SIMPSON. 187 SIMS. continent to the Patilic. and did much explor- ing at other times, ami also sent out several notable exploring expeditions. In 1841 Simpson was knighted, and in the same year he started on an 'overland' journey around the world. He pub- lished an account of this journey under the title of A yarrative of a Joiinicy Hound the World Duriiiff the Years IS'it and IS.'i2. Consult: Hopkins, Canada (Toronto, 1898-1900) ; and Maedonald, Peace River: A Canoe Voyage from Hudson's Hay to the Pacific by Sir deorge Himp- son (Ottawa, 1872). SIMPSON, Sir James Young (1811-70). An eminent Scotch obstetrician, born at Bathgate, Linlithgowshire. He was graduated in medicine in 1832 from the University of Edinburgh. He was elected president of the Royal Medical So- ciety in 183j; lectured on i)athology in the uni- versity; and later succeeded to the chair of mid- wifery. He built up a large practice very rapid- ly, and became one of the physicians to the Queen in 1847. In March, 1847, he introduced to the world the discovery of the anaesthetic properties of chloroform. In 1856 the Monthyon prize of the Academic des Sciences, amounting to 2000 francs, was awarded to him in recognition of his services in the discovery of chloroform anaesthesia and its introduction into midwifery practice. Simpson invented actipresstue in hemorrhage, in 18.59. In lSt50 he was invested by Oxford with the degree of D.C.L., and was created a l)aronet in the following year. Sir James was noted as an anticiuary of eminence as well as a most skill- ful medical practitioner. It is claimed that Simpson anticipated the discoveiy of the X- rays. He received a public funeral at Edin- burgh, in which city a maternity hospital has been founded to his memory. His bust is in Westminster Abbey. His principal works are: Obstetric Memoirs (1850) ; Acujircssure (1804) ; Selected Obstetrical Works (1871); Ana'sthrsia and nositilalism (1871) : Clinical Essai/siiS'l) ; Clinical Lectures on the Diseases of Women ( 187 1 ) . Consult the Memoir by Duns ( 1873 ) . SIMPSON, John Palgr.t5 (1807-87). An English novelist and jilaywright. Ijorii in Nor- wich. He was of Norfolk stock. Having gradu- ated from Corpus Christi College. Cambridge (1829), and taken the master's degree three years later, he lived abroad until 1850, when he settled in London. Here he became a well-knomi figure in literary society. His novels comprise: Second Lore (1846) ; Gisclla. an Hungarian ro- mance (1847); The Lily of Paris (1849); For Ever and Never (1884) ; and a few short tales. He was in Paris during the Revolution of 1848. and wrote Pictures from Revolutionari/ Paris (1849). In 1847 he had published the' equally brilliant Letters from the Danube. Simpson composed or adapted from popular novels and French plays more than sixty pieces which, though successful, have slight literary value. SIMPSON, Matthew (1810-84). An Ameri- can clergyman, born at Cadiz. Ohio. He gradu- ated at Allegheny College. Meadville. Pa., in 1832; received the medical degree and entered the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1833. He was made professor of natural sci- ences at Allegheny College in 1837, president of Indiana Asbury, now De Pauw University (1839-41) ; he was editor of the Western Chris- Vol. XVIII.— 13. ((■(/)!. Advocate in 1848; was elected bishop in 1852: visited the .Methodist mission.-, in Syria and the East in 1863, and the Alexicaii missions in 1874, and was a delegate to the European Mis- sionary Conferences in 1875. He was an inti- mate personal friend of President Lincoln, and was employed by the Government in several im- portant cdulidential commissions. He died in Philailelphia. He published: A Hundred Years of Methodism (1876) ; Cyelopcedia of Methodism ( 1878) ; Yale Lectures on Preaching ( 1879) ; and Sermons (1885). See his Bioyraphi/ by ti. R. Crooks (New York, 1890). SIMPSON, TuoMAS (1710-61). An English mathematician, horn at .Market Bosworth, Lei- cestershire. His interest in celestial phenomena seems to have been awakened by the solar eclipse of May 11, 1724. In 1735 he moved to London, devoting his spare time to the teaching of mathe- matics. In 1740 he was chosen a member of the Royal .cademy of Stockholm and in 1745 a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1743 he was ap- pointed professor of mathematics in the Royal Academy at Woolwich. In 1737 he published .1 A'eic Treatise on Fluxions, which, although it contained some obscurities and defects, showed great mathematical ability and enhanced his rep- utation. Simpson wrote many ingenious works on mathematics. SIMROCK, sim'rpk, Karl Joseph (1802-76). . ( icriiian poet and scholar. He was born at Bonn, studied there and at Berlin, entered the civil ser- vice in 1820, and in 1827 published a translation of the yibelungenlied, which has become classic in more than fifty editions. He followed this with metrical renderings of Hartmann von .ue'3 Der armc Heinrich (1830), was expelled from the Prussian service for a political poem, and gave himself wholly to literature, modernizing the poems of Walther von der Vogelweide ( 18331 ; the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach (1842) ; lieinekc Fuchs (1845) ; the Edda (1851) ; Gott- fried von Strassburg's Tristan, nnd Isolde (1855) ; the Old Saxon Eel fund (1856) ; the Anglo-Saxon lieonulf (18.59); Der Wartburykriey (18.58); Brant's Narrenschiff (1872) ; and other less im- portant works. Simrock wrote many works on German legends, proverbs, etc., and also pub- lished a study of the sotirces of Shakespeare. From 1850 till his death he was professor of the Old German language and literature at Bonn. Consult Hocker, Karl Simrock (Leipzig, 1877). SIMS, simz. George Robert (1847—). .
English journalist and playwright. He was born in London, and made his home there, becoming almost as familiar with the darker sides of Lon- don life as was Dickens. He was educated at Hanwell College and at Bonn. On the death of Thomas Hood the younger in 1874 he joined the staff of Fun and in the same yciir he began writing for the Dispatch, in which first appeared his sketches under the title of Social Kaleido- scope, the Three ISrass Balls, and The Theatre of Life. These were exceedingly popular and were translated into French and German. From the feuilleton he drifted into light verse, contributing to the Referee the Dagonet Ballads (collected in 1882). Among other volumes of verse from his pen are Ballad,i nn/i Poems (1879), The Land of Hold (1883). and Dagonet Ditties (1893). Turn- ing to the drama, Sims wrote a large number of
