268 



S1MPLON SIN. 



Egypt, Arabia, and on the Persian gulf, and is ac- 

 companied by similar appearances. It is very hot 

 nnd dryinir. In those whom it surprises in the de- 

 MTt, the luiijjs are comprised, the breathing diffi- 

 cult, tin- .-kin dry ; the body appears as if consumed 

 by tire. The corpses of those who have thus 

 perished are dried up, but do not putrefy. The 

 ~:une means of protection are employed as against 

 the samiel. Still different from either of these 

 winds is the harmattan (q. V.) 



SIMPLON (Italian Sempione); a mountain in 

 the Swiss canton of Valais, 10,600 feet high, be- 

 longing to the high Alpine ridge which separates 

 Switzerland from Italy, and extends from Mont 

 Blanc to St Gothard. (See Alps.) As this ridge 

 is traversed by a valley, which lies below the snow 

 line, Napoleon laid out one of his most remarkable 

 roads here. (See Alps, Roads over.) The Hospi- 

 tium, left unfinished by Napoleon, was sold by the 

 government of the canton to the fathers of the 

 Great St Bernard in 1824, who have since com- 

 pleted it. 



SIMPSON, THOMAS, an eminent English mathe- 

 matician, was born at Market Bosworth, in Leices- 

 tershire, in 1710. He was brought up to his father's 

 profession of a weaver, but such was his love of 

 study, that he soon quitted his profession and sup- 

 ported himself by teaching a school. An absurd 

 propensity for astrology, while it rendered him a 

 sort of oracle in his neighbourhood, involved him 

 in some difficulties, which obliged him to remove 

 to Derby, where he continued some years, follow- 

 ing his trade in the day, and teaching a school in 

 the evening. Notwithstanding his industrious 

 habits, he found it difficult to provide for his family, 

 and he was then induced to remove to London in 

 1736. Here he followed his business in Spittal- 

 fields, and taught mathematics at his leisure hours, 

 and so great was his success, that he brought his 

 wife and three children to London, where he set- 

 tled himself permanently. 



His first work was a new treatise of Fluxions, 

 which was published by subscription in 1737, and 

 such was its reception, that, in 1740, he published 

 a treatise on the nature and laws of chance, which 

 was followed in the same year, with his essays on 

 several curious and interesting subjects in specula- 

 tive and mixed mathematics. These works ex- 

 tended his reputation even to foreign countries, and 

 he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy 

 of Sciences. His doctrine of annuities and reversions, 

 appeared in the same year, and an appendix to it in 

 1741. Supported by the influence of Mr Jones, 

 the father of Sir William, our author was, in 1743, 

 appointed professor of mathematics in Woolwich, 

 and the same year, he published his mathematical 

 dissertations. In 1745, he was admitted a fellow 

 of the royal society, having been excused his ad- 

 mission fees on account of his limited income. In 

 1744, he published his treatise on Algebra, which 

 was enlarged in 1755. In 1747, he published his 

 elements of Geometry, which was reprinted in 

 1760, and subsequent years. In 1748, Mr Simpson 

 printed his trigonometry plane and spherical, with 

 the construction and application of Logarithms. 

 His select exercises for young proficients in mathe- 

 matics appeared in 1752, and his last work, viz. his 

 miscellaneous tracts, came out in 1757. Mr Simp- 

 son was likewise the author of several papers which 

 appeared in the philosophical transactions, and he 

 edited the lady's diary from 1754 till 1760, a work 

 to tvhich he had been a contributor since 1730, and 



which he raised to a very high degree of respectabi- 

 lity. He died on the 14th May, 1761. 



SIMSON, ROBERT, M.D., an eminent Scottish 

 mathematician, was born on the 14th October, 1687, 

 O. S. at Kirktownhill, Ayrshire, a small property 

 which, for some generations, had been the residence 

 of his immediate progenitors. He was the eldot 

 son, and was educated at the university of Glasgow, 

 where he devoted his attention principally to the 

 philosophy and theology of the schools, and such 

 was his progress that, at an early age, during the 

 illness of the professor, he taught the class of ori- 

 ental languages. While he was studying theology 

 at the divinity hall he took a fancy for mathematics, 

 and amused himself occasionally with this new 

 study; but it soon gained upon his affections, and 

 it was not long in supplanting his passion for 

 theology. He accordingly abandoned himself wholly 

 to the study of geometry, preferring the sure 

 methods of the ancients to the analytical method 

 which had now so many supporters. 



At the early age of twenty-two, the members of 

 the college offered him the mathematical chair in 

 the university of Glasgow, in which a vacancy was 

 soon expected. Reluctant, however, to advance at 

 so early an age from the situation of a student to 

 that of a professor in the same college, he solicited 

 and obtained permission to spend one year ill Lon- 

 don. Here he became acquainted with Mr Jones, 

 Mr Caswell, and Mr Ditton, who gave him ample 

 information respecting the progress of mathematics 

 both in England and on the continent of Europe. 

 When the vacancy in the mathematical chair oc- 

 curred in 1711, he was unanimously elected, after 

 giving a specimen of his skill in mathematics, and of 

 his dexterity in teaching geometry and algebra. Im- 

 mediately afterhisadmission, which took place on the 

 20th November, Mr Simson entered upon the duties 

 of his class with much zeal and success, and, insti- 

 gated by the advice of Dr Halley, he directed his pri- 

 vate studies to the restoration of the ancient geome- 

 ters. His first labour was to restore the Porisms 

 of Euclid. The next object of his labour was the 

 " Loci Plani" of Apollonius, which he completed in 

 1731,but which he did not venture to publish till 1746. 

 Notwithstanding all this caution, he recalled all the 

 copies in the hands of his bookseller, and kept the 

 impression by him for several years. He afterwards 

 revised and corrected this work, which greatly ex- 

 tended his reputation, and obtained him a high 

 place among the geometers of his age. In 1750, 

 our author published his Sectionum Conicarum libri 

 Quinque, a work which he intended as an introduc 

 tion to the study of Apollonius. The restoration of 

 the elements of Euclid was the great object of Dr 

 Simson's care ; and, along with the data, he pub- 

 lished this valuable work in 1750. The Sectio 

 Determinata of Apollonius next occupied his atten- 

 tion ; but this work was not published till after his 

 death, when it was printed, along with the Porisms 

 of Euclid, and published at the expence of earl 

 Stanhope. Mr Simson died on the 1st December, 

 1768, leaving to the university his valuable library. 

 He was never married. See his life by Dr Trail!, 

 London, 1822. 



SIN. Every evil disposition, thought or action, 

 by which the divine law (whether the positive re- 

 vealed law, or the moral law, which God has im- 

 planted in the mind of man) is violated, is sin in 

 the wider sense of the word, considered in relation 

 to morals or religion; considered as an offence 

 against the laws of society, an evil act is called a 



