Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1361.7

NICHOLAS LAURENT LAFOREST (fl. 1781) L'art de soigner les pieds : contenant un traité sur les cors, verrues, durillons, oignons, engelures, les accidens des ongles & leur difformité : présenté au roi, Chez l'auteur ... [et] Blaizot, libraire du roi… 1781 First edition. [4], 139, [3] p. 17 cm.

The first influential book on chiropody. “It was a good book, well written and containing much based on original observation, as opposed to the few previous references in medical books which simply passed on the views of earlier writers…Laforest laid the foundations of chiropodial writing, and his basic principles on the cause and treatment of corns, bursitis and onychocryptosis hold true today. He is credited by some medical historians (Valentin, Geschichte der Orthopädie), as being the first to describe, and certainly to illustrate, the condition of hallux valus. Bick considers that his book ranks with the work of Peter Camper (1722-89) in laying the foundations of footorthopaedics.” (J.D. Dagnall, The history of chiropodial literature, in The Chiropodist, 1965)

Cited references: Wellcome III, p. 431

Gift of John Martin, M.D.