Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1265

FRANCOIS JOSEPH VICTOR BROUSSAIS (1772-1838) Examen de la doctrine médicale généralement adoptée, et des systèmes modernes de nosologie. Chez Gabon 1816 [4] xix, 475 pp. 20.6 cm.

Surgeon of the armies of France and professor of general pathology and therapeutics at Paris, Broussais was the most celebrated French practitioner of his day, and, according to Arturo Castiglioni, the "most sanguinary physician in history" (A history of medicine. New York, 1946. p. 699). Although he taught the importance of clinical observation, Broussais' rigid attitudes regarding his often erroneous theories hindered more often than helped the progress of French medicine. Broussais believed that the basis of all pathology was gastroenteritis and that debilitating treatment was called for in nearly every disease. His most common remedy was the application of leeches to the stomach or the head. The popularity of his methods is evidenced by the fact that during one year, over 35,000,000 leeches were imported into France. Broussais was not popular among his Parisian medical colleagues and the preface to the present work is a vicious diatribe against those who refused to believe in his medical theories. The book was written only a year or two after he went from military service into private practice, and many of his arguments are based on observations he made while on the medical faculty at the military hospital at Val de Grâce.

Cited references: Waller 1496 (1821 ed.); Wellcome II, p. 248

Gift of John Martin, M.D.