Arthur Thomson (21 March 1858,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

– 7 February 1935,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

) was a British

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

. He is best remembered for his formulation of Thomson's Nose Rule, which states that ethnic groups originating in cold, arid climates tend to have longer and thinner noses, while those in warm, humid climates tend to have shorter and thicker noses. The underlying physiological explanation for Thomson's Rule is that noses help warm and humidify inhaled air; a longer and thinner nose increases the ''relative'' contact area between the air flow and the nasal cavity, and as such it becomes a highly selected trait in colder climates.

Biography

Thomson was educated at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

. In 1885 he was hired by

Henry Acland Sir Henry Wentworth Dyke Acland, 1st Baronet, (23 August 181516 October 1900) was an English physician and educator. Life Henry Acland was born in Killerton, Exeter, the fourth son of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet, Sir Thomas Acland a ...

to lecture on anatomy at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Acland was determined to create a medical school at Oxford, but after he fell ill, Thomson had to bear much of the administrative burden. This would eventually prevent him from reaching his potential as a scholar.Short biography of Thomson
Once the diploma for anthropology was formed in 1905, Thomson would be one of three professors who would make up the Oxford anthropology department until he retired in 1933. From 1919 until his retirement, he was Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at Oxford (the first to hold that title) and also held a fellowship at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. He was elected President of the

Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland The Anatomical Society (AS), previously known as the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland or ASGBI was founded in London in 1887 to "promote, develop and advance research and education in all aspects of anatomical science". The society ...

for 1906 to 1908. His main pastime was watercolour painting, and he exhibited work occasionally at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

, where he was a professor of anatomy from 1900–34.

Citations

Publications

A Handbook of Anatomy for Art Students
Clarendon Press, 1896.
The ancient races of the Thebaid: being an anthropometrical study of the inhabitants of Upper Egypt from the earliest prehistoric times to the Mohammedan conquest, based upon the examination of over 1,500 crania
Arthur Thomson and D. Randall-Maciver, Clarendon Press, 1905 *"Man's Nasal Index in Relation to Certain Climatic Conditions", Arthur Thomson and L. H. Dudley Buxton, in ''The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', vol. 53, 1923
The Endowment of Research
essay

External links

Short entry
in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Arthur 1858 births 1935 deaths Scientists from Edinburgh Anthropometry Physical anthropologists Dr Lee's Professors of Anatomy Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Presidents of the Anatomical Society