Thomson , Allen , 1809-1884 , anatomist and embryologist

Allen Thomson was born in 1809. He was the grandson of John Thomson (1765-1846), Professor of Military Surgery, and of General Pathology at the University of Edinburgh. He was also the first Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Allen Thomson was educated in Edinburgh, graduating MD in 1830. He then travelled to Europe, visiting Amsterdam, Strasbourg and Berlin, where he studied anatomical and pathological museums before returning to Edinburgh in 1831, as Lecturer in Anatomy and Physiology. He set up a teaching partnership with William Sharpey, where he taught the physiology, and Sharpey taught anatomy. The partnership lasted until 1836 when Sharpey was appointed Professor of Anatomy at University College London. Thomson became a Fellow of the Edinburgh College in 1832. He travelled to London and Europe for further anatomical study in 1833. He became Private Physician to the Duke of Bedford and his family in 1837, before being appointed to the Chair of Anatomy in Aberdeen in 1839. He returned to Edinburgh to become a teacher of anatomy in the extramural school in 1841, and then became Professor of Institutes of Medicine (Physiology) at the University of Edinburgh. One of the innovations that he introduced on his return to Edinburgh was to use the microscope in the teaching of anatomy. He became Chair of Anatomy at the University of Glasgow in 1848, until his retirement in 1877. By the time of appointment to Glasgow he had amassed a large collection of material for anatomical and physiological teaching which was added to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1838, and of London in 1848, later becoming President of that Scoiety. He became President of the British Association in 1876, and was honoured with the degrees of LLD from the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He died in 1884.