Thomas Wharton Jones
| Thomas W. Jones | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
9 January 1808 St Andrews, Scotland |
| Died | 7 November 1891 (aged 83) Ventnor, England |
| Residence | England |
| Nationality | English |
| Fields | Ophthalmologist and physiologist |
| Institutions |
University College, London Royal Institution Charing Cross Hospital |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Academic advisors | William Mackenzie |
| Notable students | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Thomas Wharton Jones (9 January 1808 – 7 November 1891) was an eminent ophthalmologist and physiologist 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 in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. From 1827 to 1829, he was an assistant to Robert Knox, a lecturer on anatomy at Edinburgh. Around Christmas of 1827, while working for Knox, he purchased a body from William Hare on Knox's behalf, paying £7 10s to Hare. Jones thus became caught up in the scandal surrounding the notorious body-snatchers Burke and Hare, but was cleared by the investigating committee., After this, he went to Glasgow, where he worked with William Mackenzie. Jones contributed the anatomical drawings of sections of the eye that appeared in Mackenzie's classic treatise.
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 mammalian ovum, and in 1837, described the origin of the chorion. 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 primitive ophthalmoscope devised by Charles Babbage, but found it of little value. In 1851, Jones was appointed Professor of Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery at University College, London. He occupied this post for 30 years until the beginning of 1881, when medical problems forced him to retire to Ventnor. He stayed in Ventnor until his death in 1891.
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