Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 899

THEODORE TRONCHIN (1709-1781) De colica pictonum. Apud Fratres Cramer 1757 xii, 82 pp. 22.6 cm.

Tronchin was born in Geneva where he early received a classical education, his father intending him for the ministry. However, when his family's finances suffered severe reverses in 1720 because of the failure of John Law's (1671-1729) Mississippi Company, he was sent to Lord Bolingbroke (1678-1751), a distant relative in Great Britain, for continuation of his education. He studied for a year at Cambridge after which he selected medicine as a career. He attended the London hospitals for several months and then went to Leiden so that he could study under Boerhaave (see No. 739 ff.). He became one of Boerhaave's favorite pupils and graduated in medicine in 1730. On Boerhaave's advice Tronchin settled in Amsterdam, became a citizen, developed a large and successful practice, and achieved such professional stature that he eventually came to be regarded as a worthy successor to Boerhaave. Tronchin returned to his native Switzerland in 1754 where he was exceedingly popular among European royalty and the upper classes. In 1766 he decided to take up residence in Paris where he continued to see large numbers of patients, although he was at times criticized by his peers because he scorned the popular therapies of bleeding and purging for a more common sense approach which included diet and exercise. His firm belief in inoculation for smallpox, which he introduced into the Netherlands in 1748, Switzerland in 1749, and France in 1756, also caused difficulties for him within the medical community. Although Tronchin carried on an extensive professional correspondence because of his reputation and skill as a physician, he wrote only one book and then only because of pressure applied by friends. This book was very well received because of his enormous reputation and popularity. It was reissued in Amsterdam (1758) and again in Jena (1771). Although the book is largely a compilation of the opinions of key medical authorities from the time of Hippocrates, Tronchin did recognize that the colics of Poitou were often caused by lead used by some vintners to sweeten and color their wine, and also from rain water draining from lead-covered roofs and gutters.

See Related Record(s): 739

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 2095; Waller 9686

Gift of John Martin, M.D.