The Chemical Work of Alexander and Jane Marcet

Abstract

Abstract Alexander Marcet was an authority on urinary calculi and their analysis when few medical practitioners appreciated the usefulness of chemistry in the explanation and treatment of disease. In An Essay on The Chemical History and Medical Treatment of Calculous Disorders, he described the discovery of an xanthine stone. He drew line illustrations of simple chemical apparatus useful for bedside analysis. His microtechnique used drops of solution and pinhead pieces of calculi; reagents were acids and alkalies and the blowpipe in conjunction with a small alcohol lamp. He reported the earliest description of a disorder later named “alcaptonuria”. Marcet’s work and that of a few others, on the chemical composition of urine and calculi, laid the foundations of our present knowledge. Between 1807 and 1820, his lectures to the medical students at Guy’s Hospital were illustrated by experiments. Jane Haldimand Marcet wrote the very popular Conversations on Chemistry (16 editions in Great Britain). Her book dominated elementary chemical instruction during the first half of the 19th century. She followed Lavoisier’s scheme of classification and explained chemical reactions in terms of affinity, aggregation, gravitation, and repulsion. Her advocacy that experimentation accompany lecture was new. The availability of serious scientific education in the new women’s academies set the stage for increasing women’s involvement in science. She also published a series of Conversations. The topics were Political Economy, Natural Philosophy, and Vegetable Physiology.