Marshall, John Dr
Marshall, John.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Introduction of new surgical technique: galvano-cautery.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 11th September 1818, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 1st January 1891, London, England. Aged 73.
DISCIPLINE: Surgeon.
FIELD: Medicine.
LANGUAGE: English.
PARENTS: William Marshall, mother unknown.
SIBLINGS: One brother, William.
SPOUSE:
CHILDREN: One son and two daughters.
EDUCATION: Hingham, Norfolk, University College, London.
MAJOR WORK: "On the Development of the Great Veins" (1850), "The Outlines of Physiology, Human and Comparative" (1867) and "Anatomy for Artists" (1878).
LIFE AND TIMES: Marshall was the second son of a solicitor who was also a keen naturalist. After attending school in Norfolk, England, he began his medical training as an apprentice to a doctor in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
At the age of twenty, he entered University College, London, where he obtained his medical degree. He was made a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1844, set up a practice in north London and in 1845, at the age of twenty-seven, he was made Demonstrator of Anatomy at University College. In 1847, he was appointed as Extra Assistant Surgeon and he moved his practice to the more fashionable West End of London.
His paper "On the Development of the Great Veins" was published in "Philosophical Transactions" in 1850 and was still known to every medical student fifty years later. In 1853, he gave a course of lectures on anatomy to students at the Marlborough House Art School in London, and as an accomplished draughtsman on the blackboard became well-known for his ability to relate anatomy to art.
In his report on the outbreak of cholera in London in 1854, he demonstrated the possibility of cholera being spread through the drinking water supply, becoming one of the first to discover this vital aspect of public health.
In 1857, he became a fellow of the Royal Society* and three years later, he published "A Description of the Human Body, its Structure and Functions". He always retained his interest in original observation and published a paper "On the Brain of a Bushwoman" in 1864.
He became first Professor of Surgery at University College in 1866 and then Professor of Clinical Surgery, while working on his "The Outlines of Physiology, Human and Comparative”, published a year later. As an enthusiastic supporter of the establishment of a teaching university in London, he played an active part in planning the education of medical students.
In 1872, Marshall was summoned to the bedside of Dante Gabriel Rossetti* after Rossetti took an overdose of chloral. Marshall saved his life and the two remained friends.
The following year, he was made Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy of Arts in
London and was elected to membership of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, becoming an examiner in surgery.
He published "A Rule of Proportion for the Human Figure" in 1878 and anatomical and physiological diagrams and invented the system of circular wards for hospitals, on which he published a paper in 1879.
In 1881, he represented the College in the General Council of Medical Education and Registration and became acting president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London in 1882-83. His operation for the excision of varicose veins was regarded with suspicion when first introduced, but eventually received recognition as a valid method of treatment.
In the field of practical surgery, he also introduced galvano-cautery, the technique of using heat to cauterise wounds, anddiscussed "Nerve Stretching" in the Bradshaw lecture of 1883, the same year in which he was made president of the General Medical Council.
In 1887, he was given an honorary degree from the Royal University of Ireland, followed by another from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1890.
He worked continuously until the end of his life, and two of his papers, "On the Relations between the Weight of the Brain and its Parts, and the Stature and Mass of the Body" and "The Brain of the late George Grote", were published posthumously.
Marshall died on New Year's Day in 1891 and was buried at Ely, Suffolk.
ASSESSMENT: Marshall is best known today for his skill in teaching of anatomy to art
students.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Assisted famous surgeon Liston*.
ONELINER: John Marshall, surgery pioneer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.