Allen Thomson
Allen Thomson
Life
The only son of Dr John Thomson by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of John Millar, he was born at Brown Square[1] in Edinburgh on 2 April 1809, and was named after his father's friend, John Allen, secretary and confidential friend of Lord Holland. Margaret Mylne was his sister and William Thomson his half-brother. Allen Thomson was educated at the high school and University of Edinburgh, and then in Paris. He graduated doctor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh in August 1830. At the time of his graduation he was president of the Royal Medical Society in Edinburgh. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1831.[2]
Thomson travelled in the Netherlands and Germany, visiting anatomical and pathological museums, and taking notes. On his return to Edinburgh he began to lecture at 9 Surgeon's Square as an extramural teacher of physiology in association with William Sharpey, who lectured on anatomy. These lectures were given from 1831 to 1836, and during the latter part of the time Thomson assisted also in teaching anatomy. In 1833 he travelled with his father for nearly three months, visiting medical schools in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France. From 1837 to 1839 he became private physician to John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, then an invalid.[2]
Thomson was appointed professor of anatomy in
Thomson was elected a fellow of the
Thomson acted as chairman of the removal and buildings committee of the University of Glasgow from 1863 to 1874, when the university buildings on
He died in London on 21 March 1884, at 66 Palace Gardens Terrace.[2] He is buried with his wife, Ninian Jane Hill, in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh. The grave faces the southmost path from the south-east corner of the south-east section.
Works
Thomson was a draughtsman, and his diagrams were long current in textbooks of anatomy and physiology. He wrote on physiological optics, on the mechanism by which the eye accommodates or focusses itself for objects at different distances.[2]
Thomson took part in editing the seventh, eighth, and ninth editions of Jones Quain's 'Elements of Anatomy.' He was associated in the seventh edition with Sharpey and Cleland, in the eighth with Sharpey and Schäfer, and in the ninth edition with Schäfer and Thane. He also edited the second volume of William Cullen's Life, part of his father's project to issue Cullen's Works,[5] and to the reissue of the first volume he prefixed a biographical notice of his half-brother William.[2]
Manuscripts of Thompson's essays are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.[6]
Family
Thomson married Ninian Jane Hill (1810-1893), the daughter of Ninian Hill, writer to the signet, Edinburgh. By her he had an only son,
He was half-brother to Prof William Thomson, son of his father's first wife. William married Allen's sister-in-law, Eliza Hill.[7] William is buried next to him.
References
- ^ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1809–1810
- ^ a b c d e f g h D'Arcy 1898a, p. 233–234
- ^ "Past Professors | The Suttie Centre | The University of Aberdeen". www.abdn.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
- ^ "University of Glasgow – Services A-Z – Special collections – Collections A-Z – Thomson family papers". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
- ^ D'Arcy, Power (1898b). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 260–262.
- ^ "UoB Calmview5: Search results". calmview.bham.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
- ^ D'Arcy, Power (1898c). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 275.
Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: D'Arcy, Power (1898a). "Thomson, Allen". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 233–234.
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