William H. Thomson

Throughout his career of nearly half a century as practising physician in New York, Dr. William Hanna Thomson’s mind and imagination were colored by his early experience in Syria. Son of the author of the well-known Land and the Book, he had lived with his father in the Arab tents of Palestine, and throughout his life he passed on to others the vivid pictures and impressions then absorbed. Dr. Thomson was never bound down by his profession. Biology, botany, geology, theology, church history, engaged his mind as well as the science of medicine; yet it was medical achievement and medical progress to which he willingly bent his best energies. President of the Academy of Medicine, Professor of Medical Practice at New York University Medical College, associated with three or four hospitals, he still found time in his busy practice for personal activities in behalf of Civil Service Reform and for a long series of articles and books, notably his interestingly suggestive Brain and Personality. His work in Biblical study and interpretation, illuminated by his intimate knowledge of Bible lands and life, exemplified his character.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1919 Century Association Yearbook