Sir J. D. Hooker on his travels in Sikkim in 1850, and collaborated with him in publishing his Flora indica in 1855 and in 1854 was appointed superintendent of the botanic gardens at Calcutta, also acting as professor of botany at the Calcutta medical college.
THOMSON, WILLIAM (1819–1890), English divine, archbishop of York, was born on the 11th of February 1819 at Whitehaven, Cumberland. He was educated at Shrewsbury and at Queen’s College, Oxford, of which he became a scholar. He took his B.A. degree in 1840, and was soon afterwards made fellow of his college. He was ordained in 1842, and worked as a curate at Cuddesdon. In 1847 he was made tutor of his college, and in 1853 he delivered the Bampton lectures, his subject being “The Atoning Work of Christ viewed in Relation to some Ancient Theories.” These thoughtful and learned lectures established his reputation and did much to clear the ground for subsequent discussions on the subject. Thomson’s activity was not confined to theology. He was made fellow of the Royal and the Royal Geographical Societies. He also wrote a very popular Outline of the Laws of Thought. He sided with the party at Oxford which favoured university reform, but this did not prevent him from being appointed provost of his college in 1855. In 1858 he was made preacher at Lincoln’s Inn and there preached some striking sermons, a volume of which he published in 1861. In the same year he edited Aids to Faith, a volume written in opposition to Essays and Reviews, the progressive sentiments of which had stirred up a great storm in the Church of England. In December 1861 he was rewarded with the see of Gloucester and Bristol, and within a twelvemonth he was elevated to the archiepiscopal see of York. In this position his moderate orthodoxy led him to join Archbishop Tait in supporting the Public Worship Regulation Act, and, as president of the northern convocation, he came frequently into sharp collision with the lower house of that body. But if he thus incurred the hostility of the High Church party among the clergy, he was admired by the laity for his strong sense, his clear and forcible reasoning, and his wide knowledge, and he remained to the last a power in the north of England. In his later years he published an address read before the members of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution (1868), one on Design in Nature, for the Christian Evidence Society, which reached a fifth edition, various charges and pastoral addresses, and he was one of the projectors of The Speaker’s Commentary, for which he Wrote the “Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels.” He died on the 25th
of December 1890.
See the Quarterly Review (April 1892).
THOR, one of the chief deities of the heathen Scandinavians.
He is represented as a middle-aged man of enormous strength,
quick to anger, but benevolent towards mankind. To the
harmful race of giants (demons), on the other hand, he was an
implacable foe, and many stories are told in the poetic and prose
Eddas of the destruction which he brought upon them at various
times with his hammer. On the whole his figure is somewhat
secondary in the mythology to that of Odin, who is represented
as his father. But there is no doubt that in Iceland he was
worshipped more than any other god, and the same seems to
have been the case in Norway—indeed, perhaps, in all northern
countries—except among the royal families. Even in the great
temple at Upsala his figure is said to have occupied the chief
place. There is evidence that a corresponding deity named
Thunor or Thonar was worshipped in England and on the
Continent, but little information is obtainable regarding him,
except that he was identified with the Roman Jupiter. His
name is identical with the Teutonic word for thunder, and even
in Sweden the association of Thor with the thunder seems not
to have been forgotten. Outside the Teutonic area he has close
affinities not only with Jupiter or Zeus, but still more with the
Lithuanian god Perkunas, whose name (which likewise means
“thunder”) appears to be connected with that of Thor’s mother
(Fiörgyn). The Varangian god Perun was probably Thor himself under a Slavonic name (Russian perun, “thunderbolt”).
See H. Petersen, Om Nordboernes Gudedyrkelse og Gudetro i Hedenold (Copenhagen, 1876). For other references see Teutonic Peoples: Religion (ad fin). (H. M. C.)
THORAX (Gr. θώραξ, breastplate, also the part of the body covered by it), the anatomical term for the chest, that part of the body which contains the heart and lungs (see Anatomy: Superficial and Artistic, and Skeleton: Axial). For the surgery of the thorax reference may be made to the headings Heart, Lung and Respiratory System.
THORBECKE, JAN RUDOLF (1798–1872), Dutch statesman, was born at Zwolle, in the province of Overijssel, on the 14th of January 1798. Thorbecke was of German extraction, his grandfather, Heinrich Thorbecke, having settled in Overijssel towards the end of the 17th century. Little is known of his youth, beyond the fact that he was sent in the year of Waterloo to Amsterdam for his education. For two years he stayed with a Lutheran clergyman of the name of Sartorius, whilst attending the lectures of the Athenaeum Illustre. In 1817 he commenced
his studies at Leiden University, proving a brilliant scholar, and
twice obtaining a gold medal for his prize essays. In 1820 he obtained the degrees of Lit.D. and LL.D. In the following years Thorbecke undertook a journey of research and study in Germany, staying at most of her famous universities, and making the acquaintance of his best-known contemporaries in the fatherland. At Giessen he lectured as an extraordinary professor, and at Göttingen, in 1824, published his treatise, Ueber das Wesen der Geschichte. After his return to Amsterdam in 1824 Thorbecke wrote his first political work of any importance, Bedenkingen aangaande het Recht en den Staal “Objections anent Law and the State”), which by its close reasoning and its legal acumen at once drew attention to the young barrister, and procured him in 1825 a chair as professor in Ghent University. Here he wrote two pamphlets of an educational character before 1830. The Belgian revolt of that year forced Thorbecke to resign his position at Ghent, and he subsequently went to Leiden. He did not approve of the Belgian movement, nor of the part that Europe played in it, and published his views in three pamphlets, which appeared in the years 1830 and 1831. In 1831 he was appointed professor of jurisprudence and political science at Leiden University. In that capacity, and, before
his appointment at Leiden, as a lecturer on political science,
history and economics at Amsterdam, he gained great reputation as a political reformer, particularly after the publication of his standard work, Aanteekeningen op de Grondwet (“Annotations on the Constitution,” 1839; 2nd ed., Amsterdam, 1841–1843), which became the textbook and the groundwork for the new reform party in Holland, as whose leader Thorbecke was definitely recognized. Thorbecke’s political career until his death, which occurred at the Hague on the 4th of June 1872, is sketched under Holland: History. Thorbecke’s speeches
in the Dutch legislature were published at Deventer in six
volumes (1867–1870), to which should be added a collection of
his unpublished speeches, printed at Groningen in 1900. The
first edition of his Historische Schetsen ("Historical Essays")
was issued in 1860, the second in 1872. At Amsterdam there appeared in 1873 a highly interesting Correspondence with his academy friend and lifelong political adversary Groen van Prinsterer (q.v.), which, although dating back to the early 'thirties, throws much light on their subsequent relations and the political events that followed 1848. Of Dutch statesmen during the Napoleonic period, Thorbecke admired Falck and Van Hogendorp most, whose principles he strove to emulate. Of Van Hogendorp’s Essays and Speeches, indeed, he published a standard edition, which is still highly valued. Thorbecke’s speeches form a remarkable continuation of Van Hogendorp’s orations, not only in their style, but also in their train of thought. Thorbecke’s funeral furnished the occasion for an imposing national demonstration, which showed how deeply he was revered by all classes of his countrymen. In 1876 a statue of Thorbecke was unveiled in one of the squares of Amsterdam.
Thorbecke’s gifts and public services as a statesman have
