NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 165 



with seeking the aid of Agnes Sampson for the relief of pain at 

 the time of the birth of her two sons, was burned alive on the 

 Castle Hill of Edinburgh ; and this old theological view persisted 

 even to the middle of the nineteenth century. From pulpit after 

 pulpit Simpson's use of chloroform was denounced as impious and 

 contrary to Holy Writ ; texts were cited abundantly, the ordinary 

 declaration being that to use chloroform was " to avoid one part 

 of the primeval curse on woman/' Simpson wrote pamphlet after 

 pamphlet to defend the blessing which he brought into use ; but 

 the cause seemed about to be lost, when he seized a new weapon, 

 probably the most absurd by which a great cause was ever won : 

 " My opponents forget," he said, " the twenty-first verse of the sec- 

 ond chapter of Genesis ; it is the record of the first surgical oper- 

 ation ever performed, and that text proves that the Maker of the 

 universe, before he took the rib from Adam's side for the creation 

 of Eve, caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam." This was a stunning 

 blow, but it did not entirely kill the opposition ; they had strength 

 left to maintain that the " deep sleep of Adam took place before 

 the introduction of pain into the world in a state of innocence." 

 But now a new champion intervened Thomas Chalmers ; with a 

 few pungent arguments from his pulpit he scattered the enemy 

 forever, and the greatest battle of science against suffering was 

 won. But this victory was won not less for religion : wisely did 

 those who raised the monument at Boston to one of the discoverers 

 of anaesthetics inscribe upon its pedestal the words from our sacred 

 text, " This also cometh from the Lord of hosts, which is won- 

 derful in counsel and excellent in working." * 



Progress in medical science within the past quarter of a 

 century has been vast indeed ; the theological view of disease has 

 greatly faded, and the theological hold upon medical education 

 has been almost entirely relaxed. In three great fields especially, 

 discoveries have been made which have done much to disperse 

 the atmosphere of miracle. First, there has come in more knowl- 

 edge regarding the relation between imagination and medicine, 

 and, though still defective, it is of great importance. This rela- 

 tion has been noted during the whole history of the science. 

 When the soldiers of the Prince of Orange, at the siege of Breda 

 in 1625, were dying of scurvy by scores, he sent to the physicians 

 "two or three small vials filled with a decoction of camomile, 

 wormwood, and camphor, gave out that it was a very rare and 

 precious medicine a medicine of such virtue that two or three 

 drops sufficed to impregnate a gallon of water, and that it had 

 been obtained from the East with great difficulty and danger " ; 



* For the case of Eufame Maealyane, see Daly ell, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, pp. 

 130, 133. For the contest of Simpson with Scotch ecclesiastical authorities, see Duns, 

 Life of Sir J. Y. Simpson, London, 1873, pp. 215-222, and 256-2C0. 



