The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-05-14 00:00:00

DEATH OF SIR JAMES SIMPSON.

It is with deep regret that we announce the death of
Sir James Young Simpson, Bart., Professor of Mid-
wifery in the Edinburgh University, aud discoverer of
the ame,thetic propertitts of chloroform.

This distinguished physiclan, who, it will be re-
membered, waa one of the witnesses called to prove the
insanity of Lady Mordaunt on the Nth February lad,
died at Edinburgh, at ten minutes to eight o'clock on
Friday night, of disease of the heart. He had been ill
for about two mouths, one week seeming much hetttr,
and another worse. About three days previous to his
decease however, his strength began rapidly to fail, aud
although it was hoped that such an ornament to the
medical profession might have been sparest, he gradually
sank, and has died in the 59th year of his age.
The deceased, perhaps the most eminent matt in the
profession as an obstetrician, was the son of Mr. David
Simpson, of Pathgate, near Edinburgh, and was horn
in 1811. He was ecticated at the Edinhurieh Univereity,
where he tot k his degree of M.D. in 1832. He bcgan
his professional life as fiesistnnt to the late Professor
Thomson, and in the outset of his career displayed a
strength and energy which ensured his rapid rise to
eminence. In 1840 hews.. appointed Professor of Mid-
wifery in the University of Edinburgh—a post which
he continued to till until his death. Seven years after
his appointment he introduced chloroform iota the
ractice of his profession, and since that Periigi he has
demonstrated, as the result of long ea perience, the value
and the safety 1 anztAthetic midwifery. In 180, Dr.
Simpson was elected President of the I,llieburgit Royal
College of Physicians ; in 1852, President of the Medical
Chirnrgical Society ; in the following year, under
highly complimentary circumstances, Foreign Associate
of the French Academy of Medicine. In With the
French Academy of Sciences awarded the Monty on
Prize of 2,0001. to Br. Simpson for the benehts which
Or had conferred upon humanity through the intro-
duction of amsthesia by chloroform tido the practice
of surgery and midwifery. A few werke earlier he re.
cetved, on account of the same discovery, the knight-
hood of the Royal Order of St. Olaff, from King Oscar
of Sweden. His numerous professional writings, deal.
ing with those branches of medical science of which he
was so great a muster, have been translated into every
European language, and are known in every civilized
land. In January, tOld, when Lord Russel l'e Government
was in power, the deceased physician was ereated Sir
James Simpson, Baronet, of the City of Edinburgh,
and of Strathnavon, Linlithgowshire. In the same
year the University of Oxford conferred upon him the
honorary degree of D.C.L., and else, the bathe time
he was appointed Physician Accoticheur to the queen
for Scotland. The list of honorary offices which he
held in his native kingdom, and in the Academies of
Medicine of France, Belgium, New York, Sweden,
Egypt, Constantinople, Athens. Bohemia, Norway,
Stockholm, Copenhagen, Ghent, Massachusetts, Litol6,
and Bombay, testify to the greatness of his intellect
and to the splendour of his renown.

Sir James was married in 1839 to Jessie. daughter of
Mr. Walter Grindlay, of Liverpool, and his eldest our.
viving son Walter succeeds to the title.