Thompson, Robert (1797-1865).
Robert Thompson, a physician of Columbus, Ohio, was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in September, 1797. His literary edu- cation was slight, his medical instruction acquired with Dr. George McCook, of New Lisbon, Ohio. He was licensed to practise medicine and surgery in 1824 by the Fourteenth District Medical Society of Ohio, and in 1834 received from the Medical College of Ohio the honorary M. D. He married, in 1824, Ann M. Seeber, of New York State, and settled first at Pleasant Hill, Muskingum County, Ohio, but removed thence to Washington, Guernsey County, and finally, in 1834, settled in Columbus.
In 1831 he was elected to the State Senate, and he was for many years physician to the State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb.
Dr. Thompson was one of the founders of the Ohio State Medical Society, and its president in 1847.
He is said to have been a very competent surgeon and extremely ingenious in the invention of new surgical instruments and apparatus. Among the latter were a bone forceps, a tonsillotome, uvula scissors, a cornea knife, a cataract needle, a tourniquet, a trephine and a popular and useful abdominal supporter.
He was a fluent and ready writer, and numerous contributions from his pen will be found in the Transactions of the State Medical Society.
He died in Columbus, Ohio, August 18, 1865.
Thomson, Adam (—1767).
Adam Thompson was born and educated in Scotland, the date of his birth not having been ascertained. In his memorable and eloquent "Discourse on the Preparation of the Body for the Smallpox" he refers to "the Famous Monro of Edinburgh" as one of his first masters in the healing art.
He settled in Prince George's County, in the Province of Maryland, early in the eighteenth century. In 1748 he went to Philadelphia, where he continued to practise, his services being in demand throughout the colonies because of his eminence and success as an inoculator.
In 1738 he began his method of preparing the body for smallpox. It consisted of a two weeks' course of treatment or "cooling regimen" preparatory to inoculation, to wit: a light, non-stimulating diet, the administration of a combination of mercury and antimony, and moderate bleeding and purgation. He admitted that Boerhaave's Aphorism No. 1392[1] advanced the "hint" that mercury and antimony properly prepared and administered "might act as an antidote for the variolous contagion." Dr. Thomson's phenomenal success with the method convinced him that "mercury under proper management is more of a specific agent against the effects of the variolous than the venereal poison." He was careful to give it within the bounds of salivation and to modify the regimen to suit the patient's age and constitution.
In his "Discourse" he says; "On every occasion for the space of twelve years where I have been called to prepare people for receiving the smallpox, either in the natural way or by inoculation — having prepared many for both — I have constantly used such a mercurial and antimonial medicine as Boerhaave has described, and I can honestly declare that I never saw one so prepared in any danger under the disease."[2]
His explanation of the manner in which immunity is acquired against smallpox is most interesting, and suggests to readers of today Pasteur's exhaustion hypothesis. He states: "It seems to me highly probable that there is a certain quantity of an infinitely subtle matter which may be called the variolous fuel, equally, intimately and universally diffused through the blood of every human creature; in some more, in others less, that lies still and quiet in the body never showing itself in any manner hitherto discovered until put in action by the variolous contagion, at which time it is totally expelled by the course of the disease."
He found the average medical practitioner of America poorly educated, and therefore a source of danger in the community. He recommends in the discourse that the Legislature interpose in behalf of the safety of the people and appoint proper persons to judge of the qualifications of those permitted to practise.
Dr. Thomson delivered his "Discourse on the Preparation of the Body for the Smallpox" before the trustees and others in the Academy of Philadelphia, on Wednesday, November 21, 1750.[3] It was published by Benjamin Franklin,
- ↑ Boerhaave's 1392'd Aphorism. Some success from antimony and mercury prompts us to seek for a specific for the small-pox in a combination of these two minerals reduced by art to an active, but not to an acrimonious or corrosive state.
- ↑ Dr. Thomson makes a similar assertion in a letter which appeared in the Md. Gaz., Nov. 25, 1762.
- ↑ An original Franklin print of the Discourse is on file in the Library of the surgeon-general's office, Washington. D. C. Copies of it may be seen in the Libraries of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.
