Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/1061

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1011

THOMSON.

his part, he was appointed Deputy- Librarian; and in 1882, in conse- quence of advanced age, resigned that office, after sixty-three years of public service.

THOMSON,Ai.LiN,M.D.,F.E.S., F.R.S.E., born at Edinburgh, April 2, 1809, is a son of Professor John Thomson, M.D., one of ^e ablest and most learned physicians of his time, and of Margaret Millar, daughter of Professor John Millar of Glasgow University. He was educated at the University of Edin- burgh, and at Paris ; graduated as Doctor of Medicine at the Univer- sity of Edinburgh in 1830, and be- came Fellow of the Eoyal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1831. In the same year he commenced his career as a Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in company with Dr. Sharpey, in the Extra Acade- mical School of Edinburgh. In 1839 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen. In 1842 he was appointed to the Chair of the Institutes of Medicine (or Physiology) in the University of Edinburgh, and, after having held that office for six years, he was transferred to the lirofessorship of Anatomy in the University of Glas- gow in 1848, and held that office till 1877, when he resigned it, and became a resident in London. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Edin- burgh in 1871, and from the Uni- versity of Glasgow in 1877, and that of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford in 1882. He was elected Fellow of the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh in 1838, and of the Eoyal Society of London in 1848. He was member of the Medical Council of Education, &c., for the Universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews, jointly, from 1859 to 1877. He was President of the Biological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at the Edinburgh Meet- ing in 1871 ; was one of the Vice-

Presidents of the Association at the Glasgow Meeting in 1876 ; and was President for the year of the British Association which met at Plymouth in 1877. Dr. Thomson has been mainly occupied as a public teacher, and as an investigator and writer on anatomy and physiology ; taking at the same time an active part in the public business of the institu- tions with which he has been con- nected, as well as in medical educa- tion, and the general progress of science. Besides many occasional writings, he is the author of nume- rous published papers on anatomical and physiologicsd subjects which have appeared in various medical and scientific journals. Among these his memoirs "On the Deve- lopment of the Vascular System in the Foetus of Vertebrated Animals," in the Edinburgh New PhUosophieal Journal, 1830-31, and his paper "On the Early Stages of Development of the Human Embryo," in the Edin- burgh Medical' and Surgical Journal, 1839, together with his memoir " On the Origin of Double Monsters," in the Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science, 1844, brought him reputation as an embryologist. He is the 'author of the articles on "Circulation," "Generation," and "Ovum" in the "Cyclopodia of Anatomy and Physiology,'* of "Out- lines of Physiology," 2 parts, 1847 ; and he has been one of the editors of " Quain's Anatomy " since 1867, contributing to that work "Aji Outline of tiie Development of the Foetus," and many other additions. As Chairman of the Eemoval and Building Committees of the Uni- versity of Glasgow, he took a lead- ing part from 1863 to 1874 in the establishment of the New Buildings for the University, and in the con- struction of the Western Infirmary in connection with the University Medical School.

THOMSON, The Most Ebv. William, D.D. , Archbishop of York, son of the late John Thomson, Esq., of Kelswick House, born at White-