Talk:James Edwin Thompson

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: rejected by reviewer, closed by Launchballer talk 11:19, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

• ... that Dr. James Edwin Thompson was a founding member of the American College of Surgeons and their first vice president in 1913?

• • Reviewed:

Hi I'm Sailing427, but you can call me Sailing. Look at my profile. (talk) 19:12, 9 June 2025 (UTC).

• I will take this review Dwkaminski (talk) 19:34, 9 June 2025 (UTC)

Overall: Dwkaminski (talk) 19:36, 9 June 2025 (UTC)

• Comments:
  • Early life and education section:
    • "During his studies, between 1886 and 1887, he was President of the Medical Students' Debating Society." needs a reference
  • Career section:
    • "Thompson became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons on the 23rd of July, 1886, followed by becoming a fellow on the 13th of June, 1889." needs a reference
    • Article states, "Beginning in 1891, Thompson served as the University of Texas Medical Branch's inaugural Chairman of Surgery, holding the position until 1917" but reference 1 says "In 1891 Thompson moved to the United States and became professor and first chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, remaining in that position until his death." Reference 3 says he took the position in 1891 and held it for 26 years - therefore 1917. Which is it? 1917 or 1927?
  • Earwing's copyvio detector shows 21.3% - violation unlikely. Most of score is proper nouns. Could be some slight re-writing but not significant.
  • Less than 5 DYK submission so no qpq required
  • @Sailing427alt: Please see my review comments above. I struggled with the hook if it was interesting enough. I landed on yes, but do you want to propose any alternatives? I see you resolved the 1917/1927 issue on the page. Could you add the other references and we should be good.
  • @Sailing427alt: Thank you for adding the requested references and proposing an ALT hook on my wikipedia home talk page. Next time you can add any conversation or alternatives right here on the review template page. Let's go forward with ALT0. Approved for ... that Dr. James Edwin Thompson was a founding member of the American College of Surgeons and their first vice president in 1913?
• This has been pulled per a WT:DYK discussion that raised concerns about the promoted hook's meeting DYKINT. A new hook is needed here. Courtesy pings to AirshipJungleman29 and RoySmith. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 23:05, 2 July 2025 (UTC)
  • I think something like "... that James Edwin Thompson was credited with bringing modern surgery to Texas" would work. Cited to https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/JAMES. RoySmith (talk) 01:55, 3 July 2025 (UTC)

@Dwkaminski: Pinging for input. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 08:03, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

I think the proposed hook is an improvement and would approve it if @Sailing427alt: adds the content to the article and submits the alt hook. Dwkaminski (talk) 12:37, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

@Dwkaminski: Sailing427alt hasn't edited in over a month, which is a bit of a problem. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 00:00, 20 July 2025 (UTC)

Give me about a day and I will add the content, I approve of the new hook. Hi I'm Sailing427, but you can call me Sailing. Look at my profile. (talk) 12:21, 20 July 2025 (UTC)

Courtesy ping for @Dwkaminski: and @Narutolovehinata5: Hi I'm Sailing427, but you can call me Sailing. Look at my profile. (talk) 00:17, 21 July 2025 (UTC)

• Approving ALT1: ... that James Edwin Thompson is credited with bringing modern surgery to Texas? Dwkaminski (talk) 15:13, 21 July 2025 (UTC)

Reopening this nom, as I think there are issues with ALT1. Firstly, the line in the article with this assertion isn't cited to the above source, it's cited to , which I don't think mentions him being the first to do modern surgery in Texas. But that aside, I think it's rather woolly as to what exactly "modern surgery" means. As a layperson I would understand that to mean advanced techniques such as robotic surgery, minimally invasive, keyhole, that sort of thing, but I don't think Thompson practised that. So was he really the first in Texas at anything in particular? mentions him as one of the figures in the development of the field in Dallas, but credits Dr. Henry K. Leake as having trained in London and being pioneering in Texas, performing the first appendectomy and suchlike. Overall I think the approved hook is too imprecise and dubious to run. Pinging @Dwkaminski, Narutolovehinata5, Sailing427alt, AirshipJungleman29, RoySmith, and SonOfYoutubers:. Cheers  — Amakuru (talk) 07:10, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

• I haven't been following all of the details, but after being pulled twice, I think it's time to just reject this one and move on. RoySmith (talk) 11:29, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

Given that the nominator has not been editing much lately (no edits since July 21, and only a handful of edits over the past month or two), regrettably that does seem to be the case. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 08:14, 4 August 2025 (UTC)