François Mauriceau

François Mauriceau

François Mauriceau (* 1637 in Paris ; † October 17, 1709 ibid) was a French surgeon and obstetrician .

As an obstetrician, his accurate and detailed observations and examinations of the fetus , the pregnant uterus , the female pelvis, and obstetrical techniques made him an exceptional medical professional in his day. The results of his observations were compiled by him and published in an obstetric textbook with a collection of case studies. Like the midwifery textbooks, it was not published in the scientific language of the time, Latin, but in French.

Live and act

After learning surgery , he became provost of the College of St. Cosmas, prévôt du collège de chirurgie Saint-Côme . He then specialized in obstetrics and became the first obstetrician at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris , premier médecin accoucheur de l'Hôtel-Dieu . In Paris he also worked as a surgeon.

Mauriceau was one of the leading obstetricians in Europe in the 17th century. With his publication in 1668, Traité des Maladies des Femmes et Accouchées Grosses , a treatise on the diseases of pregnancy and childbirth, he was one of the doctors who established obstetrics as a science.

He dealt critically with the English obstetrician dynasty around Peter Chamberlen (1560–1631) and his descendants, so he attacked them because of their secrecy about the development and use of the obstetrical forceps they designed or improved and convinced many of his colleagues at the time of his demeanor.

Mauriceau is also associated with the improvement of classic birthing techniques, such as the procedure for a breech position. He gave a description of ectopic pregnancy (tubal pregnancy), simultaneously with and independently of the German midwife Justine Siegemundin . Based on the understanding of his time, he described the clinical picture of eclampsia , differentiated it from seizures and brought them into connection with pregnancy.

He was critical of the caesarean section , sectio caesarea , for example in his Traité des maladies des femmes grosses et des accouchées (1668). Almost none of the pregnant women survived such an operation in the 17th century.

Works (selection)

• Les Maladies des Femmes grosses et accouchées. Avec la bonne et véritable Méthode de les bien aider en leurs accouchemens naturels, & les moyens de remédier à tous ceux qui sont contre-nature, & aux indispositions des enfans nouveau-nés ... Paris Henault, d'Houry, de Ninville, Coignard (1668). 2nd edition, Paris 1675 (digitized version) : 3rd edition, Paris 1681 (digitized version) ; 4th edition, L. d'Houry, Paris 1694 (digitized version) ; 7th edition, Paris 1740 (digitized version)
  • English: Tractat of those diseases of pregnant and childbearing women. JJ Schorndorff, Basel 1757 (digitized version)
• Observations sur la grossesse et l'accouchement des femmes et sur leurs maladies et celles des enfans nouveau-nez. Paris, Anisson, (1694) (digitized)
  • German: Martin Schurig (translator). The famous Frantzös. Chirurgi Francisci Mauriceau seven hundred observations. JJ Winckler, Dresden 1709 (digitized version)

literature

• Villey, R .; Brunet, F .; Valette, G; et al .: Histoire de la Médicine, de la Pharmacie, de l'Art Dentaire Vétérinaire. Albin Michel-Laffont-Tchou, Paris (1978)
• Schneider, Henning; et al .: Obstetrics. Springer (2003)
• Young, Ronald L .: Obstetrical Forceps: History, Mystery, and Morality. Houston History of Medicine Lectures. John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center online 9-7-2011
• Heinrich Buess : The beginnings of scientific obstetrics in 1668. François Mauriceau and his handle. In: Gynäkologische Rundschau. Volume 7, 1968, pp. 77-80.

Web links

• Works by and about François Mauriceau  in the German Digital Library
• Portrait of François Mauriceau. Copper engraving
• Portrait of François Mauriceau.
• Images of the original pages from The Diseases of Women with Child, and in Child-bed…. London: Printed for A. Bell, 1716.
• The Foundation of Obstetrics as a Science (1668). Norman, Morton's Medical Bibliography, 5th ed. (1991) no. 6147. Hook & Norman, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine (1991) no. 1461. Norman, One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine (1995) no. 33.
• Dena Bloomenthal: Trials of the term breech. A Historic Review. (2011) (PDF; 2.6 MB)
• Sketch-like representation of the Mauriceau maneuver

Individual evidence

1. ^ PM Dunn: Francois Mauriceau (1637-1709) and maternal posture for parturition. In: Archives of Disease in Childhood 1991; 66: 78-79, PMC 1590357 (free full text)
2. ^ François Mauriceau 1637-1709 Surgery, obstétricien français. Portraits de Médecins ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ Peter M. Dunn: The Chamberlen family (1560-1728) and obstetric forceps. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 1999; 81: F232 – F235 ( Memento of the original dated September 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Dongen, Pieter WJ van: Caesarean section - etymology and early history. SAJOG. August 2009, Vol. 15, No. 2 online