THOMSON. J44 THOMSON. Drury Laiic by Garrick (March 18, 1745), was the most successful. A cenotaph to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey by the side of Shakespeare's. The Seasons had a wide vogue in both France and Germany, where translations and imitations were numerous. Thomson was thus a forerunner of the romantic revival, not only for England, but also for the Continent. The best edition of his Works is the .ldine (London, 1897). edited with a biography of Rev. D. C. Tovey. The best studies are .fcnnrs Tlwinson, sa vie et scs ceuL-rcs, by Leon Morel (Paris, 1895) ; and the essay in Criebritcs attfflaises, by Lefevre Deu- mier (Paris, 1395). An account of Thomson's influence in France is given in Costnopolitisme Utteraire an XVlllime siecJe, by Joseph Texte (Paris, 1895: Eng. trans, by J. W. Matthews, New York, 1899). Consult also Dr. Johnson in Lives of the Poets; and the Life by W. Bayne, in the "Famous Scots" series (Edinburgh, 1898). See RoMA^Tici.SM. THOMSON, James (1822-92). A Scotch professor of engineering and elder brother of William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, born at Belfast and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He settled as a civil engineer in Belfast, where in 1857 he was appointed professor of civil en- gineering in Queen's College. In 1873 he was elected professor in Glasgow University, succeed- ing W. J. M. Rankine (q.v. ). He made many im- provements in liydrsulic machinery and predicted from theory the effect of pressure in lowering the freezing point of water. See Regelation. THOMSON, James (1834-82). An English poet, born at Port Glasgow, Scotland. In 1840 his father was disabled by a paralytic stroke and two years later liis mother died. He was edu- cated at the Royal Caledonian .sylum (1842- 1850) and then entered (1850)" the Mili- tary Asylum, Chelsea, to qualify as an army schoolmaster. The next year he was sent as a teacher to Ballincollig, near Cork, where he fell in love with a beautiful girl, who died in 1853. After serving as schoolmaster at various other places, he was discharged from the service in 1862 for a trivial offense against discipline. Through the influence of his friend Charles Brad- laugh, he obtained a clerkship in London: and under the pen-name of Bysshe Vanolis, or short- ened to B. V. (Bysshe, the middle name of Shel- ley and Vanolis, an anagram of Novalis), he began writing for the radical magazines. Ex- cept for a short period in the United States and as correspondent for the New York ^yol•ld in Spain (1873), he passed the last sixteen years of his life in a narrow London lodging. He died an inel)riate in University College Hospital. Thomson was a thorough-going pessimist wholly out of joint with the ways of men. He first at- tracted attention as a poet with his City of Dread- ful yight (in the National Reformer, 1874, reprinted with other poems in 1880), a lurid poem of great imaginative power, Hardlj' less impressive is the volume entitled lane's Story, Wecldah and Om-el-Bonain, and Other Poems (1881). The same year he collected some of his prose writings under the title Essays and Phan- tasies. After his death appeared .1 T'otcc from the Nile, and Other Poems (1884) : Satires and Profanities (1884); and Poems, Essays, and Fragments (1892)1 Consult Poetical Works, el. with memoir by Bertram Dobell (London, 1895) ; id., Iiiorprii>hiriil and Critical Studies (ib., 1896) ; and Life by H, S. Salt (ib,, 1889). THOMSON, .Joseph (1858-94). A Scottish travek'r. He was born in Dumfriesshire, and after studying at Edinburgli under Sir Archibald Geikie, joined Keith .Johnson's African expedi- tion (1878), and after the former's death became leader. He headed an expedition to Masai Land in 1882: went to Sokots in behalf of the Royal Niger Company in 1885, when be secured a part of the Central Sudan to (ireat Britain, and, after exploring the Atlas Jlountains in Morocco (1888). visited the region between lakes Nyassa a7id Bangweolo. In all liis journeys he avoided serious conflict with the natives. He published To the Central African Lakes and Back (1881) ; Through Masai Land (1885); An African Ro- mance (1888. with Miss Harris-Smith) ; Travels in the Atlas and Southern Morocco (1889) ; and Life of Muiif/o Park (1890). THOMSON, .Joseph John ( 1856— ) . An Eng- lish physicist and Cavendish professor in the University of Cambridge. He was born at Man- chester and was educated at Owens College in that city and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honoi's in 1880. In 1884 he became professor of experimental physics in the I'niversity of Cambridge. He visited Princeton University on the occasion of its sesqui- centennial in 1896 and delivered there a series of lectures which have since been puljlished, upon the Discharge of Electricity in Gases, In 1903 he again visited the United States, where he was received with high honors by the leading univer- sities. To Professor Thomson, more than to any one else, is due the development of the modern ionic theory of electricity, the theoretical and experimental discussion of radio-activity, aiul the electrical theory of inertia of matter. Pro- fessor Tliomson's papers on these subjects have been epoch-making. He is also the author of the following books: On the Motion of Vortex Ring ( 1883) ; The Application of Dynamics to Physics and Chemistry (1888); Recent Researches in^ Electricity and Magnetism (1893) : Elements of the Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Mag- netism (1895). THOMSON, Thomas (1773-1852). A Scotch chcmisl. lie was educated at Saint Andrews and at Edinlnirgh. In 1796 he began to con- triliute to the Encyclopcedia Britannica a series of articles on chemical subjects, which subse- quently formed the basis of his System of Chemis- try (1802). In 1817 he was appointed lecturer, and in 1818 regius professor of chemistry at the University of Glasgow. Thomson was the first to publish (System of Chemistry, 3d ed., ISO") a detailed account of Dalton's atomic theory, Avliicli had been comnuniicated to him in a private in- terview (1804) and which Dalton himself did not ]iublish until 1808. He was also the first English chemist to give laboratory instruction to students. His works include: Elements of Chemistry (1810); An attempt to Estahlish the First Principles of Chemistry by Experiment (1825: the analytical data of the elements were shown by Berzelius to be far from accurate) ; Chemistry of Organic Bodies (1838) ; History of Chemistry (1830-31) ; History of the Royal So-
