14 WONDERS OF THE DEEP 



to have asked himself the question : " Why does 

 the apple fall to the ground ? " This simple 

 incident set Newton's mind to work, and after 

 many years' thought and study resulted in the 

 discovery of the law of gravitation. 



Sir James Simpson's discovery of the anae- 

 sthetic properties of chloroform, which produces an 

 insensibility to pain, was the result of an accident. 

 For some years the young physician had been 

 conducting experiments in this direction with 

 different drugs, and had obtained various results, 

 none of which so far had proved satisfactory. One 

 night he resolved to carry out an experiment 

 with chloroform. He and his two assistants, 

 sitting round the supper-table in the dining-room, 

 inhaled some of the fumes. Their conversation 

 immediately became brighter; then, after a short 

 while, came a silence, succeeded by the sound of 

 falling bodies. By and by Dr. Simpson awoke. 

 Anxiously looking about him, he heard one of 

 his coadjutors snoring hard, and saw the other 

 just struggling from the floor to his chair. From 

 the curious sensations they had experienced, the 

 doctors realised that they had at last discovered a 

 valuable ansesthetic, one that was destined to 

 confer an immeasurable boon on hundreds of 

 thousands of persons. 



Hundreds of similar instances might be ad- 

 duced to show that wonderful inventions and 

 discoveries have often sprung from ordinary in- 

 cidents, occasionally from accidents, or have been 



