SIMONOSKKI 



SI. Ml 'SOX 



have mixed him up with other sorcerers of Cyprus, 

 Cmarea, and Koine ; and his disciples, anxious to 

 comhine as many element* ;ts possible in their new 

 world religion, added to the confusion by their 

 readiness to identify their master with the most 

 incongruous personalities. Simon is a true magi- 

 cian in this at least, that he still eludes our grasp. 

 The legend of Simon and Helena continued to be 

 read in the middle ages ; and several traits of 

 Simon may be recognised in ' Doctor Faustus. ' 



See Baur's Paul, and his History of the Church in 

 Ihr Pint Three Crnturici (both translated ), and earlier 

 works there cited; Hilgenfeld's Ctrm. RffOffnilionrn 

 u. Homilien (1848); Seller's Apotttlyetehiehte (1854); 

 Li|nius in Sclu'tikel's Bibrl-Lexiron (1875) and his 

 Apokr. Apotttbjetfhirhten (1877); Hamack'g Onotticit- 

 mut ( 1873 ), and his Dogmengtichichte ( 1886). 



Simoiiosrki. See SHIMONOSEKI. 



Simon's Bay an. I Town. See CAPE COLONY. 



Simony (derived from Simon Magus), in 

 English law, means, according to Blackstone, the 

 offence of obtaining orders or a license to preach 

 by money or corrupt practice. But the term is 

 now commonly used to denote the offence of pre- 

 senting or procuring presentation to a benefice for 

 money. In the canon law this was considered 

 a heinous crime and a kind of heresy. As the 

 canonical punishment, however, was not deemed 

 sutli.-i.Tit. a statute was passed in the time of 

 Elizabeth defining its punishment. A sinipniacal 

 presentation was declared to be utterly void, and 

 the person giving or taking the gift or reward for- 

 feited .Inn Kl.' the value of one year's profit ; and 

 the person accepting the benefice was disabled 

 from ever holding the same benefice. Presentation 

 bonds, however, taken by a patron from a presentee 

 to res'gn the benefice at a future period in favour 

 of some one to be named by the patron, are not 

 illegal, provided the nominee is either by blood or 

 marriage an uncle, son, grandson, brother, nephew, 

 or grandnephew of the patron, and provided the 

 bond is registered for public inspection in the 

 diocese. The result of the statutes is that it is 

 not simony for a layman or spiritual person, not 

 purchasing for himself, to purchase, while the 

 charge is filled, either an advowson or next presen- 

 tation, however immediate may be the prospect of 

 a vacancy, unless that vacancy is to be occasioned 

 by some agreement or arrangement between the 

 parties. Nor is it simony for a spiritual person to 

 purchase for himself an advowson, although under 

 similar circumstances. It is, however, simony for 

 any person to purchase the next presentation while 

 the church is vacant ; and it is simony for a 

 spiritual person to purchase for himself the next 

 presentation, although the charge be occupied. 

 See ADVOWSON, and Cripps's Laws of the Church 

 and Cirri/;/. 



Simoom, or SIMOON (Arab, saim'im or xrniniii ; 

 from tun, HI. 'poisoning'), is a hot, suffix-ating 

 wind common in the deserts of Africa and Arabia, 

 an well as in Sin. I and lieliidiistan. It is essenti- 

 ally of the same nature as a cyclone : thero is a 

 central tract of calm surrounded by violent eddies 

 of intensely heated air, and the entire system 

 keeps moving slowly forward, generally from south 

 to north or from east to west. Ite presence in 

 heralded by whirling currents of air, and indicated 

 by the purple colour of the atmosphere. It often 

 carries with it huge rotating columns of sand, or 

 tilling gusts and showers of line sand. It is 

 highly deleterious to men and animals, causing 

 the sensation of suffocation, together with great 

 pain in the limlm. Spring and summer are the 

 usual times of it* occurrence ; but it seldom lasts 

 many minute*, not more than twenty at the out- 

 side.' See DKSKRT, STORMS, WHIKLWIJUM. 



Siniplon ( Ital. Semjpione), a mountain-pass 

 (65H4 feet high) of Switzerland. The Simplon 

 Road, leading over a shoulder of the mountain 

 from l.rie;; in Yalais to Domo d'Ossola(41 mill's) 

 in 1'iedinont. was commenced in 1800 by NapolAM, 

 and completed in 1806 at a cost of 720,000. It is 

 carried across more ban six hundred bridges, over 

 num. TOUS galleries cut out of the natural nick or 

 built of solid masonry, and through great tunnels. 

 Close to the highest point is the New Hospice 

 (opened in 1825), one of the twenty edifices on this 

 route for the shelter of travellers. After much 

 preliminary negotiation, the convention between 

 Italy and Switzerland for the construction of a 

 railway tunnel through the Simplon was finally 

 approved at Rome and Berne in December 1890. 

 There will be two parallel tunnels, 12J mile-, long, 

 about 60 feet apart, with connections every 1170 

 feet. The height above the sea will only be 23 12 

 feet. The Swiss terminus will lie at Brieg, and the 

 Italian end at Iselle. Operations were commenced 

 from both ends in August 1898 ; it is estimated to 

 take 5J years to construct, and to cost f-_'.siKi,tK)0. 



Simpson, SIR JAMKS Yorxd, physician, was 

 born at Bathgate, Linlithgowshire, 7tli June 1811, 

 a baker's son, the youngest of a family of eight. 

 He early showed a peculiar talent for medical 

 oliservat ion and research ; and in the prosecution 

 of his professional studies at the university of 

 Edinburgh, which he entered at the age of four- 

 teen, he so attracted the notice of his teachers as 

 to inspire all of them with an active interest in his 

 future career. He took his M.D. in 1832, his 

 thesis on Death from Inflammation winning the 

 highest admiration ; and in 183f> was elected presi- 

 dent of the Royal Medical Society. Professor 

 Thomson chose him as his assistant (1837-38), 

 and employed him in the preparation of his course 

 of lectures on General Pathology. During the 

 illness of the professor he supplied his place in 

 the lecture-room with unusual skill and address. 

 He now began professional practice on his own 

 account, and in 1840 succeeded Professor Hamilton 

 in the chair of Midwifery. This position he 

 held with yearly enhanced distinction, and by the 

 rigidly scientific, while popularly attractive, char- 

 acter of his prelections contributed greatly to the 

 renown of the Edinburgh school, both at home and 

 abroad. He was indefatigable, amid the distract- 

 ing cares of an extensive practice, in promoting 

 the scientific perfection of his art ; ana his 06- 

 stitrir Mi-nn,ii:i (2 vols. 1856), edited by Drs 

 Priestley and Storrer, contains the fruits of much 

 patient and ingenious research. In 1847 he was 

 appointed one of Her Majesty's Physicians for 

 Sent land. The discovery by which he will be more 

 particularly rememl>ered is that of the aiwstlietic 



virtues of choloroform. Sulphuric ether had I it 



employed in America by Morton to Produce . \n.i- 

 thesia (<|.v. t during tin- extraction of teeth : tint !> 

 Simpson lielongN the credit of first, in March 184/, 

 introducing chloroform to the scientific world. Ill 

 1859 he recommended the stopping of h.-emorrli 

 by Acupressure (q.v.). In bisown peculiar field of 

 obstetrics his improvements on the old methods of 

 practice were numerous and valuable; his anti- 

 quarian researches are emliodicd in his postlm- 

 m>niArrhfrolo<finillistny*(}lfi2). He wu created 

 a baronet in 1866, and died 6th May IsTO. A 

 bronze statue was erected in Edinburgh in 1S77. 



Beftidc* the Obttrtric Memoir* already mentioned hit 

 medical and archaeological works include a volume on 

 Aenprraure (1864), one on Homaofxithii, fvln'ttd 06- 

 itetrieal Work*, Antritlienin, Clinical Lecture* on tin 

 Ditraie* of Women, and many paper* and notices read 

 before the Royal and Antiquarian Societies of Edinburgh. 

 See the .\frmnir by Dunn (1873), and works In- hi* 

 daughter ( 1817 ) and Uing Gordon ( 1897 ). 



