Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alcock, Thomas (1784-1833)

by no contributor recorded

ALCOCK, THOMAS (1784–1833), surgeon, was born at Rothbury, Northumberland. After an apprenticeship to a surgeon in Newcastle, he became in 1805 resident medical officer at the Sunderland Dispensary. In 1806 or 1807 he moved to London and became a general practitioner. From 1825 he devoted himself to surgery alone. From 1813 to 1828 he was surgeon to St. James's Workhouse. A visit to Paris in 1823 led him to publish in 1827 an essay upon the use of the chlorides of soda and lime in cases of hospital gangrene, the practice having been extensively applied in France by M. Labarraque. A course of ‘Lectures on Practical and Medical Surgery,’ delivered to the students of the Borough Dispensary, appeared in the ‘Lancet’ in 1825–6, and were republished with additions in 1830. He contributed many papers to medical journals. He died in 1833.

[S.D.U.K. Dictionary, from a manuscript communication.]