second Edition.
+  =An Outcast of the Islands.= By JOSEPH CONRAD. Second Edition.
+  =Almayer's Folly.= By JOSEPH CONRAD. Second Edition.
+  =The Ebbing of the Tide.= By LOUIS BECKE. Second Edition.
+  =A First Fleet Family.= By LOUIS BECKE and WALTER JEFFERY.
+  =Paddy's Woman=, and Other Stories. By HUMPHREY JAMES.
+  =Clara Hopgood.= By MARK RUTHERFORD. Second Edition.
+  =The Tales of John Oliver Hobbes.= Portrait of the Author. Second
+        Edition.
+  =The Stickit Minister.= By S. R. CROCKETT. Eleventh Edition.
+  =The Lilac Sunbonnet.= By S. R. CROCKETT. Sixth Edition.
+  =The Raiders.= By S. R. CROCKETT. Eighth Edition.
+  =The Grey Man.= By S. R. CROCKETT.
+  =In a Man's Mind.= By J. R WATSON.
+  =A Daughter of the Fen.= By J. T. BEALBY. Second Edition.
+  =The Herb-Moon.= By JOHN OLIVER HOBBES. Third Edition.
+  =Nancy Noon.= By BENJAMIN SWIFT, Second Edition. With New Preface.
+  =Mr. Magnus.= By F. REGINALD STATHAM. Second Edition.
+  =Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland.= By OLIVE SCHREINER.
+        Frontispiece.
+  =Pacific Tales.= By LOUIS BECKE. With Frontispiece Portrait of the
+        Author. Second Edition.
+  =Mrs. Keith's Crime.= By Mrs. W. K. CLIFFORD. Sixth Edition. With
+        Portrait of Mrs. Keith by the Hon. JOHN COLLIER, and a New
+        Preface by the Author.
+  =Hugh Wynne.= By Dr. S. WEIR MITCHELL. With Frontispiece Illustration.
+  =The Tormentor.= By BENJAMIN SWIFT, Author of "Nancy Noon."
+  =Prisoners of Conscience.= By AMELIA E. BARR, Author of "Jan
+        Vedder's Wife." With 12 Illustrations.
+  =The Gods, some Mortals and Lord Wickenham.= New Edition. By JOHN
+        OLIVER HOBBES.
+  =The Outlaws of the Marches.= By Lord ERNEST HAMILTON. Fully
+        illustrated.
+  =The School for Saints:= Part of the History of the Right Honourable
+        Robert Orange, M.P. By JOHN OLIVER HOBBES, Author of "Sinner's
+        Comedy," "Some Emotions and a Moral," "The Herb Moon," &c.
+  =The People of Clopton.= By GEORGE BARTRAM.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+WORKS BY MARTIN A. S. HUME
+
+F.R.H.S., Editor of the "Calendar of Spanish State Papers of
+Elizabeth" (Public Record Office).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE COURTSHIPS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
+
+With Portraits
+
+_Fourth Edition. Demy 8vo., cloth_, =12s.=
+
+"It is undeniably an important addition to the history of the
+Elizabethan period, and it will rank as the foremost authority on the
+most interesting aspect of the character of the Tudor Queen."--_Pall
+Mall Gazette._
+
+"A clear and very interesting account. An excellent book."--_Times._
+
+"A connected and consistent, though assuredly a most extraordinary,
+story.... A fascinating picture."--_Standard._
+
+"A delightful book."--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE YEAR AFTER THE ARMADA
+
+AND OTHER HISTORICAL STUDIES
+
+_Second Edition. Illustrated. Demy 8vo., cloth gilt,_ =12s.=
+
+"A most valuable and conscientiously written historical
+work."--_Spectator._
+
+"The whole book is extremely interesting, and at once instructive and
+amusing."--_Speaker._
+
+"Deserves a wide circulation, and we trust that a proper reward will
+follow close upon its merits."--_Literary World._
+
+"Major Hume has thrown the most curious and valuable light on the
+Armada period. Full of delightful sketches of men and things."--W. L.
+COURTNEY in _The Daily Telegraph_.
+
+"A work which adds many a fresh page to English, and one may say to
+European history.... From first to last the volume is excellent
+reading, while the entertaining style in which the matter is presented
+and the undeniable authority of the writer ... render the book of
+special interest and permanent value."--_The Morning Post._
+
+"Quite as good as a novel--and a good dead better, too. The book is so
+bright and vivid that readers with the common dislike of history may
+venture on its pages unafraid."--ANDREW LANG in _Cosmopolis_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SIR WALTER RALEGH
+
+Being Vol. I. of the series entitled "Builders of Greater Britain,"
+each vol. with photogravure frontispiece and map.
+
+_Large crown 8vo., cloth, =5s.= each_.
+
+"There is not a dull page in it, and, with his skilful telling of
+it, the story of Raleigh's life and of his times reads like a
+romance."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber Notes
+
+Archaic and variable spelling is preserved, including 'receptable'.
+
+Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
+
+Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.
+
+Greek transliterations are surrounded by ~tildes~.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform
+(1811-1870), by Henry Laing Gordon
+
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