SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. 131 



frequent visits from strangers — English, Continental, and 

 American — who all made demands upon his time. Those 

 who were still disaffected towards him spread the report that 

 his patients were neglected. One man of wealth enclosed him 

 ;^io where ;^ioo might have been expected. He received an 

 urgent and insulting note from the friends of a lady in the 

 country for inattention. It turned out that the "very urgent 

 matter " was whether three leeches should be applied to the 

 hip-joint, as recommended by him, or if two only should be 

 applied, as recommended by the country practitioner. In 

 January, 1847, he received the honour of appointment as one of 

 her Majesty's physicians for Scotland, regarding which the 

 Queen, in a private letter to the Duchess of Sutherland, had 

 said, *' his high character and abilities make him very fit for." 



When a young man, as we have already noticed, he had been 

 much affected by the terrible agony endured by a Highland 

 woman who had been undergoing a surgical operation. Aware 

 of the fact that, by inhaling sulphuric ether, the patient was 

 rendered insensible to pain, during the summer of 1847 he could 

 think of naught else. He contributed a paper to the Monthly 

 Journal oj Medical Science, entitled, " Notes on the Inhalation 

 of Sulphuric Ether in the Practice of Midwifery." These notes 

 were separately printed and widely distributed amongst pro- 

 fessional men at home and abroad. Turning his attention to 

 other drugs, he became convinced that chloroform was much 

 superior to ether for the purpose he had in view, and in March, 

 1847, he communicated a paper on its use to the Medico-Chir- 

 urgical Society of Edinburgii. From these notes we learn that 

 "chloroform was first discovered and described at nearly the 

 same time by Soubeiran (1831) and Liebig (1832); its com- 

 position was first accurately ascertained by the distinguished 



