XXV 



clear and accurate description to make intelligible the writings of the 

 German embryologists. No one rejoiced more at the attention given 

 to it by a rising school of British embryologists, nor mourned more 

 deeply the sad death on the Alps of its leader, the late Francis M. 

 Balfour of Cambridge. He was one of the first also to bring under 

 the notice of British physiologists the researches of Weber on the 

 tactile sensibility of the skin, and he wrote largely for the 1 Cyclopae- 

 dia of Anatomy and Physiology,' edited by Todd and Bowman. The 

 articles on " Circulation," " Generation," and " Ovum," are from his 

 pen, and to the past and current editions of the ' Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica ' he contributed articles on kindred subjects. The article 

 " Ovum " in the latter was prepared by him, and over it he worked 

 to the end with ardent love and care ; but since his death another 

 hand has been employed to write it. He also wrote on physiological 

 optics, more especially on the mechanism by which the eye accommo- 

 dates or focuses itself for objects at different distances ; and his 

 name has long been associated with current editions of Q nam's 

 ' System of Human Anatomy,' as editor especially of the descriptive 

 parts of the seventh and eighth editions. In the seventh edition 

 he was associated with Professors Sharpey and Cleland, in the 

 eighth with Professors Sharpey and Schafer, and in the ninth 

 and last edition with Professor Schafer and Professor Thane, both of 

 University College, London. Alike with pen and pencil Dr. Thomson 

 made important additions to their great work, especially ' An Outline 

 of the Development of the Foetus.' He also edited a second edition 

 of his father's 'Life of Cullen.' To the Royal Societies of Edinburgh 

 and London, and British and Foreign medical journals, he contributed 

 numerous special papers and articles. The Royal Society's Catalogue 

 contains the titles of about twenty papers by him. 



During his distinguished career Dr. Allen Thomson received many 

 scientific honours. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh in 1838, and of the Royal Society of London in 1848. 

 After his removal to London from Glasgow in 1877, he became first a 

 Councillor of the Royal Society, and ultimately one of the Vice- 

 Presidents. He was President of the Philosophical Society, of the 

 Medico- Chirurgical Society, and of the Science Lectures Association 

 in Glasgow, in which city he was also the first President of the Local 

 Branch of the British Medical Association. For eighteen years he 

 was a member of the General Medical Council for the Universities of 

 Glasgow and St. Andrews jointly, from 1859 to 1877, where his ripe 

 experience and calm judgment enabled him to do good service to the 

 cause of medical education. In 1871 he was President of the Biolo- 

 gical Section of the British Association at the meeting in Edinburgh, 

 and in his address he reviewed the progress of biological science 

 within the period of his own recollection. In 1876 the Association 



