Thomas Chevalier, (1767–1824) was an English surgeon and medical writer who rose to become Surgeon Extraordinary to the King and Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the Royal College of Physicians.

Life

Thomas Chevalier was born in London on 3 November 1767. His paternal grandfather was a

French Protestant Protestantism in France has existed in its various forms, starting with Calvinism and Lutheranism since the Protestant Reformation. John Calvin was a Frenchman, as were numerous other Protestant Reformers including William Farel, Pierre Viret and ...

, resident at Orleans, and escaped from France in an open boat on the revocation of the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aimed pr ...

. On the death of his mother in 1770 Chevalier was brought up by her brother, Thomas Sturgis, a general practitioner in South Audley Street, London. He studied anatomy under

Matthew Baillie Matthew Baillie FRS (27 October 1761 – 23 September 1823) was a British physician and pathologist, credited with first identifying transposition of the great vessels (TGV) and situs inversus. Early life and education He was born in the manse ...

, and appears to have obtained a university degree of MA (probably at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, where the name of Thomas Chevallier is recorded as AB of Pembroke College, 1792).Bettany 1887, p. 214. He became a member of the London Corporation of Surgeons, and in 1797 defended it in a pamphlet written to promote the movement for transforming the corporation into a college. In this pamphlet Chevalier gives a learned sketch of the history of surgery. He was appointed surgeon to the Westminster Dispensary and lecturer on surgery. In 1801 he published an ''Introduction to a Course of Lectures on the Operations of Surgery'', and in 1804 a ''Treatise on Gunshot Wounds'', which had obtained the prize of the

College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...

in 1803, and which reached a third edition in 1806. It also secured him the appointment of Surgeon Extraordinary to the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

, and a present of a diamond ring from the Czar of Russia. In 1821 Chevalier delivered an able Hunterian Oration (published in

4to Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

, 1823); he also gave excellent courses of lectures at the College of Surgeons, as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, in 1823, on the ''General Structure of the Human Body and the Anatomy and Functions of the Skin''; these were also published in the same year. Chevalier was highly esteemed, not only as a surgeon and anatomist, but as a man of linguistic and theological erudition. He translated into English

Bossuet Bossuet is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), French bishop and theologian, uncle of Louis * Louis Bossuet Louis Bossuet (22 February 1663 – 15 January 1742) was a French parle ...

's ''

Universal History A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

'', 1810, and

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

's '' Thoughts'', 1803, and made numerous contributions to periodical literature. He wrote the preface to Bagster's polyglot ''Bible'', and compiled the collection of texts and various readings. His last publication was ''Remarks on Suicide'', 1824, in which he urges that suicide is often one of the earliest symptoms of insanity, as shown by the history of those who have failed in the attempt, and he recommends verdicts of "suicide during insanity" in the majority of cases. He died suddenly on 9 June 1824. He had been an active member (for many years deacon) of the

Keppel Street Keppel Street is a street in the London Borough of Camden that runs from the junction of Store Street and Gower Street in the west to Malet Street in the east. Before the construction of Senate House, it continued on to join Russell Square ...

( Russell Square) Baptist chapel.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Bettany, G. T.; Bevan, Michael (2004)
"Chevalier, Thomas (1767–1824), surgeon and writer"
In ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chevalier, Thomas 1767 births 1824 deaths 19th-century physicians 18th-century English medical doctors 19th-century English medical doctors Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London 18th-century surgeons

Life

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography