Thomas Alcock (surgeon)

Thomas Alcock (1784 – 21 August 1833[1]) was an English surgeon.

After an apprenticeship to a surgeon in Newcastle, he became, in 1805, resident medical officer at the Sunderland Dispensary.

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 Antoine Germain 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 was republished with additions in 1830.

[2][3] Alcock met Jeremy Bentham, who was interested in having a life mask made for him, though there is no proof that the mask of Bentham in Edinburgh was made by Alcock.