Thomson, William (1819 - 1883)

Summary

William Thomson won international repute as an epidemiologist through his many publications between 1870 and 1883, chiefly on typhoid fever and tuberculosis in Australia. He was a strong advocate of the contagionist doctrine, backing up his work with statistical studies of local epidemics, and patterns of morbidity. Among his recommendations were notification and quarantine of the sick, and disinfection. He was also interested in cattle diseases, including pleuro-pneumonia and foot and mouth disease. Thomson came to Victoria in 1852 and established a private medical practice in South Yarra. He became involved in the Medical Society of Victoria as a member of council and for a few years Editor of the Society's journal, the Australian medical journal. He ceased to be involved with the Society from the 1860s. Quick to detect criticism, Thomson engaged in disputes relating to the theory of evolution and the influence of the local climate on pulmonary disease, which probably held back his career. Appointments to a lectureship at the University of Melbourne medical faculty and to the Melbourne Hospital were not successful.

Details

Chronology

1843

Education - Member, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh

1855

Career event - Admitted to the medical register in Victoria

1856 - 1864

Career position - Committee member, Medical Society of Victoria

1859 - 1861

Career position - Editor, Australian medical journal

1871 - 1883

Award - Fellow, Linnean Society of London

1871 - 1883

Award - Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh

Archival resources

Australian Medical Association (Victorian Branch)

• William Thomson - Records, 1864 - 1883; Australian Medical Association (Victorian Branch). Details

Published resources

Books

• Ford, Edward, A bibliography of William Thomson, F.R.C.S.E., F.L.S. (Sydney: School of Public Health and tropical Medicine, University of Sydney, 1954), 32 pp. Details
• Thomson, William, The histochemistry and pathogeny of the tubercule (Melbourne: Stillwell & Knight, 1876), 54 pp. Details
• Thomson, William, On phthisis and the supposed influence of climate: being an analysis of statistics of consumption in this part of Australia with remarks on the cause of the increase of that disease in Melbourne (Melbourne: Stillwell & Knight, 1879), 160 pp. Details
• Thomson, William, The germ theory of phthisis verified and illustrated by the increase of phthisis in Victoria (Melbourne: Sands & McDougall, 1882), 95 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Gandevia, Bryan, 'Thomson, William (1819-1883), medical practitioner and epidemiologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 6: 1851 - 1890 R - Z, Bede Nairn, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 270-272. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060291b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Gandevia, B., 'William Thomson and the history of the contagionist doctrine in Melbourne', Medical journal of Australia (1953), 398-404. Details
• Smith, F. B., 'Disputes About the Typhoid Fever in Victoria in the 1870s', Health and History, 4 (2) (2002), 1-18. Details
• Webster, Emily, 'Tubercular landscape: landscape change and Mycobacterium in Melbourne, Australia, 1837 - 1900', Journal of historical geography, 67 (2020), 48-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2019.10.009. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21539654. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/65084642. Details
• 'Thomson, William (1819-1890)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-923548. Details

See also

• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_t.html. Details
• Davies, Susan, 'R. v.d. R. Wooley in Australia', Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (1) (1984), 59-69. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9840610059. Details