Burns, Jeffrey, Millar, Thomson, M'Kenzie,
Lawrie, M'Grigor, Graham, Hunter, and Pagan were men all who would have
shone with a bright lustre in any sphere, and when we instance Harry
Rainy, Andrew Buchanan, and Allen Thomson as a few who are still with
us, we say enough to show that the mantles of those that have passed the
fatal bourne have fallen on no unworthy successors. The cynosure,
however, just now, in our faculty of medicine, would seem, by general
consent, to be Dr. Allen Thomson. And there is reason for this. His able,
trustworthy researches in microscopic science have gained for him a
European reputation--as a teacher of anatomy he is rivalled by few, if
any, in the kingdom--as a member of the Academical Senate he is a most
energetic promoter of the welfare of our time-honoured University--while
as a citizen he is ever the warm and judicious supporter of all measures
calculated to forward the social prosperity of our great and
still-increasing civic community. Dr. Thomson was born in Edinburgh in
1809. His father was Dr. John Thomson, one of the most eminent
metropolitan practitioners of his day; his mother was Margaret, a
daughter of the late Professor John Millar, of this city, one of the
most attractive expounders of jurisprudence of the period, and
well-known as the author of various treatises of acknowledged excellence
on "Ranks," "Government," and other departments of constitutional law.
Dr. John Thomson was in many respects a very remarkable man. When upwards
of twenty years of age, he might have been seen in his father's factory
in Paisley, working at the loom as a silk-weaver; when he died, which
was in his eighty-second year, he was Professor of General Pathology in
the University of Edinburgh. In proof of the extent of his attainments,
it may be stated that besides being the author, editor, and translator
of a variety of publications, some of which may be perused with
advantage even at the present hour, he delivered at one time or other
during his professional career, courses of lectures on chemistry,
pharmacy, surgery, military surgery, diseases of the eye, practice of
physic, and general pathology. Besides professional friends in nearly
all quarters of the world, he could number among his intimate associates
Brougham, Horner, Jeffrey, Pillans, Thomas Thomson, and John Allen,
afterwards private secretary and confidential friend of the late Lord
Holland--friendships which, no doubt, account readil