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coming the impediments of an humble station, of straitened cir- 

 cumstances, and of a defective education, he early exhibited those 

 vigorous intellectual powers which were afterwards so successfully ex- 

 erted in the acquirement of information and the promotion of science. 

 His innate love of knowledge soon became apparent by the strenuous ' 

 application of his mind, in succession, to various important objects 

 of scientific interest. While yet a youth, and during the short in- 

 tervals of leisure, stolen from the servile drudgery of a medical ap- 

 prenticeship in his native town, he devoted himself with such energy 

 and success to the study of Botany, as ever after to retain a lively 

 interest in that pursuit. Having completed his medical education 

 in the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in the medical 

 schools of London, he settled, in the concluding years of the cen- 

 tury, as a general practitioner in Edinburgh. He there delivered 

 lectures on Chemistiy, and published a translation of Fourcroy's 

 Elements of that science, accompanied with valuable notes. 



Being appointed one of the Surgeons of the Royal Infirmary in 

 the year 1800, he commenced his labours as a Teacher of Surgery, 

 and on the institution, at his recommendation, of a Professorship of 

 Surgery in the Royal College of Surgeons, he was appointed to that 

 office. It was on his representation that the injurious system which 

 then prevailed, of changing the surgeons at short intervals, was aban- 

 doned, and the tenure of that office rendered one of reasonable 

 duration ; and that the delivery of Clinical lectures by the surgeons 

 in office, of all modes of instruction the most valuable, was com- 

 menced. To his counsel the College of Surgeons were indebted for 

 the foundation of a Museum of Anatomy, both healthy and morbid, 

 which, enriched as it has since been by many valua^ble collections, 

 now ranks second only to that of the Royal College of Surgeons of 

 England. 



For a period of sixteen years Mr. Thomson delivered the lectures 

 on Surgery in the Hall of the College to crowded auditories of 

 students and practitioners. In the year 1806 he was appointed by 

 the crown Professor of Military Surgery in the University of Edin- 

 burgh, a chair which had been newly created by the government of 

 that period. 



The publication on which his permanent reputation rests bears 

 the title of "Lectures on Inflammation." It appeared in 1813, and 

 was in effect a revival and masterly exposition of the views and doc- 

 trines of John Hunter, which, partly from a deficiency of perspi- 

 cuity in that great man's style, and partly from the small degree of 

 attention which they had excited among the profession, had never 

 before obtained their due influence, nor had their truths been suffi- 

 ciently recognised and established. It is a work which exhibits the 

 results of acute discrimination, unwearied ardour, persevering re- 

 search, and a clear and careful method of argumentation. It has 

 been translated into many foreign European languages, and speedily 

 became the standard authority on that important subject, consti- 

 tuting as it does the basis of all Pathology. 



On the death of Dr. Gregory in 1821, Dr. Thomson resigned his 



