Person

Garnett, Thomas, 1766-1802, chemist and physician

1766-1802

Thomas Garnett was born at Casterton, near Kirkby Lonsdale in Westmorland. He attended the village school at Barbon and Sedbergh School before entering Edinburgh University in 1785 to study medicine, attending lectures by the eminent chemist, Professor Joseph Black. After graduating MD, Garnett set up practice as a physician in Bradford and later in Harrogate. In addition to his medical practice, Garnett gave lectures on natural philosophy and chemistry and published works on the medicinal properties of the spa waters in Yorkshire. In 1796, Garnett was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the newly founded Anderson's Institution in Glasgow. There he resumed his medical practice and undertook a tour of the Highlands of Scotland in 1798, publishing his observations on this tour in 1800. As Anderson's Institution could offer only short term contracts, Garnett moved to London in December 1799 to become Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the Royal Institution. This appointment was short lived and Garnett resigned in June 1801. He set up practice as a physician and was appointed Physician to St Marylebone Dispensary, where he contracted typhus fever and died in June 1802. His 'Popular Lectures on Zoonomia' were published posthumously for the benefit of his orphaned family.

P0035

GB 249

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2003); Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names, National Council on Archives (1997).

Created by Victoria Peters, December 2009.