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

Life

The son of a nonconformist minister, he was born in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

in Ireland. He was sent to Leyden University, where he proceeded M.D. in 1764. Sims returned to Ireland, and, after practicing 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. Sims was the first chairman and vice-president of the

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; 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 The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies (being organisations of voluntary association, rather than regulation or training) in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1773 by the Quaker physician and philanthrop ...

, and was displaced only by strenuous exertions by younger fellows. He had a collection of books which he made over to the society in 1802, in return for an annuity. Sims retired to

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

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: * ''Observations on Epidemic Disorders, with Remarks on Nervous and Malignant Fevers'', London, 1773; 2nd edit. 1776; translated into German (Hamburg, 1775), and into French (Avignon, 1778). * ''A Discourse on the best methods of prosecuting Medical Enquiries'', London, 1774; 2nd edit. 1774; translated into French (Avignon, 1778), and into Italian (Venice, 1786). * ''Observations on the Scarlatina Anginosa, commonly called the Ulcerated Sore Throat'', London; 3rd edit. 1803; an American edition was published at Boston in 1796. Sims also completed and corrected Edward Foster's ''Principles and Practice of Midwifery'', 2 vols., London, 1781.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, James 1741 births 1820 deaths 18th-century Irish medical doctors 18th-century English medical doctors Physicians of the Surrey Dispensary