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Sir James Young Simpson 1811-1870
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Born the son of a baker in Bathgate near Edinburgh, James Young
Simpson was to become a pioneer in the field of anaesthetics. From a
young age he had an aptitude for science which took him to Edinburgh
University where he graduating in 1832, eventually he was to become the
Professor of Midwifery there. Aware of the suffering his patients
endured he began to research for possible anaesthetics. With two
assistants in 1847 he experimented with chloroform, a much less potent
remedy than ether which had been causing his patients problems.
Unfortunately the system at that time had no regularity body and
chloroform’s misuse by another doctor led to the death of a young
girl. However, the medical profession became less sceptical when Queen
Victoria was successfully anaesthetised with chloroform in 1853 during
the birth of Prince Leopold, her ninth child. The procedure again became
commonly used and as a result in 1866 Simpson became the first person to
be knighted for services to medicine.
Simpson's lifelong preoccupation was to alleviate the physical pain and
suffering of his patients. His obsession
was to
find a way of sending patients to sleep to avoid the agonies of
childbirth and the terror that surgery brought at that time.
Simpson died in 1970 and is buried in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh. It
is said that more than 100,000 people lined the route to the cemetery on
the day of his funeral. He is remembered by the Simpson Memorial
Maternity Pavilion in Edinburgh, together with a statue in Princes
Street Gardens and also a bust in Westminster Abbey.
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