William Thompson (zoologist)
William Thompson (born December 2, 1805 in Belfast , † February 17, 1852 in London ) was an Irish naturalist and ornithologist .
Life
Thompson was the son of a cloth merchant (linen) and received a commercial training in order to continue the father's business. He also studied biology at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, among other things. Even as a teenager he was interested in natural history and, after an unsuccessful attempt to continue his father's business, turned entirely to zoology and botany. In 1826 he went on a grand tour to the Netherlands, Belgium, the Rhineland, Switzerland, Italy and Paris. From 1827 he published mainly on ornithological topics and published a report on the fauna of Ireland for the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Glasgow in 1841. In 1843 he became President of the Natural History Society of Belfast. He died of a heart attack while visiting London and is buried in Belfast. He remained unmarried throughout his life.
Thompson, who was building a private bird collection, drew up a list of birds in Ireland that became the basis for his work The Natural History of Ireland , which he published three volumes of during his lifetime, all about birds. A follow-up volume on vertebrates other than birds and invertebrates was published in 1856 by George Dickie , Robert Ball (1802-1857) and Robert Patterson (1802-1872). It was based in part on Thompson's estate and also contained letters from him.
He was also interested in marine biology and trawled the Irish Sea in 1834 with Edward Forbes . In 1835 he traveled with Forbes to Germany, Switzerland and France and also with Forbes and Spratt he was a participant on a marine biological expedition in the Mediterranean on the Beacon 1841 under the captain Thomas Graves . He dealt in particular with algae and their distribution in different sea depths.
Thompson also published catalogs of the land and freshwater mollusks in Ireland.
literature
- Norman Moore, Entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Online
Fonts
- The Natural History of Ireland, 3 volumes, London: Reeve and Benham, 1849-1851
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thompson, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish naturalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 2, 1805 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Belfast |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 17, 1852 |
| Place of death | London |