Allen Thomson

Allen Thomson FRS FRSE FRCSE (2 April 1809 – 21 March 1884) was a Scottish physician, known as an anatomist and embryologist.

[2] Thomson travelled in the Netherlands and Germany, visiting anatomical and pathological museums, and taking notes.

In 1833 he travelled with his father for nearly three months, visiting medical schools in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France.

In 1841 William Pulteney Alison resigned the chair of physiology in Edinburgh, and in 1842 Thomson was elected his successor.

He was appointed Regius Professor of Anatomy in the University of Glasgow in 1848, in succession to James Jeffray.

[2] He is buried with his wife, Ninian Jane Hill, in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh.

He wrote on physiological optics, on the mechanism by which the eye accommodates or focusses itself for objects at different distances.

[2] Manuscripts of Thompson's essays are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.