DISCOVERY 



67" 



national life : while in the domain of psychology 

 " motion study," scientific management, mental tests 

 for aviators, and vocational training, are among the 

 applications on which the younger science is beginning 

 to test its new-found freedom. 



How is the Profession, as distinguished from the 

 Science of Physiology, to find its place in our social 

 system ? Medicine is maintained by the urgent need 

 felt by the sufferer for relief and help : the normal man 

 equally may need advice and help, but he has not the 

 same potent realisation of his need. It is necessary to 

 call in motives more far-seeing than pain or fear to 

 establish its existence. Such a motive may be found 

 in the educated self-interest of a great industrial con- 

 cern, which has appreciated the value of an impartial 

 and critical investigation of the human factor in 

 its success : or it may be found in the foresight of 

 government or municipal bodies, or in the generosity 

 of private benefactors, who have realised that the 

 scientific study of normal man in relation to his in- 

 heritance and his environment is an essential stone in 

 a rational structure for society. But in whatever way 

 the profession can be created, it has no lack of oppor- 

 tunity for fruitful service. 



The most urgent need for physiology is discovery — 

 a more extensive knowledge of the physical, chemical, 

 biological, and psj'chologicaJ factors governing the 

 living creature. Such work can best be done at uni- 

 versities, with the intellectual stimulus of university' life. 

 Progress is within sight in all directions if only workers, 

 equipment, funds, and leisure can be made available. 

 But accompanying this discovery there is required, 

 scarcely less insistently, an interpretation of its mean- 

 ing in terms of human life and this interpretation can be 

 made only if there be a sufficient body of " professional " 

 interpreters, men well trained, at least as well trained 

 as the Medical Profession, in the elements of scientific 

 thought, and given the duty of applying physiological 

 methods and results to industrial, economic, and social 

 problems. Society is built for man, not man for society ; 

 and an impartial scientific study of man in relation 

 to the structure of society is a first condition if the 

 structure is to survive the struggles and aspirations of 

 its occupant. 



BOOKS RECOMMENDED 

 General Practice and X-rays. By (Mrs.) A. Vance 

 Knox, M.B., and Robert Knox, M.D., CM. 

 (A. & C. Black, 15s.) 

 A handbook for the General Practitioner and Student. 

 Dr. Kno.x is well known as an authority on Radiography 

 and Radio-therapeutics. 



Principles of Human Geography. By Ellsworth 

 Huntington and Sumner W. Gushing. (New 

 York, John Wiley ; London,' Chapman & Hall, 21s.) 



Sir James Young Simpson 



JUNE 7, iSlI — M.\Y 6, 1870 



The Discoverer of the A lu-esthetic Properties oj Chloroforms. 



By Edward Cahen, F.I.G., A.R.C.Sc. 



Although Sir James Simpson's name will always be- 

 connected with the discovery of the anassthetic pro- 

 perties of chloroform, he owed his fame really to his 

 own personality, his great ability, and the reforms he 

 introduced into the practice of medicine and surgery. 

 These reforms were carried through by his indomitable- 

 will and fighting spirit. It is certain that, even if he- 

 had not discovered the power of chloroform to induce 

 anaesthesia, he would nevertheless have reached the- 

 pinnacle of fame through his fight for anaesthetics, 

 and because of his work as an obstetrician. It is of 

 interest to note that such was his final victory for- 

 chloroform, that ether, the an.-esthetic properties of 

 which had been discovered earlier, was for many a 

 long year banished from general use by the profession, 

 and it is only in recent years that this substance has- 

 come again into general use. 



Simpson was of humble Scottish birth ; his father 

 was the local baker in the small village of Bathgate, 

 in Linlithgowshire, and the boy had to take his share- 

 in the business with his brothers. He was, however,, 

 early singled out as the son for whom special sacri- 

 fices were to be made in order that he might bring 

 honour on his family. Apart from the help he thus, 

 received, which enabled him to receive an education 

 which should fit him for his future, he owed his rise to- 

 fame entirely to his own ability and ambition. His. 

 one thought was to repaj' his people for what they had 

 done for him. At the tender age of fourteen he left the- 

 parish school and went straight to the University at 

 Edinburgh. His early upbringing had been in an 

 e.xceedingly narrow atmosphere, but this did not 

 prevent the lad from entering on his studies with 

 that keen delight in the search after the truth, 

 which was in such contrast to his early surroundings, 

 and which always actuated him throughout his life. 

 In 1830, at the age of but eighteen, he found himself 

 a qualified practitioner, and two years later he gradu- 

 ated as Doctor at the University of Edinburgh, being 

 one of the last candidates to undergo the ordeal of an 

 e.xamination conducted in Latin. His thesis sO' 

 impressed his examiner, Thomson, the Professor of 

 Pathology in the University, that he offered him the 

 post as his assistant at £50 per annum. This the poor 

 lad eagerly accepted as a means of relieving his family 

 of the burden of keeping him, and he pursued his. 

 studies in pathology and midwiferj'. 



Before settling down to a more remunerative occu- 



