Gosset, Montague (1792 - 1854)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E002024 - Gosset, Montague (1792 - 1854)

Title
Gosset, Montague (1792 - 1854)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E002024

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2012-02-15

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Gosset, Montague (1792 - 1854), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
Gosset, Montague

Date of Birth
1 July 1792

Date of Death
21 October 1854

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
MRCS May 6th 1814
 
FRCS December 11th 1843, one of the original 300 Fellows

Details
Born on July 1st, 1792, the second son of Daniel Gosset, of Langhedge Hall, Tanner's End, Edmonton. He was sent to school at Broxbourne, Herts, and was entered on HMS *Curlew*, commanded by Captain Thomas Young, in November, 1806. He served under Young until July, 1807, when he was transferred to the Guerrier, and afterwards to the Snake, sloop of war. He was invalided out of the service after serving for three years in the West Indies. He apprenticed himself in 1809 to Richard Stocker, father of James Stocker; father and son were apothecaries to Guy's Hospital. He soon became a favourite pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, who recommended him to the Marquis of Bute, who was suffering from an eye trouble. Gosset remained in Scotland from 1815-1817 and then returned to Guy's, where he continued his medical studies until 1819. He commenced practice as a consulting surgeon in Great George Street, Westminster. He moved afterwards to the City, where he practised for thirty-five years, living first in George Street, and afterwards in Broad Street Buildings. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Council of the College. His candidature was warmly supported by many of the Fellows and by the whole medical press. He was opposed on the grounds that he had never been on the staff of a public hospital. He died on October 21st, 1854, from erysipelas following a post-mortem wound, and was buried in the family vault at All Saints' Church, Edmonton. He had married early, and of his numerous family eight children survived him. Gosset is mentioned several times by Sir Astley Cooper in his *Treatise on Dislocations*. He appears to have been the first to describe a case of backward and inward dislocation of the ulna at the elbow, and he published a case of dislocation of the molars bone. In December, 1829, he communicated the first case of renal aneurysm then observed. The specimen is now in the Museum of Guy's Hospital, where it is labelled 1504 60B. He assisted in 1818 in introducing at Guy's Hospital two instruments for dividing stricture of the urethra. In 1834 he directed attention to the use of gilt wire suture which he had used successfully in a case of vesicovaginal fistula upon which Sir Astley Cooper had previously operated. He published in the following year an improved instrument for passing a ligature round the tonsil, and in 1844 a paper showing the efficacy of destroying naevi by the use of fuming nitric acid. He also wrote in the same year on a simple but effective method of stopping bleeding after leech-bites.

Sources
*Dict Nat Biog*
 
Cooper's *Treatise on Dislocations*, 1842, 347, 451
 
The ninth Green Inspection Book of Guy's Hospital gives on page 169 an interesting account of the renal aneurysm written by Dr Hodgkin to Mr Callaway
 
*The Gentleman's Magazine*, NS xlii 633
 
Information kindly given by C H Fagge, FRCS

Rights
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England

Collection
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Format
Obituary

Format
Asset

Asset Path
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099

URL for File
374207

Media Type
Unknown