Philosophic Whigs by Jacyna L. S

Author:Jacyna, L. S.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Given the support from government that he now enjoyed, Thomson could afford to be defiant. When the communications of Town Council and Senatus arrived at the Home Office they were referred to Jeffrey for an opinion. He drew a sharp distinction between the two documents: ‘the Memorial of the Magistrates and Council … appear to me to be drawn up in a very proper tone and spirit, and so as to make it easy and fitting for the Crown to meet the application by any acts of grace and bounty that may be thought adviseable’. The memorial from the Senatus, on the other hand, was not ‘entitled by any means to the same respect and attention’. Jeffrey categorically rejected the university’s proposal that the commissions of the new professors be revoked; but he saw no objection to the Town Council’s request to be made the patron of the chairs.131

The Home Secretary adopted Jeffrey’s advice and informed the Lord Provost accordingly.132 In November 1833 the Council received a royal warrant empowering them to make future appointments to the chairs of surgery and pathology.133 While this transfer of the patronage of the general pathology chair to the Town Council seemed unexceptionable even to Thomson’s friends, it was to prove the cause of much future strife.

Soon after his appointment Thomson began to associate his son William in the teaching of the professorship. Between 1831 and 1836 he also employed James Young Simpson as an assistant.134 These helpers allowed Thomson to reconcile the requirements of the chair with the demands of private practice. Thus in December 1832 he notified the Lord Provost that

I have just received an urgent request to visit a old friend of mine in Argyllshire, who is affected with a dangerous disease. As I must necessarily be absent from Edinburgh for five or six days, I have desired my eldest son, Dr W. Thomson, to read my lectures for me till my return, in order that the Students of my class may not sustain any loss by my absence[.]135

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