Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/102

 86 S I M S I M In Scotland simony is an offence both by civil and ecclesiastical law. The rules are generally those of the canon law. There are few decisions of Scottish courts on the subject. By the Act of 1584, c. 5, ministers, readers, and others guilty of simony provided to benefices were to be deprived. An Act of Assembly of 1753 declares pactions simoniacal whereby a minister or probationer before presentation and as a means of obtaining it bargains not to raise a process of augmentation of stipend or demand reparation or enlargement of his manse or glebe after induction. (J. Wf.) SIMPLICIUS, the successor of Pope Hilarius or Hilarus, was a native of Tibur, and was consecrated bishop of Rome on February 25, 468. He died March 2, 483, and was succeeded by Felix III. His extant letters, which date from the banishment of Romulus Augustulus and the early years of Odoacer's reign, relate almost entirely to the ecclesiastical and court intrigues of Alexandria .and Constantinople in connexion with the Monophysite controversy. SIMPLICIUS, a "native of Cilicia, a disciple of Ammonius and of Damascius, was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. From 400 to 529 A.D. the Neoplatonic school at Athens was the centre of pagan opposition to victorious Christianity, and, as such, fell a victim to imperial persecution. The subvention which it had re- ceived from the state was withdrawn ; its private property was confiscated ; and at last in 529 the teaching at Athens of philosophy and jurisprudence was forbidden (Malalas, p. 451, ed. Bonn). Disestablished, disendowed, and silenced, the scholarch Damascius, Simplicius, Priscianus, and four others resolved in 531 or 532 to seek the protec- tion of Khosrau An6sharvan (or Chosroes), who had ascended the throne of Persia in the former of these years. To his court they went; but, though from this patron of Greek learning they received a hearty welcome, they found themselves unable to support a continued residence amongst barbarians. Before two years had elapsed they returned to Greece, Khosrau, in his treaty of peace concluded with Justinian in 533, expressly stipulating that the seven philosophers should be allowed " to return to their own homes, and to live henceforward in the enjoyment of liberty of conscience " (Agathias, ii. 30,31). After his return from Persia Simplicius wrote commen- taries upon Aristotle's De Casio, Physica, De Anima, and Categorix, which, with a commentary upon the Enchiridion of Epictetus, have survived. In his writings Simplicius, who had small pretensions to originality of doctrine, devotes himself to the exposition and reconciliation of his authorities. His respect at once for Plato and for Aristotle is so great that he refuses to acknowledge any real difference between them, even in regard to their theories of universals and of matter. His remarks are, however, thoughtful and intelligent, and his learning is prodigious. To the student of Greek philosophy his commentaries are invaluable, as they contain many fragments of the older philosophers as well as of his immediate predecessors. The editions of the Greek text of the. commentaries are as follows : on the De Casio, Utrecht, by S. Karsten, 1865 (the Greek text published at Venice in 1 526 is no more than a retranslation from Guil. de Aloerbeka's Latin version) ; on the Physica, Venice, 1526, Berlin (by H. Diels), vol. i. 1882 ; on the DC Anima (a dis- appointing work), Venice, 1527, Berlin (by M. Hayduck), 1882 ; on the Categoric, Venice, 1499, Basel, 1551 ; on the Enchiridion, Venice, 1528, Paris (Didot), 1842, &c. On the life and writings of Simplicius, see J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Grseca, ix. 529 sq. ; Ch. A. Brandis's excellent article in Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Biography ; E. Zeller, D.Phil, d. Gr., III. ii. 851 sq. ; also Ch. A. Brandis, " Ueber d. Griech. Auslegerd. Aristot. Organons," in Abh. Berl. Akad., 1833, and C. G. Zumpt, "Ueber d. Bestand d. phil. Schulen in Athen," ibid., 1842. SIMPSON, SIR JAMES YOUNG, BART. (1811-1870), physician, was born in the town of Bathgate, Linlithgow, Scotland, on the 7th of June 1811. His father was a baker in that town, who largely owed a moderate success in business to a shrewd and managing wife. James was the youngest of a family of eight, and for the furtherance of his worldly prospects the others struggled and sacrificed. At the age of fourteen he entered the university of Edin- burgh as a student in the arts classes. Two years later he began his medical studies. At the age of nineteen he obtained the licence of the College of Surgeons, and two years afterwards took the degree of doctor of medicine. Dr Thomson, who then occupied the chair of pathology in the university, impressed with the graduation thesis, " On Death from Inflammation," presented by Simpson, offered him his assistantship. The offer was accepted, and during the session 1837-38 he acted as interim lecturer on pathology during the illness of the professor. The following winter he delivered his first course of lectures on obstetric medicine in the extra-academical school. On February 4, 1840, he was elected to the professorship of medicine and midwifery in the university. Towards the end of 1846 he was present at an operation performed by Listen on a patient rendered unconscious by the inhalation of sulphuric ether. The success of the pro- ceeding was so marked that Simpson immediately began to use it in midwifery practice. He continued, however, to search for other substances having similar effects, and in March 1847 he read a paper on chloroform to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, in which he fully detailed the history of the use of anaesthetics from the earliest times, but especially dwelt upon the advantages of chloroform over ether. He advocated its use, not only for the prevention of pain in surgical operations, but also for the relief of pain in obstetrical practice. His strong and uncompromising advocacy of its use in the latter class of cases gave rise to one of the angriest and most widespread controversies of the time, and, although his views may not have been generally indorsed by later professional practice, anaesthetics in surgical operations have from that time held an in disputed place, and Simpson's anaesthetic still con- tinues the favourite in the practice of the Edinburgh school. In 1847 he was appointed a physician to the queen in Scotland. In 1859 he advocated the use of acupressure in place of ligatures for arresting bleeding ; his views on this subject have, however, given place to improvements in the ligature and to a better knowledge of the condi- tions influencing its efficiency. His contributions to the literature of his profession and to archaeology, in which latter he took an active interest, were very numerous, and embrace Obstetric Memoirs and Contributions (2 vols.), Homoeopath?/, Acupressure, Selected Obstetrical Works, Anesthesia, and Ilosjritalism, Clinical Lectures on the Diseases of Women, and three volumes of essays on archaeological subjects. Simpson, who had been created a baronet in 1866, died on May 6th 1870, and was accorded a public funeral ; his statue in bronze now stands in West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh. Simpson was a man of strong individuality and somewhat hasty temper, an uncompromising and aggressive opponent when he believed himself in the right, yet so tender and sympathetic that he endeared himself to an immense circle of friends and patients. Endowed with great mental power, activity, and receptivity, he performed a very large amount of literary work, much of which was of great value at the time and still continues to be of interest. He will, however, be chiefly remembered in the annals of medicine as a great personality, who brilliantly fought and won the battle for anaesthetics, and introduced chloroform. SIMPSON, THOMAS (1710-1761), mathematician, was born at Market Bosworth in Leicestershire on the 20th of August 1710. His father was a stuff weaver, and, intend- ing to bring his son up to his own business, took little care of the boy's education. Young Simpson, however, was eager for knowledge, and so ardent was he in pursuit of it that he neglected his weaving, and in consequence of a quarrel was forced to leave his father's house. He settled