Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/305

Rh science than those which, three years after his reports had ceased, were begun by the distinguished Swedish chemist, Berzelius. In 1835, when Dr. R. D. Thomson started his journal, "The Records of General Science," his uncle contributed to almost every number, and encouraged him by his sympathy in his attempts to advance science.

Dr. Thomson continued to lecture till the year 1841, discharging all the duties of his chair without assistance; but being then in his 69th year, and feeling his bodily powers becoming more faint, he associated with him at that period his nephew and son-in-law, Dr. R. D. Thomson, who was then resident in London. He continued, however, to deliver the inorganic course only till 1846, when the dangerous illness of his second son, from disease contracted in India, hurried him for the winter to Nice, when his nephew was appointed by the university to discharge the duties of the chair, which he continued to perform till Dr. Thomson's death. Of the hardship of being obliged in his old age thus to toil in harness, and to have no retiring allowance, he never murmured or complained. But there were not wanting suggestions, that one who had raised himself to eminence from comparative obscurity, and who had benefited his country in no common measure, might have been relieved in some degree by the guardians of the state, without popular disaffection, from fatigues which even a green old age cannot long sustain. Dr. Thomson continued to attend the examinations for degrees for some years after retiring from the duties of the chair; but in consequence of the increasing defect in his hearing, he ultimately gave up this duty, and confined his public labours to attendance at the fortnightly meetings of the winter session of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, of which he was president from the year 1834. His last appearance there was on the 6th November, at the first meeting of the session 1850-51, when he read a biographical account of his old and affectionate friend, Dr. Wollaston, to whom he was ever most strongly attached. During the early part of 1852 his frame became visibly weaker, and, latterly, having removed to the country, where it was hoped the freshness of the summer season might brace his languishing powers, his appetite failed; but no pain appeared to mar the tranquil exit of the philosophic spirit. To inquiries after his health "I am quite well, but weak," the good old man replied, within a few hours of his last summons. On the morning of the 2d of July he breathed his last in the bosom of his affectionate family, on the lovely shores of the Holy Loch. Dr. Thomson married, in 1816, Miss Agnes Colquhoun, daughter of Mr. Colquhoun, distiller, near Stirling, with whom he enjoyed most complete and uninterrupted happiness. He was left a widower in 1834. He left a son, Dr. Thomas Thomson, of the Bengal army, the author of "Travels in Tibet," the result of several years' researches into the botany and physical structure of the Himalaya Mountains, and now (1855) superintendent of the Botanic Gardens at Calcutta; and a daughter, married to her cousin, Dr. R. D. Thomson, Professor of Chemistry at St. Thomas's Hospital, London. On strangers, Dr. Thomson occasionally made an unfavourable impression; but by all who knew him intimately, he universally recognized as the most friendly and benevolent of men. Dr. Thomson was originally destined for the Church of Scotland, and continued to the last a faithful adherent. He was wont to attribute his sound and intellectual views of the Christian faith to the care of his mother a woman of great beauty and sense; and it was perhaps from his affection for her that his favourite axiom originated that the talents are derived from the maternal