Marcus Beck

Marcus Beck (14 October 1843 – 21 May 1893) was a British professor of surgery at University College Hospital. He was an early proponent of the germ theory of disease and promoted the discoveries of Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, and Joseph Lister in surgical literature of the time. He gave his name to the Marcus Beck Library (previously Laboratory) at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM).

Early life Beck was born on 14 October 1843 in Isleworth, Middlesex, to Quakers Edward Beck and his second wife Susanna Lucas. They had eight children, of which Roger was the first son; Roger later funded a memorial in the name of the third son, Marcus. Beck also had three sisters. Edward Beck was a cousin of Joseph, Lord Lister who later proved to be influential on Marcus. Beck was educated at Queenwood College, Hampshire, Arthur Abbott's School, Hitchin and the University of Glasgow.

Surgical career Beck gained admission to the University of Glasgow in 1860 where he lived with Joseph Lister, his first cousin once removed. In 1863, he became house surgeon to Sir John Eric Erichsen at University College Hospital, London, and then physician's assistant to Sir William Jenner, 1st Baronet and Dr C J Hare, following which he became an anatomy demonstrator under professor Viner Ellis. The University College Hospital Reports published Beck's clinical cases in 1870, whilst he was still a registrar and the surgical pathological specimens were exhibited in the museum of University College.

Beck became assistant surgeon to University College Hospital in 1873, succeeding Christopher Heath (surgeon) as teacher of operative surgery in 1875. Becoming professor of clinical surgery in 1883, he was elected surgeon to the hospital and professor of surgery in succession to John Marshall by 1885. The Royal College of Surgeons, by 1890, had elected him to their council. In 1892, Beck became a member of the court of examiners, by which time he was practising at 30 Wimpole Street. Beck had reported in 1870, that the French failed to adopt antiseptic measures during the Franco-Prussian War. By 1888, Beck, in an attempt to bring Listerian surgery up to date, had skilfully included Lister's antiseptic techniques and the theories of Pasteur and Koch into the eighth and ninth editions of this book. This was considered a significant contribution to surgical literature and was translated into German and Russian.

Publications 1879 – joint author of the Report on Pyoemia. "Descriptive Catalogue of Specimens Illustrating Surgical Pathology in the Museum of University College Hospital, London." 1887. "Galvano-puncture of Aortic Aneurysm." – Lancet, 1873. "Three Cases of Trephining for Haemorrhage from the Middle Meningeal Artery." – Med. Times and Gaz., 1877. "Case of Nephrolithotomy." – Trans. Clin. Soc., 1882. The Science and Art of Surgery, by John Eric Erichsen, 8th edition revised and edited by Marcus Beck. 2 vols., 1884, and 9th edition, 1888.

Beck contributed to articles on "Diseases of the Kidney and Secondary Affections of the Lower Urinary Tract, misnamed Surgical Kidney" to Volume V of Reynold's System of Medicine. He also wrote on erysipelas for the first edition of Quain's Dictionary of Medicine, and on "Diseases of the Breast" for Heath's Dictionary of Surgery.

Later life Beck died at Isleworth on 21 May 1893, having had diabetes for 20 years.