F.J.V. Broussais (1772-1838) : his life and doctrines / by J.D. Rolleston.

  • Rolleston, J. D. (John Davy), 1873-1946.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: F.J.V. Broussais (1772-1838) : his life and doctrines / by J.D. Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/10
    fe 104 “ |) i Ig 9 Sectional ‘ Vol. XXXII page 27 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 405 Section of the tbistory of Medicine President—A. P. Cawanptas, O.B.E., M.D. [January 11, 1939} F. J. V./ Broussais (1772-1838) : His Life and Doctrines By J. D. Rorimston, M.D. Or the many illustrious medical men who flourished in the first half of the last century, none obtained greater ¢ainence during his life-time, though his doctrines became obsolete before his death, than Francois Jean Victor Broussais, the centenary of whose death on November 17, 1838, has recently been celebrated by several interesting articles in the French medical press (Babonneix, Bonnette, Gallois, Genty, Huet, Larcher, and Lemée). He was born on December 17, 1772, the only son of a local doctor, at Pleurtuit, a village near St. Malo, where the centenary was celebrated on September Il by a distinguished assembly including the great-grandson of Broussais, ex-deputy for Algiers, aged 83 (Bonnette). He was educated at the neighbouring town of Dinan, where he was a fellow student of Chateaubriand, who relates in the Mémoires d’outre-tombe (1819, 1, 190) that while bathing there he was bitten by some ungrateful leeches which could not foresee his future. He took part in the war of La Vendée in which he contracted a severe attack of dysentery. On recovery he joined the Hospice Maritime at St. Malo as an officier de santé, a qualification now extinct, and shortly afterwards took up a similar appoint- ment at Brest. During this time he served as a surgeon-major on board two privateers in the war with England and gained a considerable sum in prize money. Like Bretonneau, fifteen years later, he did not remain content with the modest title of officier de santé, and in 1799 went to Paris to complete his education, his chief teachers there being Pinel, Bichat, and Cabanis. After four years’ study he obtained the doctorate of medicine with a thesis on hectic fever, which he dedicated to Pinel. After two years’ struggle with poverty as a private practitioner in Paris during which his total earnings were only 1,200 francs (Larcher), he accepted the proposal of Desgenettes that he should join the army, and during the next five years as an assistant surgeon took part in the Napoleonic campaigns in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, and Italy. In 1808 he returned to Paris, and in the same year brought out his first important work entitled Histoire des phlegmasies ou inflam- mations chroniques fondée sur de nouvelles observations de clinique et d’anatomie pathologique, which he sold to a publisher for 800 francs. This work contained an account of inflammations in general followed by a description of inflammations of the lungs, including pulmonary tuberculosis, inflammations of the brain and inflammations of the abdominal viscera, accompanied by clinical records and post-mortem examina- tions of personal cases. The work did not attract much attention at first, but subsequently four more editions were published, the last in 1838, the year of his death. At the end of 1809 he joined the army in Spain where he remained in the capacity of principal medical officer until 1814, when he returned to Paris. He was appointed the same year second medical officer and professor at the Val-de-Grace Military Hospital, where six years later he became principal medical officer and senior professor in succession to Desgenettes. In 1816 appeared his most celebrated work entitled Examen des doctrines médicales et des systémes de nosologic, précedé de proposi- tions renfermant la substance de la médecine physiologique, which caused an Mar.—Hist. oF MEp. 1
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3