Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1505

PIERRE FRANCOIS OLIVE RAYER (1793-1867) A theoretical and practical treatise on the diseases of the skin. Carey and Hart 1845 From the 2nd ed. xii [13]-494 pp., 50 col. plates. 31.5 cm.

Rayer studied medicine at Paris where he received his doctorate in 1818. He was physician at St. Antoine for seven years before being named chief physician to the Charité where he spent the remainder of his career. He served as personal physician to King Louis Philippe, as well as Napoleon III, and was appointed dean of the Paris Medical School by imperial edict in 1862. However, his appointment was bitterly opposed by the student body and many of the faculty because they resented the arbitrary use of the imperial prerogative. As a result, Rayer was forced to resign the position after only two years. Rayer made a classic contribution to comparative medicine with his treatise on glanders, a contagious disease of horses. He found that it was communicable to man in a chronic form known as farcy. Rayer was the first to name hydronephrosis and his Traité des maladies des reins (Paris, 1839-1841) was a major contribution to the understanding of kidney diseases. One of the leading dermatologists of his era, he is credited with describing adenoma sebaceum, naming xanthoma and xanthoma diseminatum (Rayer's disease), and being the first to distinguish acute from chronic eczema. The present work was first published in two volumes at Paris in 1826-1827 and a well-illustrated atlas was added to the second edition of 1835. An English translation was made the same year by Robert Willis (see No. 445) and this first American edition, edited by John Bell (see No. 1552), was published ten years later. Rayer presented many new and important findings in this work including his descriptions of ecthyma, cheilitis exfoliativa, and the first accurate description of black hairy tongue (lingua nigra).

See Related Record(s): 445 1552

Cited references: Cushing R37 (London ed., n.d.); Garrison-Morton 3989 (French ed., 1826-1827); Waller 7771 (French ed., 1826-1827)