New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-08-10

Mics who has dreamed OF Longcnaupsi tne otnel
has perhaps effaced wrinkle from the brow or
sent into the cheek 4 rose OF dawn, instead OF
evening rouge but who keeps statistics of his
neighbours skin, or cares to balance the books of
BEAUTY So Of that famous man, II" the world"
Those benefits which silently restore the social
system put new soul into the well known national
face. and relieve the hidden cancer at the popular
vitals-the general education, which is slowly
changing the masses into brain and Converting
twenty seven millions, mostly fools into pop
ulace Of higher intellectually than the sristocracy
of half century tince-tbe unobseryed diffusion
of art.infuences, which are quietly irrigating so
many social deserts with beauty-the spread of
cheap literature, which is supplanting the moral
pOisons thatwere lately the only accessible literary
tustenance to poverty, by the healthiest food the
human mind requires-these elementary agents Of
social progress are comparatively unn0ticed IN
their activity, because when cnce they have gone
in at the national mouth and been received into the
national digestion, their work OF blessing is thence
forth carried on in the depths Of the popular econ
omy. The discovery of anesthetic agents and
their successful application in the extremes Of
human suffering, are in the category of tho utlli
ties whose advent we hail indeed, but of whose
practical consequences in the daily hourly life Of
mankind, We seldom realize any adequate idea.
Figures may give us on paper the arithmetic of
painless operations, but who shall cl0the the estl
mate in flesh and blood, or INFER the human facts
from those skeleton fguresl
How few even Of those who have heard of chic
reform and have seen something of its operations,
can have arithmetical knowledge of how much
or how little it is entering into the life of the world
around them. In the Hospitals Of London and
Edinburgh alone 400 serious operations are per-
formed annually; add TO these the operations that
take place elsewhere, and the spirit sinks beneath
the weight of the accommodating mass of misery
Then draw the pen as OF the abs0lyng angel
through the horrible total and feel the world
tighten with the consciousness that as completely
as you have cancelled the figures on your paper is
the great and terrible fact era ed from the Book Of
Life and the lot of mankind. Again, attempt to
realize the still more incredible amount OF mortal
anguish that is at no distant date in the pro-
gress Of enlightened science to pass away before
the face of the same silent influence. There are at
this moment some twelve hundred million human
beings on the globe. On the most moderate es
innate the birth Of every one Of these was pur-
chased by an hour of maternal pain. These there
fore, represent twelve hundred million hours of
human aDguish-the meaning of which we may
better realize BY suppOsing the twenty seven mil
lion il habitants Of Great Britain condemned en-
masse once in each twenty or thirty years to forty
eight hours on the rack or by supposing that
at similar intervals single individual were taken
from the race and doomed to more than forty
thousand years of torment Having gasped for
moment, think that DR.. Simpsons discovery re-
deems Humanity from this awful curse and DEM
Onstrates that it's divine date has expired and what
mothers son or daughter does not feel inclined to
hug the little great man in their arms
A genuine "nextraOrdnary" man is James
Young Simpson, Professor of Midwifery in the
Edinburgh University. The great obstetrician may
be said to have literally commenced life in the
ercise of his profession, for the surgeon who was
called in to attend his mother in childbirth on the
day he was born, still points to the sgnifcan.
entry in his book" Arrived too late" The same
strength and energy of character which signazed
bis entry into the world have marked his passage
through it from obscurity TO Hottest eminence A
constitution unusually robust, perceptions singu-
larry rapid and distinct, mind that deals with
facts more by the instinct of General on the field
than the slow calculation of ordinary science, and
sn incessant snd ndOmitable activity of body aud
brain, enable him TO transact his enormous NE dcal
practice and find time for thousand things beside.
He is the index and dictionary of Edinburgh and
half the world beside, and open TO every body that
can get through the crowd forever pressing round
for q peep into it. He is Ubiquitous and knows
everybody Those who would know the freshest gov
eminent scandal the contents of the latest Quar-
terly, of tO.day's Athen9um or recentest NEW
YORK TRIBUNE, the newest poem, the best pic
tuTe, the last biography seek if they can to way
lay the busy professor And yet withal he is
quiet man. lie does not lighten nor thunder nor
wear cloud on his brow, but he has the still
small voice of genius.
Gowhen you will to his house in his " hours
and YOU will find forty or fifty persons waiting
his arrival Odd stories are told of the number
emo Iatienee of the pilgrims who early and late
besiere the famous oracle of the importantly of
great titles the sturdiness Of uDyieldiDg anitOrs
and the honest Scotch pride of high and low in the
popularity of their celebrated cOuntryman.
gOOd-natured authorizes relates with gusto that,
taking a sick friend for the Doctors advice, she
was informed by the servant that no more patients
could be seen that day. " But" said the
thOress, :" am sure / can be admtted-take him
nv name he knows me-" DR.. Simpson knows
" the Queen, maam," was the cool rejoinder, with
which the door closed on the Disconnected ladies.
In the season when Edinburgh is full, and the
influx Of strangers at its hight the breakfasts and
luncheons of the Scotch professor, held in that
modest room, present curious and interesting
study for the observer of character. Here those
friends who desire a minutes conversation, or
those strangers who come from distance and are
fortunate enough 10 bring with them the open
sesame of good introduction, endeavor to seize
upon the nearest approach to leisure which may
happen 10 this man of many affairs.
Assembled unceremoniously in a m0derate-sZed
room, with nothing in common save their wish TO
meet the host, you find company drawn together
from every latitude and longitude, social aud geo
graphical 0fall this motley party who are chatting
in momentary fellowship and watching with faces
amused or anxious the conversation of their more
accessible neighbors, there is probably hardly one
who is not in some way or other notable; but the
grades and classes of eminence run through nearly
the whole gamut of social distinction-from duch-
esses poets and ears down to the author of the last
successful book on cookery, the inventor of the