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practice ; and his life ended at the age of eighty-two. He retired 

 with the reputation of being in his time " the most learned physician 

 in Scotland. To almost the last week of his life he was a hard 

 student ; and not even fourscore years could quench his ardour in 

 discoursing science, morals, or politics. . . He was one of the 

 marked men of that resolute and public-spirited class — the true Whig 

 party of his day — which is now (1836) rapidly disappearing. His 

 peculiar usefulness arose neither from his talents, his learning, his 

 warmth of heart, nor his steadiness of principle, but from his 

 enthusiasm. He never kuew apathy ; and medicine being his field, 

 he was for forty years the most exciting of all our practitioners and of 

 all our teachers. . . Men, especially young men of promise, were 

 inspired by his zeal and his confidence in the triumph of truth."* 

 "His example had, perhaps, more influence than that of any other 

 individual in exciting the emulation of others."! 



John Thomson was therefore a man acknowledged to be of great 

 erudition, as his works show ; and he made many important con- 

 tributions to the medical science and literature of his time from 1765 

 to 1846. He contributed valuable papers to the earlier numbers of 

 the 'Edinburgh Review'; and continued (till his death in 1846) in 

 habits of intimate friendship with its editor, Lord Jeffrey; continuing 

 throughout his long life to be a man of great mark and influence in 

 politics and science. 



Such was the father of Allen Thomson — the subject of this notice. 



To be the son of such a father was already to be born distinguished, 

 and it was a still greater distinction that throughout the life of 

 Dr. Allen Thomson, the best characteristics of the father came to be 

 repeated in the son. 



His mother, Margaret Millar, was the third daughter of Mr. John 

 Millar, Professor of Jurisprudence in the University of Glasgow, to 

 whom Dr. John Thomson (then in the forfcy-first year of his age) was 

 married in 1806. 



It may be said, therefore, that Allen Thomson inherited by his birth 

 a family connexion with two out of the four Scotch Universities — an 

 inheritance which at once gave him a position of influence, of much 

 advantage to him in future years. 



Thus it came to pass that Allen Thomson was born, nurtured, and 

 trained up in an atmosphere of learning and science ; so that from his 

 very earliest years the teaching of the son by the father was such as 

 to lay the groundwork of a solid and purely scientific career, especially 

 as an investigator and teacher of Anatomy and Physiology. 



* ' Journal of Henry Cockburn,' a continuation of the ' Memorials of his Time,' 

 1831 to 1834, vol. ii, p. 164. 



f Dr. Richard Fowler, of Salisbury, in ' Biographical Notice of Dr. Thomson ' in 

 1st vol. of his ' Life of Cullen,' reissued by Blackwood and Sons, 1859. 



