Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1319

LOUIS V. JOSEPH BERLIOZ (1776-1848) Mémoires sur les maladies chroniques, les évacuations sanguines et l'acupuncture. Chez Croullebois 1816 vi, 343 [3] pp. 20.1 cm.

Berlioz, physician at La Côte St. André near Grenoble and father of the composer Hector Berlioz, has included two treatises in this work. The first is on chronic diseases and is based solely on the results of his clinical observations, for he did no research. Berlioz found that age, temperament, climate, and nutrition were among the chief factors influencing chronic diseases. An advocate of bloodletting, particularly for chronic diseases, Berlioz believed that bleeding to the point of faintness brought the best clinical results. Berlioz recommended phlebotomy, cupping, the seton, and direct cautery as methods of bloodletting. He also includes the first modern description of acupuncture and describes the concurrent use of electricity to heighten its effect. Some of the remarkable cures he describes were later declared invalid by the Société de Médecine de Paris.

Gift of John Martin, M.D.