of Edinburgh , Session 1870-71. 
2G9 
Gratifying to Simpson as these honours and distinctions no 
doubt were, there was one fact which must have been even more 
gratifying, and that was the introduction of chloroform, for medical 
purposes, in every civilized country, coupled with the almost uni¬ 
versal acknowledgment that he had been the first to suggest and 
employ it for the relief of human suffering. He must also have felt 
that the world generally accorded to him the highest eminence in 
liis profession, inasmuch as patients had come to him from every 
quarter of the globe, and as his works had been translated into 
every European language. Probably no man ever lived who, at the 
close of life, had the satisfaction of looking back on the same amount 
of work done for the benefit of his fellow creatures, and of possess¬ 
ing so largely their approbation and confidence. 
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that, at the sugges¬ 
tion of the most eminent of the medical faculty in London, and 
warmly seconded by men there of high social position, a proposal 
was made, soon after Simpson’s death had been announced, that 
his remains should be interred in Westminster Abbey,—that last 
resting-place of Britain’s most illustrious sons. But the proposal 
was modestly, and I think properly declined by the surviving mem¬ 
bers of his family. Their decision was in this respect in accord 
with the unostentatious character and habits of the deceased. It 
was right and becoming that a man of his domestic dispositions 
should not be separated, even after death, from the other members 
of his own family, to whom he was deeply attached, but that he 
should lie beside them in the spot which he himself had selected, 
and where several had already been buried. Moreover, his inter¬ 
ment at home allowed of an honour being conferred on him at his 
funeral, which, to my mind, was far greater than entombment in 
Westminster Abbey;—for his funeral was attended by all the 
public bodies and corporations of Edinburgh, and was thronged by 
thousands of sorrowing mourners, who, even from distant parts of 
the country, came to pay the last tribute of respect to one who had 
been so great a benefactor of the human race. 
We have all to lament that our deceased friend and associate 
should have been cut off in the meridian of his fame, and whilst 
still running a career of usefulness. But we have reason to be 
thankful that his life, shore if reckoned by years, was long, if 
