Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morton, Thomas (1813-1849)
MORTON, THOMAS (1813–1849), surgeon, born 20 March 1813 in the parish of St. Andrew, Newcastle-on-Tyne, was youngest son of Joseph Morton, a master mariner, and brother of Andrew Morton [q. v.] the portrait painter. Thomas was apprenticed to James Church, house-surgeon to the Newcastle-on-Tyne Infirmary, and, on the completion of his preliminary education there in 1832, entered at University College, London, to finish his medical education. Admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 24 July 1835, he was appointed house-surgeon at the North London (now University College) Hospital under Samuel Cooper, whose only daughter he afterwards married. He enjoyed the singular honour of being reappointed when his year of office had expired. In 1836 he was made demonstrator of anatomy conjointly with Mr. Ellis, a post he held for nine years. In 1842 he became assistant surgeon to the hospital, and he was thus the first student of the college to be placed upon the staff of the newly founded hospital. In 1848 he was appointed full surgeon to the hospital upon the resignation of Syme. He was also surgeon to the Queen's Bench prison in succession to Cooper, his father-in-law. Morton was a candidate for the professorship of surgery at University College when Arnott was appointed. He died very unexpectedly, by his own hand, on 29 Oct. 1849, at his house in Woburn Place, London.
Morton was one of the ablest of the younger surgeons whose sound work raised the medical school attached to University College to the high position it now holds. His death was a great blow to the prestige of the college, coming as it did so soon after the deaths of Potter, Liston, and Cooper, and the resignation of Syme. Morton was an excellent teacher of anatomy, and a sound clinical surgeon. He was dark-complexioned and sallow, and of a retiring, shy, and sensitive nature, which betokened a melancholy disposition, leading him to take too gloomy a view of his prospects in life.
His works are: 1. 'Surgical Anatomy of the Perinseum,' London, 1838. 2. 'Surgical Anatomy of the Groin,' London, 1839. 3. 'Surgical Anatomy of Inguinal Herniæ,' London, 1841. 4. 'Anatomical Engravings,' London, 1845. 5. 'Surgical Anatomy, with Introduction by Mr. W. Cadge,' London, 1850. All these works are remarkable, because they are illustrated by his brother, Andrew Morton, and mark the revival of an artistic representation of anatomical details. A life-size portrait, three-quarter length, by Andrew Morton, executed in oils, is now in the secretary's office at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.
[Obituary notices in the Lancet, vol. ii. 1849, Gent. Mag. 1849, pt. ii. p. 658, Times, 30 Oct. and 2 Nov. 1849, p. 5; additional facts kindly given to the writer by Mr. Eric Erichsen, Mr. Cadge, and Dr. Embleton.]