James Sims (physician)

James Sims (1741–1820) was an Anglo-Irish physician.

James Sims, 1801 engraving by Nathan Branwhite after Samuel Medley.

Life

The son of a nonconformist minister, he was born in County Down in Ireland. He was sent to Leyden University, where he proceeded M.D. in 1764.

Sims returned to Ireland, and, after practising for a time in Tyrone, he moved to London, where he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 30 September 1778. He was helped by John Coakley Lettsom, and soon acquired a practice. He served as a physician to the General Dispensary in Aldersgate Street and to the Surrey Dispensary.

Sims was the first chairman and vice-president of the Philanthropic Society; and was also involved in the Humane Society in its early days. He served for 22 years as president of the Medical Society of London, and was displaced only by strenuous exertions by younger fellows. He had a collection of books which he made over to the Medical Society in 1802, in return for an annuity.

Sims retired to Bath, Somerset in 1810. He died there in 1820.

Works

Sims's his inaugural thesis at Leyden was De Temperie Fœminea et Morbis inde oriundis. Other works are:

Sims also completed and corrected Edward Foster's Principles and Practice of Midwifery, 2 vols., London, 1781.

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Sims, James". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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