CO SIMON MAGUS ten for the Ktrue d* Deux Monde*, and has been since 1865 professor of geology at the central school of architecture. Among his works are: La richer mineraU.de la France (1865) : L'ttrurie et lei titrusque* (1866) ; La tit tonterraine (1867); and VHistoire de la SIMON MAGIB, a magician of the time of the apostles, who by his skill had attained such influence as to be called "the great power of God." While Philip the Evangelist preached in Samaria, in A. I>. 36, Simon's followers were converted, and he himself believed and was baptized. Soon after, when Peter and ^ohn came to Samaria, to impart to the new converts by means of prayer and the imposi- tion of hands the gifts of the Spirit, Simon, seeing that through the laying on of hands the Holy Ghost was given, offered money to the apostles to impart to him this power. He was sternly rebuked by Peter, and appears no longer in connection with the rising Christian church. The statements of the ecclesiastical writers respecting his further life are pontra- dictory ; but it seems certain that he travelled through many countries to give exhibitions of his magic power, and that finally he settled at Rome, where, according to the testimony of Euscbius (with which a statement of Suetonius agrees), he met his death in an aeronautic at- tempt. About the middle of the 2d century his followers were still very numerous, and Eusebius in the 4th century represents the Si- monians as a powerful sect. They early split into several parties, of which the Menandrians and the Dositheans were the most important. (See DOSITHEANS.) Simon wrote several works, the remaining fragments of which are con- '1 in Grabe's Spicilegium, vol. i. >IMO>OSEKI. See SHIMONOSKKI. SIMOOM (Arabic, from samma, to poison),. or Sslri (Turkish, tarn, poison, and yel, wind), a hut, dry wind common in Syria, Arabia, and India. It comes from the deserts, and is char-
- u torized by its excessive heat and suffocating
effects, which are sometimes fatal to animal life. It never lasts over an hour, though it sometimes returns for several successive days. I Miring its prevalence the inhabitants of towns and villages shut themselves up in their houses, and those in the deserts in their tents or in pits. The parching heat is derived from the sands, which are whirled up from the earth by the advancing wind, and the whole air is filled with an extremely subtle and penetra- lust. When the wind blows in squalls, is often very suddenly produced by ac- tnal suffocation, and is followed by hmor- rhage at the nose and mouth. Persons ex- posed to it [>n>u-ct themselves by stopping the mouth and nose with handkerchiefs, and the camels in-tinutively bury their noses in the sand. The thanuin of Egypt and the har- "f (Juima and Senegambia are winds n'.Min in their effects, but are of longer duration and more regular in the SIMPSON periods of their prevalence. In India the si- moom of the deserts of Cutchee and Upper Sinde is sudden and mysterious in its appear- ance, invisible and singularly fatal. It usually occurs in June and July, by night as well as by day, sometimes preceded by a cold current of air. Its course is straight and well defined on a narrow path. It is not accompanied by dust, thunder, or lightning, but has a decided sulphurous odor. snil'LOV. See ALPS, vol. i., p. 354. SIMPSON. I. A S. county of Mississippi, bounded W. by Pearl river, and intersected by Strong river ; area, about 625 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 5,718, of whom 1,711 were colored. The soil is sandy, and there are extensive pine woods. The chief productions in 1870 were 72,832 bushels of Indian corn, 15,420 of oats, 29,520 of sweet potatoes, 2,134 bales of cotton, 8,240 Ibs. of rice, 5,797 of wool, and 28,860 of butter. There were 871 horses, 1, 631 milch cows, 1,237 working oxen, 2,713 other cattle, 4,211 sheep, and 7,793 swine. Capital, Westville. II. A S. county of Kentucky, bordering on Tennessee and drained by tributaries of Big Barren river and by Red river ; area, 375 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 9,573, of whom 2,167 were colored. The surface is level and the soil very fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 107,242 bushels of wheat, 402,379 of Indian corn, 73,682 of oats, 1,072,401 Ibs. of tobacco, 14,572 of wool, 72,004 of butter, and 8,806 gal- lons of sorghum molasses. There were 2,091 horses, 1,311 milch cows, 1,928 other cattle, 7,410 sheep, and 13,951 swine. The Louis- ville, Nashville, and Great Southern railroad passes through the capital, Franklin. SIMPSON, Sir James lonng, a Scottish physi- cian, born at Bathgate, Linlithgowshire, June 7, 1811, died in Edinburgh, May 6, 1870. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, where in 1832 he received his degree of M. D. In 1836, as assistant to Prof. Thomson, he de- livered a course of pathological lectures ; and in 1840 he was elected professor of midwife- ry in the university of Edinburgh. He was the first to apply the new discovery of an- aesthesia to midwifery practice, which he did Jan. 19, 1847. He subsequently discovered the ancesthetical properties of chloroform, which in midwifery practice he regarded as more manageable and powerful, more agreeable to inhale, and less exciting than ether, and as giving greater control over the superinduc- tion of the anesthetic state. (See ANAESTHET- ICS, and CHLOROFORM.) In 1849 he was elected president of the Edinburgh royal college of physicians, in 1852 president of the inedico- chirurgical society, and in 1853 foreign associ- ate of the French academy of medicine ; and in 1856 he received from the French academy of sciences the Monty on prize of 2,000 francs " in consideration of his services to humanity by the introduction of anaesthesia into the practice of midwifery, and the discovery of the amesthetic properties of chloroform." He
