Johnson Symington
{{Short description|British anatomist and zoologist}}
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Johnson Symington FRS FRSE FZS LLD (1851–1924) was a British anatomist and zoologist. He was President of the Ulster Medical Society for 1896/7.{{cite web|url=http://www.ums.ac.uk/paddr/SymingtonJ.pdf |title=Presidential Opening Address |website=Ulster Medical Society |date=1896-11-05 }} He served as President of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1904 to 1906. He is noted for his comparative studies of the brain of modern man and prehistoric man, and of man and other primates. From 1923 onwards Queen's University Belfast award a Symington Prize every year to junior anatomists in his honour.{{cite web|url=http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E003872b.htm|title=Symington, Johnson - Biographical entry - Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online|website=livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk|access-date=2018-02-12}}
Life
He was born on 8 September 1851 in Taunton in Somerset. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with an MB ChB in 1877. As was then common, he became a demonstrator in the anatomy lectures, dissecting as the lecturer spoke. In 1879 he was promoted to a lecturer himself. He lectured from Minto House on Chambers Street. While in Edinburgh he lived at “Falconburg Lodge”, 2 Greenhill Park.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1890–91
He received his MD in 1885{{Cite thesis |last=Symington |first=Johnson |date=1885 |title=Topographical anatomy of the child |language=en |publisher=University of Edinburgh|hdl=1842/24359 }} and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in the same year. His proposers were Sir William Turner, Ramsay Heatley Traquair, John Duncan and Robert Gray. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1903.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=27 March 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}
In 1893 he accepted the post of Professor of Anatomy at Queen's College, Belfast, replacing Prof Peter Redfern. In 1901 he also became Registrar of the College. In 1907/8 he was one of the seven commissioners elevating the college to university status under the Irish University Act 1908. The college gave him an honorary doctorate (LLD) on his retiral in 1918 due to illness, at which point he returned to live in Edinburgh.British Medical Journal, obituary, 8 March 1924 He was replaced at Queen's by Thomas Walmsley.{{cite journal| pmc=1273773 | pmid=14946074 | volume=86 |issue = 2| title=IN MEMORIAM: Thomas Walmsley, M.D., F.R.S.E., 1889-1951 | year=1952 | journal=J Anat | pages=226–8}}
He died on 24 February 1924. He is buried with his wife and daughter in Morningside Cemetery, Edinburgh. His grave lies near the centre of the northern half.
Family
He was married to Juliet Bryce (died 1909).
Publications
- The Topographical Anatomy of the Child (1887)
- The Cerebral Convultions in the Primates (1894)
- The Cerebral Commisures of Non-Placental Mammals (1894) (Monotremes and Marsupials)
- The Marsupial Larynx (1899)
- Atlas of Skiagrams (1908)
- Joint editor of Quain's Anatomy (1908/9)
- Splanchnology (1914)
- Atlas of Topographical Anatomy (1917)
References
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External links
- {{cite TIWW |article=Symington, Johnson |page=244 }}
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Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh