Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 709

PHILIPPE HECQUET (1661-1737) De la digestion et des maladies de l'estomac. Chez François Fournier 1712 xxxiii [17] 442 [22] pp., 1 illus. 16.3 cm.

Hecquet, a native of Abbeville in Picardy, graduated in medicine at Reims in 1684. He was physician at Port Royal for a number of years and moved to Paris in 1694. However, because of the tight control the medical faculty had over Parisian medical affairs, it was necessary for Hecquet to complete medical school, even though he was already an experienced physician with many years of practice. He taught at Paris for a number of years and was made physician to the Charité in 1710. Hecquet was a member of the Iatrophysical School (see No. 496) and was an ardent defender of the mechanical theory of digestion, which he expounds upon in the present work. The treatise became quite popular so Hecquet expanded it in 1730 and another edition appeared in 1747, after his death. Although Hecquet's name does not appear on the title page, he is mentioned frequently in the numerous letters of approbation that follow the preface. Hecquet has included Astruc's (see No. 800 ff.) "Memoire sur la cause de la digestion des alimens" as part of Chapter XXI (pp. 373-396).

See Related Record(s): 496 800

Cited references: Wellcome III, p. 232