He was born in 1869 in Włocławek, Congress Poland to father Józef Marchlewski, a merchant, and mother Emilia (née Rückersfeldt), a governess.

[5] Between 1896 and 1897, he was on a scientific scholarship granted for his research in the field of organic chemistry from the Kraków-based Academy of Learning (Polish: Akademia Umiejętności, AU).

[6] In 1900, he returned to Poland and obtained his habilitation on the basis of his thesis Die Chemie des Chlorophylls and lecture titled Dzisiejszy stan teoryi tautomeryi.

In the years 1900–1906, he worked as a senior inspector at the General Department of Food Research in Kraków headed by Odo Bujwid.

His scientific achievements include research on chlorophyll and the blood pigment hemoglobin, which demonstrated the similarity of chemical structures in plants and animals, indicating a common origin.