Thomas W. Jones | |
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| Born | (1808-01-09)9 January 1808 St Andrews, Scotland |
| Died | 7 November 1891(1891-11-07) (aged 83) Ventnor, England |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ophthalmologist andphysiologist |
| Institutions | University College, London Royal Institution Charing Cross Hospital |
| Academic advisors | William Mackenzie[1] |
| Notable students | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Thomas Wharton Jones (9 January 1808 – 7 November 1891)[2] was aophthalmologist andphysiologist of the 19th century.
Jones's father was Richard Jones, a native of London. Richard Jones had moved north to St Andrews and was working with Her Majesty's Customs for Scotland when Thomas Wharton Jones was born in January 1808. Jones grew up inScotland and studied medicine at theUniversity of Edinburgh. From 1827 to 1829, he was an assistant toRobert Knox, a lecturer on anatomy atEdinburgh. Around Christmas of 1827, while working for Knox, he purchased a body fromWilliam Hare on Knox's behalf, paying £7 10s to Hare. Jones thus became caught up in the scandal surrounding the notorious body-snatchersBurke and Hare, but was cleared by the investigating committee.[3],[4] After this, he went to Glasgow, where he worked withWilliam Mackenzie. Jones contributed the anatomical drawings of sections of the eye that appeared in Mackenzie's classic treatise.[5]
Jones travelled to Cork in 1835, and for a time he engaged in medical practice there, devoting himself chiefly to diseases of the eye and ear. In 1835, he made the discovery of the germinal vesicle in the mammalianovum, and in 1837, described the origin of thechorion.[6] In 1837 he visited the principal universities of the Continent, and settled in London in the following year, where he set up practice as an oculist. In 1847, Jones examined a primitiveophthalmoscope devised byCharles Babbage, but found it of little value.[5] In 1851, Jones was appointed Professor of Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery atUniversity College, London. He occupied this post for 30 years until the beginning of 1881, when medical problems forced him to retire toVentnor. He stayed in Ventnor until his death in 1891.[4]
Jones was a Lecturer on Physiology atCharing Cross Hospital, Fullerian Professor of Physiology in theRoyal Institution (1851–55), and Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Hospital.
In 1872, on behalf of theCamden Society, Jones edited an account of the life and death of Bishop Bedell of Kilmore, who was an ancestral kinsman who died in theIrish Rebellion of 1641.
Jones disagreed with theDarwinian theory ofevolution, regarding it as a "mere conceit unsanctioned by science," and published a book in 1876 propounding this view.
Jones also wrote various papers onphysiology, published in thePhilosophical Transactions and elsewhere.
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Fullerian Professor of Physiology 1851–1855 | Succeeded by |
