Laryngological Association. He was also a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and formerly chairman of the section in laryngology of the Academy, and a member of the Hospital Graduates Club. For a number of years he was secretary of the delegates to the Congress of Physicians and Surgeons, representing the American Laryngological Association.
In speaking of what he accomplished in laryngology, he was perhaps best known by his work as a teacher, by what he did to develop the art of intubation in the adult, and as the inventor of the intra-nasal tampons' for epistaxis, which are in general use, the invention being the application of the Bernay's sponge to the principle of intra-nasal pressure. He was the author of "The Use of Bernay's Aseptic Sponge in the Nose and Naso-Pharynx with Special Reference to Its Use as a Pressure Haemostatic," and was also a contributor of the articles on stenosis and tumors of the larynx in Keating's "Cyclopedia of Children," and the articles on diphtheria, intubation, etc., in Posey and Wright's "Diseases of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat," 1903.
Dr. Simpson married, October 25, 1882, Anna Farrand, of Hudson, New York, and three children were born to them.
Among his many attainments he was devotedly fond of music, and for a long time was a member of the Musurgia Society. His ability in this direction as well as his lovable, whole-souled personality made him much sought after on all social occasions, and numerous organizations welcomed him as a valuable addition to their list of members. He carried into his professional work the same sunny, hopeful, helpful characteristics which were so much a part of him, making him a beloved physician, an enthusiastic, effective lecturer and teacher, and a lucid and sane writer and thinker in the work of the specialty to which he devoted himself.
He died, February 6, 1914, following a cerebral hemorrhage. His wife, a daughter and a son survived him.
Sims, James Marion (1813–1883)
J. Marion Sims was on his father's side English, on his mother's of Scotch-Irish descent. His paternal grandfather, John Sims, was born December 27, 1790, and married Mahala Mackey in 1812. Of the father, his distinguished son left a record that "he was one of the best of men and best of husbands." He was sheriff of Lancaster County, South Carolina, from 1830–1834. His mother was the daughter of that Lydia Mackey, wife of Charles Mackey, a revolutionary soldier, who having been taken within the British lines, was tried by court-martial and sentenced to death as a spy by Col. Tarleton, and she successfully interceded with this British officer for the commutation of the death sentence, and ultimately obtained her husband's liberty.
Marion Sims was born in Lancaster District, South Carolina, January 25, 1813. He attended the common schools there, entered the Franklin Academy in 1825, and later was sent to the South Carolina College at Columbia, from which he graduated in December, 1832. Speaking of himself at this time he says:
"I never was remarkable for anything while I was in college except good behavior. Nobody ever expected anything of me, and I never expected anything of myself." What a mistake of the youth concerning the man who was to achieve the greatest reputation ever accorded to an American surgeon.
On the twelfth of November, 1833, he matriculated at the Charleston Medical School, where he attended lectures for one year, and in 1834 became a student at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1835. In May of that year he settled as a practitioner in Lancaster, but after a short period of discouragement removed in the fall of 1835 to Mount Meigs, Montgomery County, Alabama, where he was soon recognized as a clever doctor. While living here he volunteered in the Seminole War and in an expedition against the Creek Indians. Returning from this public service, and ambitious for a larger field, he established himself in Montgomery, the capital of the State, in December, 1840.
The boldness and success of his operations in general surgery soon attracted a large clientele, which encouraged him to establish a private hospital, and within a few years he startled the professional world by the announcement of the cure, by an original method, of a series of cases of vesico-vaginal fistula. Up to that time there was not an authenticated successful treatment for this important surgical lesion, and when the science of obstetrics was in its infancy there were thousands of women who, as a result of unskilful attendance in childbirth, were left in the most deplorable and loathsome condition by reason of injuries to the bladder; they were, in fact, among the most wretched and pitiable of human beings, and attracted the sympathy and attention of the enterprising
