CHAPTER X
PERSONAL—PROFESSORIAL—PROFESSIONAL
His genius—Fertility of resource—Personal influence—Work in obstetrics and gynæcology and surgery—His lecturing and teaching—The healing of wounds—Acupressure—Hospitalism—Proposal to stamp out infectious diseases.
Professor A. R. Simpson has said that his uncle Sir James Simpson’s genius showed itself in his power of seeing things, in his power of adapting means to ends, and in his power of making others see what he had seen and do what he had done. We have seen these characteristics displayed in his work upon anæsthesia; it is literally true that he left no stone unturned to gain his end and to make others look upon anæsthesia in the same light as he regarded it. He declared all the while that if he found the opposition to the administration of chloroform in midwifery practice too powerful to conquer alone, he would finally overcome it by bringing about such a state of public opinion on the subject as would compel the profession to adopt his methods.
Whether we regard Simpson as a physician or as a surgeon, as a gynæcologist or as an accoucheur, we find that his success was always due to the same causes. He possessed no secret remedies such as an ignorant and imaginative section of the public often credit to successful medical men. He performed no operations with which other surgeons were not equally familiar and equally capable of performing; indeed he frequently sent his surgical cases to operators in whose hands he considered they would be more skilfully treated than in his. In obstetrics and gynæcology his skill arose not only from his unrivalled experience, but also from his power of rapid diagnosis, and his promptness and boldness in treatment.
His readiness in resource was unfailing. On one occasion, it is related, during an operation the bottle of chloroform was knocked over and its contents were spilled upon the carpet before the surgeon had completed his work; whilst his colleagues were wondering what was to be done or how a further supply of the anæsthetic could be obtained with sufficient speed, Simpson was on his knees hacking out with his knife the portion of carpet on which the chloroform had just fallen; and by means of this extemporised inhaler the operation proceeded uninterrupted to the end.
He carried his distinguishing energy and thoroughness into every branch of his work; even in extempore speeches made at meetings of professional societies, he 166 placed facts before his listeners in so convincing and lucid a manner out of the extensive variety of his knowledge, and aided by his great memory, that if he did not in reality gain the point he argued in favour of he generally appeared to do so. On such occasions too his imperturbable temper was a valuable weapon.
There is no doubt that the genial professor availed himself fully of the unbounded confidence placed in him by his patients. Those of us who did not know him cannot appreciate what we have already said, that the charm of his personality was one of the greatest factors of his success in practice, and of his social success; there is the risk of the appearance of exaggeration in any description of this personal influence. The sympathy of his heart, a real sympathy, not a thin professional veneer, was made manifest by deed as well as word. It aroused in his patient, quite unconsciously to both, a feeling that this man, above all other men, understood his complaint; that he, the sufferer was the chief, if not the only object of his thought and care. It was said over and over again of him that his words and look did more good than all his physic, so able a wielder was he of that healing power which reaches the body through the mind. Those who knew him not, but falling sick hastened to Edinburgh to be healed by him, were oftentimes cured simply because they felt beforehand that he would cure them. They followed unconsciously the ancient command of the 167 Talmud, where it says, “Honour your physician before you have need of him,” and went to him full of respect and fired by faith. Wise men have striven through all ages to take advantage of this influence of the mind over the body, and the necessity of possessing a healthy mind if the body is also to be healthy. A striking proof of the antiquity of the thought has been recently furnished in a fashion that would have delighted Simpson. On a papyrus, dated A.D. 200, brought to light by Egyptian explorers, it is written that Christ said: “A prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician work cures upon them that know him.”
The advances which Simpson made in the science and practice of both midwifery and gynæcology were due to the magnitude of his experience and the readiness of his genius to profit by experience. His one thought being the relief of suffering and the prolongation of life, he approached the bedside as a man with less high aspirations would fail to do. He considered only the patient’s interest, and gave his genius free play. He took midwifery and gynæcology by storm, and urged them on to great developments; he believed in observing, helping, or imitating nature rather than acting, as his predecessors had done, upon preconceived ideas which oftener than not ran contrary to nature’s commands. He avoided meddlesomeness, and stepped in only as the ally of nature. He took numerous hints from bygone practitioners and 168 writers, and developed them. To-day we are profiting by his teaching, and the instruments which he devised or perfected.