A notable instance of an attempt to shut the door in the face of an able man is recorded in the Life of Sir James Simpson, who has made all the world his debtors through the discovery and application of chloroform for surgical operations. Plain Dr. Simpson was a candidate for a professorship in the University of Edinburgh, and had his supporters for the honour; but there was among the men with whom rested the selection a considerable party opposed to him, whose ground of opposition was that, on account of his parents being merely tradespeople, Dr. Simpson would be unable to maintain the dignity of the chair. To their eternal discredit, the persons referred to did not look to the quality and ring of the "gowd," but were guided by the superficial "guinea stamp." The spread of public opinion is gradually putting such distinctions, which have their root and being in privilege and selfishness, out of court.
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty,
at the Edinburgh University Press.