Sir James Young Simpson

This morning I took our son to join a school outing to the National Portrait Gallery in Queen Street, Edinburgh. It was the first time since his accident back in late August that he'd seen his classmates. As the absence from school started on the fourth day of term, he doesn't really know many of his classmates, with only two of them having been in his former class.

The decision to take him along was partly to get the "gawking" over while he wasn't going to be causing too much disruption to the class. It is difficult enough to go to school after an absence, never mind when you are still on crutches and are not normally someone who likes to be the centre of attention.

While he has been away from school, he's had various pieces of work to do, one of which was a biography about James Young Simpson, the Edinburgh doctor who experimented with anaesthetic in order to find an anaesthetic which could be used more safely than ether. He and his friends inhaled various substances until they found that chloroform was a suitable option. They discovered this when they woke up under a table one morning! All in the interests of medical science. Edinburgh in the mid-1800s must have been quite a place! The name of Simpson lives on in the Simpson Memorial Maternity Ward in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. My son was one of the babies born in the first month after the ward opened at the Little France site. His big sister was born in the 'old' Royal.

The visit to the National Portrait Gallery was interesting. We were guided round by a member of staff from the gallery team, and she took us to look at three different paintings. Two were portraits of Scots and another was a painting called "Leith Races" by a little-known artist called William Read. It is a fascinating picture, and an amazing document historically and socially. When you're next in the Gallery, go and see it.

The children were given the opportunity to make a sketch of a particular character from the painting. It was good to see all the choices.