Jean Antoine Villemin

Jean Antoine Villemin

Jean Antoine Villemin (1827 - 1892) French physician. Born into a poor peasant family, Villemin studied medicine at the military school at Strasbourg, and after wards practiced as a doctor at military hospitals. His important contribution to medicine was the demonstration, in 1865, that tuberculosis was an infectious disease, a finding that was largely ignored at that time.

Chales-Edouard Brown-Sequard

Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard

Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard (1817 - 1894) Widely traveled physician, born in Mauritius, for whom is named Brown-Sequard syndrome, which he was the first to describe. Brown-Sequard syndrome is a loss of sensation and motor function as a result of lateral hemisection of the spinal cord, resulting in paralysis and loss of sensation to touch & vibration on the same side of the injury and loss of sensation to pain and temperature on the other side. Brown-Sequard was an important contributor to the physiology of the nervous system and he was also one of the first to work on the physiology of the spinal cord. He also postulated the existence of substances released into the bloodstream causing effects on distant organs, chemicals which are now known as hormones. He also showed that the adrenal glands were essential for life, demonstrating that their removal resulted in quick death. In his old age, he created much controversy by claiming that injection of extracts from guinea pig testicles would prolong life, which was derisively termed Brown-Sequard elixer by fellow scientists. Brown-Sequard lived in poor and desperate circumstances for most of his life, immensely dedicated to his work, as shown by an example when he swallowed the vomits of cholera patients to investigate the effects of laudanum on the disease. He was also a modest man and extremely honest, once he rejected 200 pounds taking only his ordinary fee instead, and at another time declined an offer of ten thousand pounds to treat a boy in Italy saying that he was not the qualified person to treat the case. Brown-Sequard travelled widely in his lifetime, holding faculty positions in France, America and the UK. He also founded a number of influential academic journals, was a pioneer in the treatment of epilepsy - the first to suggest the use of bromide to control the disease, and has been called the father of endocrinology and organotherapy ("The Method of Brown-Sequard").

Henri Parinaud

Henri Parinuad

Henri Parinaud (1844 - 1905) French physician, known as the father of French ophthalmology. His main field of interest was in neuro-ophthalmology. He is associated with two medical eponyms, Parinaud' syndrome (the dorsal midbrain syndrome) and Parinaud's oculoglandular syndrome (unilateral conjuctivitis & lymphadenitis with fever as a manifestation of Cat Scratch Disease). Parinaud was born in modest circumstances and had to support himself from an young age. He was a much admired doctor who worked tirelessly, and his clinic attracted students from all over the world. He was an endearing individual who never sought wealth or fame, his main hobby being music on which he also published several works.

Charles-Philippe Robin

Charles-Philippe Robin

Charles-Philippe Robin (1821 - 1885) French microscopic anatomist and biologist. From an accident in childhood, he was blind in one eye. He lived a very frugal life and remained unmarried and painstakingly devoted to his work throughout his life. He was an excellent lecturer though very peremptory in his attitude, which probably caused even his devoted students to distance themselves from him during his later years, as he remained staunchly fixed to old ideas and refused to accept the latest developments in science. He was the first to discover the disease causing fungus Candida albicans, and also recognised the role of osteoclasts in bone formation. Virchow-Robin spaces, the enlarged perivascular spaces that surround the blood vessels for a short distance as they enter the brain are named partly after him.

Paul Langerhans

Paul Langerhans

Paul Langerhans (1847 - 1888) German pathologist & biologist. Langerhans was an outstanding scholar who during his undergraduate years described the Langerhans' cells in the skin, whose function was not discovered until nearly a century later. He was also the first to describe the group of cells now known as the islets of Langerhans, though he could not identify their function correctly. His illness from tuberculosis made him retire early from his career as Professor of Pathology. He settled in the island of Madeira seeking a cure, where he developed a strong interest in the study of certain marine worms, one of which he named Virchowia after his former mentor and friend, the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. He also studied meteorology, wrote a travel book on Madeira and tried to treat patients suffering from tuberculosis in the island. He died at the age of 41 from complications of his illness.