It was the fourth of November, 1847. The servant entered the room of his master, a Scottish doctor, to find him lying face-down on the floor alongside two of his colleagues. They appeared to have rolled down from their chairs. The servant thought that perhaps they had drunk too heavily, so he covered them up and quietly went away. But the facts were quite different. For the men lying unconscious on the floor were Sir James Simpson (1811-1870) and his two assistants who had inhaled chloroform for the first time ever in order to experience its effects on the human body.

Simpson was the youngest son of a poor baker. At the age of four, he began his education at a village school. As time went on he became so greatly interested in his studies that his father and six brothers agreed that the sacrifices must be made for him, so they cut down on their expenses and sent the boy to the city for higher education. So he came to Edinburgh University, where he acquired an M.D. Degree, the highest degree in medicine in those days, thus making himself worthy of his family’s tremendous sacrifices.

The secret of the western nations’ leadership of the world can be explained by the existence of such people who have the courage to risk their own lives so that others may be saved from risk—who have the courage in other words to sacrifice themselves for humanity.

During his studies, Dr.Simpson had learnt that chloroform possessed certain properties which temporarily benumbed the senses, so he began to conduct research into it, finally coming to the conclusion that if the patients were rendered unconscious by means of chloroform they could be relieved of severe pain during the course of operation. He continued his research and, by experimenting upon himself, he proved that chloroform could successfully induce harmless anaesthesia. This son of a poor baker was thus able to give to humanity, in the words of Dr.Brown, “ one of God’s best gifts to His suffering children”.

The secret of the western nations’ leadership of the world can be explained by the existence of such people who have the courage to risk their own lives so that others may be saved from risk—who have the courage in other words to sacrifice themselves for humanity. And also the existence of people who were courageous to play the secondary role of sacrificing in order to let the person primarily in command to achieve the goal set by him. Both are exemplary roles. The world today needs more and more such people to find solutions to problems which beset the humankind pertaining both to physical and mental suffering.