James Young Simpson was born at Bathgate, Scotland. He graduated from the University of Scotland as an MD, discovered the use of chloroform as an anesthetic and made great improvements in gynecological procedures. Asked before a group of scientists what was his greatest discovery, he replied, "That I was a sinner and Jesus died for me." He was active in the Scottish Free Church.
Edward H. Martin was born in Virginia. He soon became a youthful offender, into one scrape after another with the law. Caught in the vicinity of a robbery, it was assumed he was the guilty party and he was convicted and sentenced to serve on the Virginia chain gang although innocent of that crime. However, he had a sister Edna, who, when she was converted to Christ, became a student at a Bible college. She asked her roomate Elfreda to pray for Edward. Elfreda followed up her prayers by writing to Ed, giving him the plan of salvation, and sending him gospel literature. Ed was converted and so great was the change visible in him that the governor eventually gave him a complete pardon. Elfreda and Ed married, became missionaries to Japan, and then founded a ministry called Hope Aglow for incarcerated men in the United States. Edward died of a massive heart attack in 1994.
