He also studied in Paris under the French physicians Gabriel Andral, and Guillaume Dupuytren, and attended lectures given by the zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire at the Jardin des Plantes.

He also served as a lecturer at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine in London, and was elected on 22 January 1846 as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He is credited with introducing cod-liver oil into England, being the first to give bismuth to arrest diarrhea of phthisis (tuberculosis), and the first to prescribe oxide of zinc for night sweats.

[4][5] Thompson died of bronchitis at the age of 52 on 11 Aug. 1860 in Sutton, Surrey,[3] and is buried in Norwood Cemetery in Lambeth, London.

In addition to Thompson's academic pursuits, he also acted as the London literary agent for his brother-in-law George Henry Wathen, who was editor of an Australian periodical called the Australasian, and author of a book on Egyptian antiquities, and another on gold mining in Australia.