ii 



Lumleian ; but his chief work was in the office o£ secretary to the Com- 

 mittees on the Nomenclature of Diseases. It would be impossible to 

 overestimate the value of his services in that capacity. He was the 

 principal originator of the undertaking, and never ceased to labour in it 

 during the six or more years in which it was in progress. Of all the 

 great honour due to a work of so large importance, even of much more 

 than national importance, the greater part was certainly gained by Dr. 

 Sibson. 



Dr. Sibson was elected one of the physicians of St. Mary's Hospital in 

 1851, and held the post during twenty years : he was also for some time 

 one of the lecturers on medicine in the school. His teaching was earnest, 

 laborious, and minute. Emphatic as he was in speech, and never for a 

 moment doubting the importance of even the smallest fact, he made all 

 listen to him, and he made many learn. Few, indeed, could follow him 

 in all the minuteness of detail with which he spoke on his chief subjects, 

 such as the diagnosis of diseases in the chest ; but he made his pupils 

 feel that they had work to do for which nothing less than the devotion of 

 a life could suffice, and he showed them how to do it. 



Dr. Sibson was not less vigorous in the British Medical Associa- 

 tion. He first became a member in 1843 ; in 1850 he delivered the 

 address in physiology, in 1870 that in medicine ; for many years he 

 was a member of the General Council, for three years its president, 

 and after this a permanent vice-president. It was at his sugges- 

 tion that the plan for grants for scientific researches was adopted, and 

 he was chairman of the Grant-Committee. Briefly, he took part in 

 every good work of the Association. 



And he took a willing part in larger and more public works. He was a 

 very active member of the Asylum District Board and of the Govern- 

 ment Commission in the Greenwich Hospital Enquiry in 1867-8. 



He was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1849 after the pub- 

 lication of two papers in the ' Transactions,' became a member of the 

 Council in 1872, and was for some years Treasurer of the Eoyal Society 

 Club. Among his honours he had the honorary degree of M.D. of 

 Dublin and of LL.D. of Durham*. 



It is not possible to give a summary of Dr. Sibson's numerous published 

 essays, comprising, in addition to the subject above mentioned, researches 

 on narcotic poisons, ether, and chloroform. It was while investigating 

 the action of anaesthetics that, by making use of soft lead as the most 

 pliable substance for adaptation to the mouth, he succeeded in con- 

 structing a very ingenious mask to be worn during inhalation ; and to 

 him the profession is indebted for the double valve for expiration and 

 inspiration. 



Nearly every one of the essays relating to the chest was in itself a 



* Facts derived from an excellent memoir of Dr. Sibson in the 1 British Medical 

 Journal,' September 30, 1876* 



