Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1162

NAME THOMPSON 1140 THOMPSON student, and after three years' study he ob- tained a certificate of licensure from the Massa- chusetts Medical Society, preceding entrance into full fellowship in 1806. In 1803 Thompson married Elizabeth Bowers of Billerica, Massa- chusetts, and in the course of time they had thirteen children. The doctor was dearly be- loved by his fellow townsmen. He rode to his visits on a large black horse, and, having a tall and commanding presence, his appearance on the streets was marked by all. He was a man of strong religious convictions, and a regular attendant at church, albeit his habit was to be a trifle late. Just as he sat down in his pew he would raise his full wig with both hands several inches from his head, if the weather happened to be hot, much to the edification of the younger generation. Dartmouth conferred the honorary M. D. upon him in 1816 and Harvard did the same in 1826. At the time of the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument Dr. Thompson delivered the ad- dress of welcome to General Lafayette on behalf of the citizens of Charlestown, sur- rounded by a body of revolutionary veterans, among whom were his own father, Generals Brooks and Dearborn, and Governor Eustis, all survivors of the battle. The doctor de- livered a Fourth of July oration and a eulogy on President Harrison, and at the annual meet- ing of the Massachusetts Medical Society in May, 1856, he acted as anniversary chairman, being then seventy-five years old, delivering an address that was printed by the society. According to the custom of the time the doctor helped train several medical students, among them being Fordyce Barker (q. v.). He was elected consulting physician to the Massa- chusetts General Hospital, July 1, 1827, and again, July 8, 1831. In politics he was a warm federalist and enjoyed the friendship of Daniel Webster and Edward Everett, and it was the latter who sent to Dr. Thompson Lafayette's reply to the address of welcome in his own handwriting. Walter L. Burrage. Memorial of Tames Thompson by Rev. Leandcr Thompson. 'Bost., 1887. Pers. Comm. from his descendants. Proc. of the Mass. Med. Soc., 1856. Hist, of Mass. Gen'l Hosp. N. I. Bowditch, 1851. Thompson, James Livingstone (1832-1913). James Livingstone Thompson of Indian- apolis, army surgeon, ophthalmologist and wit. was born in London, England, October 5, 1832, and died of pneumonia in Indianapolis, March 5, 1913. He came to America in his youth and settled in the West, studied medicine in Chicago and graduated from Rush Medical College in I860, soon after moving to Shelby County, Indiana, where he enlisted in the army as assistant surgeon of the Fourth United States Artillery, colored. Promotion to surgeon and then to medical director of western Kentucky followed, and the latter position he held at the time of his resignation in October, 1865. Following the war, he en- gaged in general practice at Harrison, Ohio, then moved to Cincinnati, where he studied diseases of the eye under Elkanah Williams (q. v.), entering his office as an assistant. In 1871 he made another move to Indianapolis, where he practised ophthalmology for the rest of his life. He was an ambidextrous operator and had great skill, using special knives invented by him for the extraction of cataract, and he had a very extensive practice. As a member of the Indianapolis Literary Club for over thirty years, he was known as an authority in myth- ological lore and in American History. Mere- dith Nicholson, the novelist, said of him: "His personality was wholly unusual. The tan- gential flashes of his wit, his mordant humor, the range of his knowledge, set him apart in every gathering. At the meetings of the Indianapolis Literary Club it was always his right and privilege to cap every clima. with some utterance that relieved the tension and cleared the air with laughter." In 1894 Dr. Thompson read a paper by in- vitation before the British Medical Association on "Some Unusual Forms of Opacity of the Crystalline Lens." He served as professor of diseases of the eye and ear in the Medical College of Indiana from 1874 to 1899, and he was chairman of the section on ophthalmology of the American Medical Association in 1892. Dr. Thompson lost his wife in 1898, and in 1904 also his accomplished son, Daniel A. Thompson, who was a prominent ophthal- mologist, his married daughter, Mrs. J. H. Oliver, making a home for her father in his last years. James Whitcomb Riley characterized Dr. Thompson thus at a state medical society banquet in 1888, Thompson being the toast- master : "His every feature speaks his mental force ; — Jawed like a vise ; a nose like any prow Fronting the storm; such eyes as in their ire Do seem to singe; and the high, vasty brow O'ertopping all, a tow'ring bleak Mont Blanc Of lordly individuality." In Memoriam, James Livingstone Thompson, In- dianapolis, 1913. Thompson, Jesse C. (1811-1879L The parents of J. C. Thompson were of Scotch-Irish extraction, natives of Frar.klira