Background
Simpson was born on June 7, 1811 in Bathgate, Scotland. His father was a baker in that town, and James was the youngest of a family of seven.
Simpson was born on June 7, 1811 in Bathgate, Scotland. His father was a baker in that town, and James was the youngest of a family of seven.
At the age of fourteen Simpson entered the university of Edinburgh as a student in the arts classes. At the age of nineteen he obtained the licence of the College of Surgeons, and two years afterwards took the degree of doctor of medicine. The following winter he delivered his first course of lectures on obstetric medicine in the extra-academical school.
At the age of 28 he succeeded Prof James Hamilton as Professor of Medicine and Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh. He improved the design of obstetric forceps that to this day are known in obstetric circles as "Simpson's Forceps". His most noted contribution was the introduction of anaesthesia to childbirth.
In February 1840 Simpson was elected to the professorship of medicine and midwifery in the university.
Towards the end of 1846 he was present at an operation performed by Robert Liston on a patient rendered unconscious by the inhalation of sulphuric ether. The success of the proceeding was so marked that Simpson immediately began to use it in midwifery practice.
In 1847, Simpson first demonstrated the properties of chloroform upon humans, during an experiment with friends in which he learnt that it could be used to put one to sleep. Dr Simpson and two of his assistants, Drs George Skene Keith (1819-1910) and James Matthews Duncan (1826-1890), used to sit every evening in Dr Simpson's dining room to try new chemicals to see if they had any anaesthetic effect. On 4 November 1847 they decided to try a ponderous material named chloroform that they had previously ignored. On inhaling the chemical they found that a general mood of cheer and humour had set in. But suddenly all of them collapsed only to regain consciousness the next morning. Simpson knew, as soon as he woke up, that he had found something that could be used as an anaesthetic. They soon had Miss Petrie, Simpson's niece, try it. She fell asleep soon after inhaling it while singing the words, "I am an angel!". There is a prevalent myth that the mother of the first child delivered under chloroform christened her child "Anaesthesia"; the story is retailed in Simpson's biography as written by his daughter Eve. However, the son of the first baby delivered by chloroform explained that Simpson's parturient had been one Jane Carstairs, and her child was baptised Wilhelmina. "Anaesthesia" was a nickname Simpson had given the baby.
It was very much by chance that Simpson survived the chloroform dosage he administered to himself. If he had inhaled too much and died, chloroform would have been seen as a dangerous substance, which in fact it is. Conversely, if Simpson had inhaled slightly less it would not have put him to sleep. It was his willingness to explore the possibilities of the substance that set him on the road to a career as a pioneer in the field of medicine.
Senior President of the Royal Medical Society, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1850)