Stone, Thomas I Dr. T. Stone, Dr. Stone l, MD. Apprenticed to surgeon in London. Studied medicine in Edinburgh. There published The Evidences against the System of Phrenology, 1828, and in following year two other pamphlets countering the claims of phrenologists. President, 1829, of Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh. Graduate in Medicine, University of Edinburgh, 1831; thesis: "De Cranio Humane." Entered on private practice in London, where, according to Horne, who at one time had been a close friend of his, he "mingled science, general literature, and Bond Street lounging in about equal proportions" ("By-Gone Celebrities of Bond Street," Harper's, Oct. 1871). Fellow of London Medico-Chirurgical Society. Editor, Jan.–June 1844, of London Polytechnic Magazine, and Journal of Science, Literature, and the Fine Arts (title varies); co-editor, July–Dec. 1844. During his editorship, wrote two articles for the periodical. According to Horne, contributed numerous articles to Medico-Chirurgical Review, Journal of Psychological Medicine, and "many other magazines."
Of medical men named Stone with initial "T" who flourished in the mid-century, Thomas Stone, graduate in medicine, University of Edinburgh, is the only one recorded as having written either periodical articles or books. Evidence that he was the H.W. contributor is furnished by a statement in the article "Dreams," [II, 566–72. March 8, 1851] assigned in the Office Book to "Dr. Stone." The writer of the article refers to the Burke-Hare murders, which took place in Edinburgh, 1827–28, and for which Burke was hanged in Jan. 1829. The writer states: "We had ourselves an interview with Burke, after his condemnation. .:" Thomas Stone was studying medicine in Edinburgh in 1828–31 (prob. also before); in 1829 he published in Edinburgh Observations on the Phrenological Development of Burke, Hare, and Other Atrocious Murderers ... , Presenting an Extensive Series of Facts Subversive of Phrenology. He had, before publishing his observations, presented them in a paper read before the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh.
Stone may have been acquainted with Dickens. He was a member of the short-lived Society of British Authors, 1843, at the second meeting of which Dickens presided as chairman (Besant, "The First Society of British Authors," Contemp. Rev., July 1889). He seems obviously to be the "Dr. Stone" mentioned in Dickens's letter to Horne, April 18, 1852, as having proposed to Horne a subject for a H.W. article.
On Sept. 17, 1850, Dickens wrote to Wills: "I will look over Hints on Emergencies [II, 47–48. Oct. 5, 1850], with the view you suggest, if it comes." Stone's article so titled appeared in H.W. in the following month. Based on John Flint South's very popular Household Surgery; or, Hints on Emergencies, it warns that South's suggestions for the layman's practising on himself and his family with lancet and scalpel are unwise. Whatever changes were made in the article must have been made by Wills, as indicated by his assigning it to himself and Stone. On Feb. 2,1851, Dickens wrote a long letter to Stone concerning the article "Dreams," which he thought might be made "a little more original, and a little less recapitulative of the usual stories in the books." To this end, Dickens suggested some of his own ideas on the subject; he would "be happy to appoint a time for discussing the subject still further" if Stone thought the ideas worth considering; otherwise, he would publish Stone's paper as written and then present his own ideas in a separate paper. The article as published in H.W. incorporates some of Dickens's suggestions; Dickens did not carry out his alternative plan of writing a paper on the subject himself.
Four of Stone's H.W. contributions were reprinted in Harper's, two of them acknowledged to H.W. Four were included in the Putnam volume of selections from H.W.: Home and Social Philosophy, 1st ser.
Graduates in Medicine, Univ. of Edinburgh; Allibone
Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971
