DEATH OF PROFESSOR SYME.

North Otago Times, Volume XIV, Issue 542, 26 July 1870, Page 7 (Supplement)

DEATH OF PROFESSOR SYME.

Only a few days since we had to record the death of Sir James Y. .Simpson, and now theprofessiori'has to ( regret the loss of yet another of its moat distinguished Scottish members*— Mr. Jame3 Symt, late Professor ' of Clinical Surgery in the Edinburgh University. Recently he has had several paralytic stroked, and not only waa it known that his opinion of his own case was unfavourable, but his medical attendants also ' ' regarded the'ohanoe of his recovery as email. At the age of 70 four paralytic strokes must be regarded as premonitory ; and as he had been almost wholly unable to swallow food of any Boxt since his last attack, his medical brethren were not unprepared to hear of a fatal termination to Ma "illness. They had, iff faot, for-BeyeraT days past had no -hope of Mb rtfooYery.' He died on Sunday." He waa born in Kinrosi- , shire in 1809, and studied medioine in ' Edinburgh, He was a pupil of Liston. In Edinburgh he early became eminent for his skill in .anatomy, and he was regarded as "one of the most i successful' medical leoturers of the day. He was , appointed to the " chair- of ' Clinical* Surgery; in the -Unirersity of Edinburgh shortly after h&Ting pubilisaed his excellent treatise "On the Excision of -Diseased Joints." He was for a brief fame Professor -of Surgery in 'the University of London ; bat resumed ,jthe chair of Clinical Surgery in Edinburgh. His 'contributions to medical- literature hate' been valuable ;' ..and Tolnmiaous. Besides the work named above/'he ,, wrote " Contributions to Pathology and the' Practice <of Surgery " in 1847, the " Prinoiplea of Surgery " in ' 31856,- " Observations on Clinical Surgery " in 1862, ,and,a treatise on the "Excision of 'the Scapula" in ,1864, ' He has also written a number of works devoted -jto the elnoidation of some of the abstruse* branches of <£urgioal inquiry. He deserredly held high rank in the opinion of his medical brethren, for the' thoughtful care -jirjth which he Btudied all questions connected with' 1 ifche^praotioal -details of , surgery. • Many modes of ,ppe*fttiona, which had fallen into 'desuetude were rer rived iby- him with such modifications as rendered ,^hem available to the modern practitioner. He' also .devised many new modes of- operation ; and both in ,£liis country and on the continent his suggestionH majority of instances accepted with approval ' by his medical brethren. Although' death .■tfoundihim in the fulness of years, and not at a period, j»s in the erase of Sir James Simpson, when the projfesaion had every reason to hope for a long Berries of j at his hands, yet his demise cannot but bfc '" regarded as a serieus Una to medical eoienc*.