Simpson, Sir James Young

Simpson, Sir James Young, 1811–70, Scottish physician, M.D. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1832. He became (1839) professor of medicine and midwifery at Edinburgh. For a while he employed ether anesthesia in childbirth, but soon abandoned its use in favor of chloroform, which he introduced as an anesthetic in 1847. Eminent as an obstetrician, he was also known as an archaeologist.

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Simpson, Sir James Young

(born June 7, 1811, Bathgate, Linlithgowshire, Scot.—died May 6, 1870, London, Eng.) Scottish obstetrician. He received his M.D. from the University of Edinburgh, where he became professor of obstetrics. After news of the use of ether in surgery in Boston reached Scotland, Simpson employed it in obstetrics to relieve labour pains (1847) and later substituted chloroform, which he continued to use despite opposition from obstetricians and the clergy. He also introduced iron-wire sutures, the use of pressure to stop bleeding, and Simpson forceps (long obstetrical forceps).