Talk:Paper - The Maturation of the Human Ovum

Nature 135, 295-295 (23 February 1935) | doi:10.1038/135295a0

Prof. Arthur Thomson

Abstract

ON his retirement in 1933, Prof. Arthur Thomson, whose death on February 7 will be widely regretted, had completed a somewhat unusual record of academic service. He was born on March 21, 1858, and for forty-eight years he represented human anatomy at the University of Oxford, first as University lecturer in human anatomy and afterwards as Dr. Lee’s professor of anatomy. After serving an apprenticeship in the famous school of anatomy at Edinburgh under Sir William Turner, Thomson went to Oxford in 1885. Unlike many of his later contemporaries, he did not enjoy the advantage of stepping into a department already equipped for teaching and research. On the contrary, the task fell to him of building up a new department from its very foundations. It will readily be appreciated that Thomson’s energies were fully employed for a number of years in developing the teaching side of his department to a level appropriate to the medical faculty of the University of Oxford, a task which was rendered very laborious at first by the criticism and opposition of some members of the University who were less ready to appreciate the importance of catering for an extensive and detailed medical curriculum.