Part 9 (2/2)

So groaned upon his rock that t.i.tan good Who by his brave and loving hardihood Was to weak man of priceless boons the giver, Which e'en the supreme tyrant could not sever From us, once given; we own him in our food And in our blazing hearth's beat.i.tude; Yet still his cry was ”Pain, ever forever!”

Shall we a later, harder doom rehea.r.s.e?

One came whose art men's dread of are repressed: Mangled and writhing limb he lulled to rest, And stingless left the old Semitic curse; Him, too, for these blest gifts did Zeus amerce?

He, too, had vultures tearing at his breast.

2

Hush, Pagan plaints! our t.i.tan is unbound; The cruel beak and talons scared away; As once upon his mother's lap he lay So rests his head august on holy ground; Spells stronger than his own his pangs have found; He hears no clamour of polemic fray, Nor reeks he what unthankful men may say; Nothing can vex him in that peace profound.

And where his loving soul, his genius bold?

In slumber? or already sent abroad On angels' wings and works, as some men hold?

Or waiting Evolution's change, unawed?

All is a mystery, as Saint Paul has told, Saying, ”Your life is hid with Christ in G.o.d.”

In a peaceful corner of the St. Andrew Chapel in Westminster Abbey, alongside memorials of Sir Humphry Davy and a few other scientists of note, stands a speaking image in marble--perhaps the most expressive representation that exists--of this wonderful man,

”To whose genius and benevolence The world owes the blessings derived From the use of chloroform for The relief of suffering.

LAUS DEO.”

Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, when writing to the medical journals in support of the proposal to secure Simpson's burial in Westminster Abbey, foretold that his reputation would ripen with years, that jealousies would be forgotten, and antagonism would be buried.

Twenty-seven years have elapsed since then, and few remain with whom he came in conflict; those who do remain exchanged, along with others of his opponents, friendly words of reconciliation in the end, and took the hand which he held out from his deathbed. As a man, Simpson had his faults; but they were exaggerated in his lifetime by some, just as his capabilities and achievements were magnified by those who wors.h.i.+pped him as inspired. He was full of sympathy for mankind, benevolent and honest to a fault, and forbearing to his enemies. He rushed eagerly into the combat and oftentimes wounded sorely, and perhaps unnecessarily. His genius was essentially a reforming genius, and impelled him to fight for his ends, for genius is always the ”master of man.” We can forgive him if sometimes it caused him to fight too vigorously, where the heart of a man of mere talent might have failed and lost. His social charms were excelled only by his marvellous energy, his prodigious memory, and his keenness of insight; but he was regrettably inattentive to the details of ordinary everyday life and practice.

He approached the study of medicine when the darkness of the Middle Ages was still upon it, and was one of the first to point out that although many diseases appeared incurable, they were nevertheless preventable. Although no brilliant operator himself, he so transformed the surgical theatre by his revelation of the power of chloroform, and by his powerful advocacy of the use of anaesthetics, that pain was shut out and vast scientific possibilities opened up; many of which have been brilliantly realised by subsequent workers. He devoted himself specially to the despised obstetric art, fighting for what he recognised as the most lowly and neglected branch of his profession, ranging his powerful forces on the side of the weak, and left it the most nearly perfect of medical sciences.

He was enthusiastic in his belief in progress, and in the power of steady, honest work to effect great ends. With the exception of the time of that temporary burst into revivalism in 1861, his motto throughout life might very well have been _laborare est orare_. He was no believer in speculations, but curiously enough kept for recreation only the subject of archaeology, in which he entered into many intricate speculative studies. In his professional work he avoided speculation, and never adopted a theory which was not built upon firm fact.

If we are asked for what we are most to honour Simpson, we answer, not so much for the discoveries he made, not for the instruments he invented, not for his exposure of numerous evils, not for the introduction of reforms, not for any particular contribution to science, literature, or archaeology; but rather for the inspiring life of the man looked at both in outline and in detail. He was guided by high ideals, and a joyous unhesitating belief that all good things were possible--that right must prevail. He was stimulated by a genius which, as has been pointed out, gave him the energy to fight for his ends with herculean strength. The fact that chloroform was by his efforts alone accepted as _the_ anaesthetic, and ether, which from the first was generally thought to be safer in ordinary hands, was deliberately put on one side practically all over the world, testified to his forcible and convincing method, and to his power of making others see as he saw. As a man of science alone, as a philanthropist alone, as a worker alone, as a reformer alone, he was great. But although to the popular mind he is known chiefly because of his introduction of chloroform, medical history will record him as greater because of his reforming genius, and will point to the fight for anaesthesia, and his crusade against hospitalism as the best of all that he accomplished or initiated. And he who, while making allowances for the weaknesses of human nature which were Simpson's, studies the life which was brought all too soon to a close, will recognise the great spirit which breathed through all his life.

THE END.

APPENDIX

I.

The following is a list of Sir James Simpson's contributions to _Archaeology_. His professional writings, in the form of contributions to the medical journals, or of papers read to various societies or meetings, number close upon two hundred.

1. ”Antiquarian Notices of Leprosy and Leper Hospitals in Scotland and England.” (Three papers read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society, March 3, 1841.) _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, October, 1841, and January and April, 1842.

2. ”Notice of Roman Pract.i.tioner's Medicine Stamp found near Tranent.”

Royal Society of Edinburgh; Dec. 16, 1850.

3. ”Ancient Roman Medical Stamps.” _Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science_, Jan., March, April, 1851.

4. ”Was the Roman Army provided with any Medical Officers?” Edinburgh, 1851, private circulation.

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