Sir James Young Simpson and chloroform (1811-1870) / by H. Laing Gordon.

  • Gordon, H. Laing (Henry Laing)
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sir James Young Simpson and chloroform (1811-1870) / by H. Laing Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    and frequent blistering, and who was the inventor of that well known household remedy, Gregory's powder. Gregory was also a pugnacious man and could not abide the pretensions of the representative of the despised art of midwifery ; he administered a public caning to him, and had to pay ;^ioo in damages which, it is said, he offered to pay over again for another opportunity of thrashing the little obstetrician. This encounter occurred before Simpson became a student, but the memory of it was frequently re- vived in the subsequent disputes which Hamilton carried on. The notes which Simpson took of the curriculum lectures were concisely made and full of comments, criticisms, and queries. He by no means bowed down to authority ; he allowed nothing to pass which he did not understand at the time, and specially noted points which it seemed to him his teachers themselves did not understand. Like most young men of his abilities and tempera- ment, Simpson took pleasure in rhyming, and some of his verses are preserved. They indicate something of the rollicking spirit of the medical student's life seventy years ago. The medical student at that date has been described in a recent interesting sketch of Edinburgh student life as wearing a white great-coat and talking loud; his hat was inclined knowingly to one side of his head, and the bright hues of an Oriental handkerchief decorated his neck. There was a great deal of acting in