[Georges Mareschal (1658-1736) the founder of the Académie de Chirurgie]

Georges Mareschal born in 1658 was the son of an Irish gentleman serving in the army of Louis XIII: John Marshall ennobled after the battle of Rocroi (1643) with a francisation of his name. He came to Paris in 1677 and worked with a master-surgeon: Le Breton. He went at the Charité hospital in 1684, was received master-surgeon in 1688 and became there chief-surgeon in 1692. He modified and improved lithotomy. After having operated several personalities and king Louis XIV he became his first surgeon in 1703, later "Maître d'Hôtel" in 1706 and was finally ennobled in 1707. He visited regularly sick people belonging to all classes of society in the Versailles area and played a part in the "poisons affair" in 1712. He remained the First Surgeon of Louis XV and received the cross of Saint-Michel order in 1723. He created with La Peyronie a School of Surgery in Paris officialized by patent letters in 1726. With the help of the same collaborator he founded in 1731 the "SociétéAcademique des chirurgiens de Paris" which will become in 1748 the "Académie Royale de Chirurgie" after his death and that of La Peyronie who had been nominated himself First Surgeon.