1838 he was made fellow of the Royal Society, and served on the council in 1838-9. In 1836-7 he served on a sub-committee of the British Association to inquire into the motions of the heart, and in 1839-40 was examiner for the university in London. In 1844 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.
It was not till 1836, when he was appointed, at the age of twenty-seven, to the newly established chair of physiology and general and morbid anatomy in King’s College, that Todd found work which completely satisfied him. This chair and one at University College were the first of the kind to be established in London; but Todd had known the advantage of a similar professorship in the university of Dublin. His desire was to become a physiological physician. He felt the supreme value of the study of physiological anatomy, a science at that time in its infancy.
While professor at King’s College Todd took a warm interest in medical education, and insisted upon the importance to the profession of a high standard of general and religious knowledge, and always strongly supported the theological principles of King’s College. He was one of the first to advocate the appointment of medical tutors and the collegiate system for medical students, and was instrumental in obtaining the foundation of valuable medical scholarships at King’s College. In 1838, with much warm support from friends of the college, Todd took a prominent part in establishing King’s College Hospital, which was opened in April 1840 in the unused poorhouse of St. Clement Danes, and it was largely through his energy that the commodious building which now occupies the site was begun in 1851. Todd was until his death one of the two physicians of the hospital.
Another subject in which he was interested was the improvement of the system of hospital nursing. In a letter to the Bishop Blomfield. Published in 1847, he suggested a scheme for the foundation of a sisterhood for training nurses. The next year St. John’s House training institution was opened under an influential council, with the bishop of London as president, and in 1854 its sisters and nurses furnished an important contingent to the band which was starting for Scutari, when Miss Nightingale was appointed its chief. In 1856 the sisters of St. John’s commenced, in accordance with Todd’s wish, and carried on for many years the nursing of King’s College Hospital.
In 1848 Bowman was, at Todd’s desire, associated with him in the professorship at King’s College. They worked together till 1853, when increasing practice obliged Todd to resign, and he was succeeded by his pupil, Dr. Beale. In his address on resigning the professorship in 1853 he touched on the great advance made in the science of physiological anatomy both in this country and on the continent during the sixteen years that he held the chair, an advance rendered possible by the improvement in the microscope.
During the last ten years of his life Todd’s private practice was very large, and, in spite of failing health, he was able to carry on the work of a leading London physician to the last. Only six weeks before his death he gave up with deep regret his clinical lectures at King’s College Hospital. He died in his consulting-room, at his house in Brook Street, a few hours after the last patient had left it, on 30 Jan. 1860. The circumstances of his death are touchingly told by Thackeray in the ‘Roundabout Papers.’
Todd left a widow and four children. His only son, James Henthorn Todd, born in 1847, was educated at Eton and Worcester College, Oxford, went to India in the Bombay civil service in 1869, made a reputation in his presidency as an able administrator, and was collector of Thana, where he died unmarried in 1891.
As a lecturer on physiology Todd was accurate and clear, and encouraged scientific work among his pupils. As a clinical teacher he was one of the most popular of his day, distinguished for accuracy in the observation of disease, correctness of diagnosis, and clearness and exactness in expressing his views. Many of his pupils won distinction in the profession, and no master ever took a greater interest in the success of those he taught.
Todd worked a striking revolution in certain departments of medical practice. His master, Graves, fed fevers. But Todd was the first to lay down definite principles for the treatment of specially serious cases of fever, such as influenza and rheumatic fever, besides inflammations associated with exhaustion in which life was in jeopardy. In these cases Todd proved from patient observation the desirability of a steady administering of alcoholic stimulants at short intervals, day and night, while the danger lasted. By this treatment not only was the strength maintained, but the period of convalescence was shortened. In the preface to his last volume of clinical lectures, completed only a few days before his death, Todd summarised the principles of his treatment.
In his Lumleian lectures given before the Royal College of Physicians in 1849, and published in the ‘London Medical Gazette,’ Todd discussed the nature and treatment of
