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SIR JAMES SIMPSON    Discoverer of Chloroform

Born: 1811
Died: 1870
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

James was the seventh child, but the most studious one of the family. He went to Edinburgh University at the age of 14, and after two years of study switched to a medical course. During this he watched surgeon Robert Liston amputate limbs faster than anyone else, but still with great pain to the patient. He made great progress, qualifying as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons at 18. He then took a Doctor of Medicine Degree and was elected Senior President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh when he was only 24. He married a Liverpool girl, Jessie, and became Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh University in 1839.

The death of a daughter caused him to question life, and although he attended church, his real opinion of Christianity was “good at death, but not in life.”

In 1846 the news came from America that a successful anaesthetic had been discovered – ether. However, the dangers and disadvantages were too great and the search for a better anaesthetic continued. Later that year Simpson and his helpers, Dr Duncan and Dr Keith, experimented on themselves with chloroform and found that it worked. It was then tired on a mother in labour who was so excited about the less painful labour that she called the girl Anaesthesia!

The discovery brought him national fame, but Simpson, challenged by the death of a close medical friend, Dr John Reid, was seeking answers to eternal questions. When one of his patients asked him what would fill his life if his work came to a stop, Simpson discovered that there was more to life than work or fame, and became a Christian in 1858. He found the peace and purpose he had long been searching for in his relationship with his Saviour Jesus Christ.

He was honoured for his work with a knighthood. Even Queen Victoria had given birth to Prince Leopold under chloroform, attended by James Simpson. He died aged 59, and on the day of his funeral Edinburgh came to a standstill and 2,000 people followed the hearse.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

“Yesterday was my 26th birthday and what a fearful waste of time is summed up in that little numeral. It was one of those days, those fitful days of gloom, in which the past appeared to me as almost lost, and the future as a labyrinth of vexation and disappointment. What is life for?”

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