Dr. Allen Thomson / [John G. M'Kendrick].

  • McKendrick John Gray, 1841-1926.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Allen Thomson / [John G. M'Kendrick]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    He writes:— Went at J past 2 to a Meeting of the Acaderaie des Sciences at the Institute. Heard several reports, and M. Biot made remarks on polarization, but did not hear him well. M. Magendie showed a man who was under treatment for deaf and dumb affection by passing currents of electricity through the nerves and with considerable success. Mentioned several cases of amaurosis in which electricity has been beneficial. I saw the following men of note :—Arago, Gay Lussac, Dulong, Biot, Geoff. St. Hilaire, Isidore St. Hilaire, Becquerel, Magendie, Chevreul, Lassaigne, Audouin, Milne-Edwards, Savart, Flourens, Dutrochet, Larrey, Sevres, Blainville, Breschet, Dumas,Dumeril, Cagniard de la Tour, Payon, and others whose names I forget. Flourens presided, supported on the right by Arago, and on the left by Magendie and Becquerel. The whole seance was conducted with a great deal of philosophical propriety, whilst it was business like. This was on the 18th of December, 1837, forty-seven years ago, and there still lives one of that distinguished group, the veteran chemist and physicist, Chevreul, now in his ninety-eighth year, whose thoughts are no doubt well expressed by the poet:— '' When I remember all The friends, so linked together, I've seen around me fall Like leaves in wintry weather ; I feel like one Who treads alone Some banquet hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed ! * The year 1839 saw Allen Thomson appointed Professor of Anatomy in the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen; but in 1841 he resigned that office, and again became a teacher of Anatomy in the extra-mural school in Edinburgh. In 1841 Professor Alison resigned the Chair of Institutes of Medicine or Physiology in the University, and in 1842, after a severe contest with competitors no less formidable than Robert Knox, John Reid, and William B. Carpenter, Dr. Thomson was appointed his successor. At this period the patronage of the chairs lay in the hands of members of the Town Council, and if their appointments were on the whole very good, they gave occasion for making the * Light of other days. T. Moore.
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