Notice of some of the leading events in the life of the late Dr. John Thomson, formerly professor of surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons, and of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, and more recently professor of general pathology in the University.

Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notice of some of the leading events in the life of the late Dr. John Thomson, formerly professor of surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons, and of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, and more recently professor of general pathology in the University. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Mr John Allen, afterwards private secretary and confidential friend of the late Lord Holland, with whom, up to the time of Mr Allen's death in 1843, he maintained an uninterrupted friendship, to the powerful influence of which over the fortunes of his life he has himself borne testimony in the dedication, to Mr Allen, of his Life of Cullen. Another was the late Dr William Russell, afterwards member of the Medical Board of Calcutta, and who was created baronet on his return from a mission to Russia in 1831, for the purpose of investigating the progress of the cholera in that coun- try. Dr Russell was the brother-in-law of the late Mr Andrew Wood, surgeon in Edinburgh, and through him originated Dr Thomson's acquaintance with that excellent man, to whom in after life he professed himself, in the dedication to him of his Lectures on Inflammation, bound by the remembrance of the kind atten- tions, counsel, and support for which, on various occasions, he had been indebted to his friendship, without which that work would probably never have been composed, nor . his attention been di- rected in a particular manner to the study of surgery. In the beginning of the winter session of 1790-91, he became a member of the Medical Society,—an institution which has in so many instances served as an arena both for exhibiting and for strengthening the powers of those who have received their educa- tion in the medical school of Edinburgh. About that time its business was carried on with even more than its usual spirit; and that Dr Thomson bore his share in its labours might be inferred from the fact of his having, at the beginning of the following ses- sion, been nominated one of its presidents,—an office in which he had the pleasure of having conjoined with him, besides his friend Mr Russell, Dr Richard Fowler, now of Salisbury,—a gentleman who early manifested that taste for scientific investigation by which, through his long career of professional usefulness, he has been so honourably distinguished. This gentleman, in reference to the period of which we are now speaking, says, During three years that I passed in the University of Edinburgh as a student of me- dicine, I had the pleasure of a frequent intercourse with Dr Thom- son, of the most intimate, and, I may add with respect to myself, of the most instructive kind. A stronger, more active, or more informed mind than his, certainly was not to be found within the limits of my acquaintance. As his studies were directed ardent- ly, and almost exclusively, to the profession of which he has be- come so distinguished an ornament, his example had perhaps more influence than' that of any other individual in exciting the emula- tion of others. According to the established usage of the Medical Society, Dr Thomson was called upon during his first session as a member of it, to write upon a Case and a Question. The case which