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THOMPSON
Thompson to re-establish it, the Society
offering to pro\'ide means; during this
period of tremendous emergency, first a
house and later a barracks was utilized
and the sick, maimed and burned were
brought to the building before beds could
be put in. In 1873 when the erection of
permanent quarters was contemplated,
the Relief and Aid Society gave $25,000
on condition that twenty-five patients
should be cared for constantly. Dr.
Thompson also visited Boston; her appeal
there meeting with generous response,
and the institution which bears her name,
the Mary Thompson Hospital of Chicago
for Women and Children, was soon an
accomplished fact. Thirty years Dr.
Thompson labored there, doing all the
surgical work, with wonderful precision
and dexterity of manipulation.
But professional eminence was not her only claim to remembrance; her philan- thropy was catholic, and she was also a firm suffragist and agitated the question among her pupils.
The Chicago Medical College Depart- ment of North West University conferred a degree on Dr. Thompson in recognition of her work, the only one it had ever granted to a woman. She also became a member of the Internation Medical Asso- ciation in 1887, and of the Chicago Medical Society.
Dr. Thompson passed away in the midst of her activities after an illness of only twenty-four hours on May 21, 1895. Several years after her death a memorial bust of Dr. Thompson, the work of the well-known sculptor, Daniel C. French, was presented by her friends to the Art Institute of Chicago.
A. B. W.
Woman's Journal, Boston, vol. xxvi, p. 229. Chicago Medical Rec, Feb., 1905. Personal communication.
Thompson, Robert (1797-1865).
Robert Thompson, a physician of Co- lumbus, Ohio, was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, September, 1797. His hterary education was slight, his med- ical instruction acquired with Dr. George
McCook, of New Lisbon, Ohio. He was
licensed to practise medicine and surgery
in 1824 by the Fourteenth District Med-
ical Society of Ohio, and in 1834 received
from the Medical College of Ohio the
honorary M. D. He married, in 1824,
Ann M. Seeber, of New York State, and
settled first at Pleasant Hill, Muskingum,
County, Ohio, but removed thence to
Washington, Guernsey County, and fi-
nally, in 1834, settled in Columbus.
In 1831 he was elected to the State Senate, and was for many years physician to the State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb.
Dr. Thompson was one of the founders of the Ohio State Medical Society, and its president in 1847.
He is said to have been a very compe- tent surgeon and extremely ingenious in the invention of new surgical instruments and apparatus. Among the latter were a bone forceps, a tonsillotome, uvula scissors, a cornea knife, a cataract needle, a tourniquet, a trephine and a popular and useful abdominal supporter.
He was a fluent and ready writer, and numerous contributions from his pen will be found in the "Transactions of the State Medical Society." Among these, the more important are:
"On Mesmerism." ("Western Lan- cet," 1843, vol. ii.)
" Resection of the Left Superior Max- illary Bone." ("Transactions of Ohio State Medical Society," 1849.)
" Cholorof orm, Gutta Percha and Col- lodion." (Ibid., 1849.)
"Report on Medical Literature." (Ibid., 1851.)
"Nitrate of Silver in Diseases of the Lungs." (Ibid., 1855.)
"Chloroform." (Ibid., 1857.)
"Cataract." (Ibid., 1859.)
" Report on Fractures. " (Ibid., 1859.)
He died in Columbus, Ohio, August 18, 18G5. H. E. H.
Cincinnati Lancet and Observer, vol. ix, 1866.
Transactions of the Ohio State .Medical Society, 1867.
Transactions of the American Medical Assoc- iation, 1867.
