James Thorburn

James Thorburn (21 November 1830 – 26 May 1905) was a Canadian physician, medical researcher, military surgeon, university professor and an executive member of several medical organizations.

Biography Born in Queenston, Upper Canada, Thorburn was the son of David Thorburn (1790–1862), a parliamentary member for Lincoln County, Upper Canada for many years.

Thorburn became a medical doctor in Toronto, Ontario, a Surgeon-Major in the Queen's Own Rifles militia and also a professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Toronto. He was a consulting surgeon at the Toronto General Hospital and a physician of the Boys' Home and the Hospital for Sick Children. He was also connected with other institutions, both charitable and financial, in his capacity as a physician. and Life Insurance and the Relations Existing Between It and Medical Men. He was elected to the presidency of the Canadian Medical Association in 1895 and represented the association at its annual meeting in Montreal, Quebec in 1896. He was also the president of the Toronto chapter of the Victorian Order of Nurses. In 1901, he was elected to the executive of the Toronto branch of the Anti-Consumption League.

Architecture of Thorburn's practice and home

Thorburn's medical office, located in his personal home, was found notable in a 2008 survey by the Wellcome Trust, which noted:

Dr Thorburn's house-office of 1891 (Figure 10) ... is one of the few in the sample to include an entirely independent side entrance for patients, allowing them to enter directly into the heart of the house with no overlap whatsoever with the more private family spaces. In this case the rooms given over to medical practice were a waiting-room, a consulting room and a small laboratory, each with a window. ... It is important to note that even these early examples have generous waiting-rooms that occupy a substantial percentage of the medical practice area.

Thorburn was reported suffering gravely at his home in Toronto on 26 May 1905 after a presumed heart attack, and was treated by fellow physician John Caven. He died the same day. His widely printed obituary also described him as: "[possessing] many admirable qualities."

Note: this article incorporates text from the Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889), a reference work in the public domain