James Young Simpson

Sir James Young Simpson ( born June 7, 1811 in Bathgate, Linlithgow, Scotland, † May 6, 1870 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish physician.

He was professor of obstetrics at the University of Edinburgh and examined the possibilities of anesthetics.

On the evening of November 4, 1847, he tested with two friends in a private round of chloroform as an anesthetic. His experience and knowledge gained from the experiment with drugs, he published on 12 November in a font that sold 4,000 times.

In 1847, he led the chloroform narcosis purposes. In 1853, Queen Victoria was successfully anesthetized at the birth of her ninth child with chloroform. Simpson was raised in 1866 was created a Baron.

In 1900, they found out first that chloroform can also cause liver damage, but medical progress remains controversial.

From Simpson originate many scientific papers on acupressure. This process has nothing to do with traditional Chinese medicine, but describes a ligation of bleeding vessels by metal needles that are engraved under the vessel and then bent over like a clamp. Simpson believed to have found in the yarn material, the cause of wound infections, his vessel needles were left again quickly due to many secondary bleeding. Success, however, he worked in the fields of obstetrics, anesthetics, hospitalism and women's diseases.

As Simpson died, his funeral was a public event. Today at him reminds a bronze statue in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh.