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Dr. Joseph Oriol Prats Marquet's equipment
Instruments and historical records belonging to surgeon
Dr. Josep Oriol Prats Marquet (1888-1971) are the result of
a series of donations carried out by his daughter, Dr. Maria
Prats Baygual, since 1990. Prats family’s donations
amount to a review of the long professional career of a great
specialist, about whom Dr. Roig Raventós said, on 1937:
“in this time when the figures we had are living in
exile, we have still left a leading one: expert surgeon Dr.
Prats Marquet”.
Dr. Prats got his PhD in the specialty of surgery on 1912
and strengthened his training at the Teaching Hospital (1913-1925)
within Dr. Antoni Morales’ Surgical Pathology service,
where he knew first-hand radiology uses and experiences thanks
to Dr. Cèsar Comas. He developed his professional practice
in different institutions, such as Sant Rafael’s Shelter-Hospital
(1918-1965), Nª Sª del Remei’s clinic (1925-1966)
or Sant Boi’s Mental Hospital (1928-1966); labour societies,
such as the surgery section of “Alianza Mataronense”
(1913-1962) or “Sabadell’s Brotherhood Federation”
(1921-1929); or the social security system, where he organized
and worked at the Surgical Clinic of the “Instituto
Nacional de Previsión” (the old Department of
Employment, since 1942). As a result of this exercise, the
Museum received an outstanding array of instruments used in
surgical practice. His trust in X rays –which caused
him a radiodermitis since 1936- for digestive transit observation,
radioscopic explorations and traumatism diagnosis has a significant
presence in the Museum due to the donation of a series of
radiography negatives from 1910-1930, of a wooden and emery
polished negatoscope and, lastly, of 1922 purchasing and repair
invoices for a Reiniger X-ray apparatus.
Photography, as a disease objectifying means, or as a procedure
for the observation of the course of a disease, or simply
as a record of the professional exercise of his college class,
has also found a place within the Museum collections.
Prats family’s last donation introduces a documentary
aspect of great value for medicine historians, for it shows
the difficulties for professional practice during and after
the Civil War years. On the other hand, this donation also
allows reviewing Dr. Prats’ activity regarding professional
partnership: from his membership of Catalonia’s Medical
Sciences Academy and Laboratory (1913) or of Catalonia’s
Hygiene Academy (1920), to his participation in the foundation
of the Catalan Surgical Society (1927) and in Catalan-speaking
physicians’ meetings (1932 and 1936.)
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© Official Medical Association of Barcelona 
