Marcet, Alexander John Gaspard (1770-1822)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0129
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Marcet, Alexander John Gaspard (1770-1822)
Date(s)	: 1804-1817
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 box
Name of creator(s)	: Marcet | Alexander John Gaspard | 1770-1822 | physician

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Alexander John Gaspard Marcet was born in Geneva in 1770. He attended Edinburgh University in 1794 and graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1797. He settled in London, and was admitted a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1799. He was also appointed Physician to the City dispensary in 1799. He was appointed Physician to Guy's Hospital in 1804. He was placed in charge of a temporary military hospital at Portsmouth in 1809, after which he returned to London and Guy's Hospital. Upon the death of his father-in-law he came into an ample fortune and began to withdraw from practice and devote himself to science and literature. He resigned his post at Guy's in 1819, and returned to Geneva, being appointed a member of the Representative Council, and an honorary Professor of Chemistry. He gave a course of lectures on Chemistry with Dr de la Rive, in 1820. He returned to England in 1821, and died in 1822. He was a fellow of the Royal and Geographical Societies, and an original promoter of the Medico-Chirurgical Society.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Alexander John Gaspard Marcet, 1804-1817, comprising a volume containing case notes and observations on topics such as herpes, aneurisms, apoplexy, and typhus. Including manuscript copies of papers Marcet read at the Medico Chirurgical Society, which were not published, titled Two cases of visceral disease, with dissection, and Account of a case in which death was preceeded by a dose of arsenic and corrosive sublimate, with dissection, 1806.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr contains a note by the Librarian, James Blake Bailey, suggesting that the volume may have previously been in the possession of Sir Astley Cooper, as there are various manuscript additions by him, and many of the post-mortems recorded were made by him.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The provenance of this material is not known.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Notes of lectures on Chemistry by Alexander Marcet and William Allen, taken by Thomas Egerton Bryant in 1814 - MS0125/4.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Source: Munk, William The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Volume II, 1701-1800, p 466.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Sep 2008