250 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
as a practitioner, so that he had abundant opportunity of seeing 
cases, both novel and instructive, and of trying improved methods. 
At the same time, he was acquiring a complete knowledge of all 
that had been written by others, not only in Europe and America, 
but even by the G-reeks and Eomans, — his good classical knowledge 
in this respect proving serviceable. He allowed himself very little 
sleep ; and even in the houses of his patients, whilst waiting in an 
adjoining room till his services were required, used to write out 
papers, or arrange materials for them. 
His mind was so exuberant and versatile, that it often flowed 
over and beyond the pale of his own special department. Thus, 
one of his papers read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society in 
1841 was entitled, “ Antiquarian Notices of Leprosy and Leper 
Hospitals in Scotland and England .” Another had this title, 
“ Was the Roman Army provided with Medical Officers f” 
His great delight, and therefore his incessant aim, was to search 
out something new; and for this purpose, whilst he ransacked his 
own brain, he did not disdain to rummage among the rubbish of 
old authors, or to talk with any one who had anything to com- 
municate on any topic whatever. One of the subjects, in his 
special department, which interested him greatly, was the use of 
anesthetics. He had read of the experiments performed in 
America by several surgeons and dentists, to render their patients 
insensible to pain by inhaling sulphuric ether. He did not see 
why this substance should not be used in obstetric practice. Ac- 
cordingly, he administered it to one of his patients for the purpose 
of lessening the pains of parturition. This case occurred on the 
19th January 1847. Before that time, no one had ventured on 
such an experiment. It was entirely successful ; and he thought 
it so important that, next day, he communicated the discovery 
to his class, and gave a special report of it to the Obstetric Society. 
The case got into the newspapers, and within ten days the process 
was repeated successfully in the hospitals of London and Paris. 
During the following six months, Dr Simpson continued the use 
of sulphuric ether both in the Edinburgh hospitals and in private 
practice, resorting to it, however, only in cases where nature had 
to be assisted. Simpson found several drawbacks in the use of 
sulphuric ether, and in consequence began to search for something 
