Philippe Hecquet

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Philippe Hecquet (born February 11, 1661 in Abbeville , † April 11, 1737 in Paris ) was a French medic of the 17th century. He was a fan of iatrophysics . He is sometimes referred to as "the Hippocrates of France".

Life

He was the son of Jacques Hecquet, the rope maker and rope merchant of the parish of Saint George, and Catherine Pigné. His older brother Antoine was dean of the Saint-Vulfran church. He was a Jansenist himself .

He studied medicine from 1681 to 1684. In the hermitage Port-Royal-des-Champs he practiced for four years (1688–1693) with the nuns. He submitted to the rigorous rules of the monastery, devoted himself to fasting and abstinence.

In 1694 he went to Paris for further training. There he received his doctorate in 1697 after completing the medical course with "great praise". He was quickly promoted to professor with the role of teaching medicine.

He joined the Chambre royale des médecins provinciaux in Paris. Here he became doctor of the Prince and Princess of Condé and of the House of Verdôme. He was dean of the medical faculty from 1712 to 1714. Already during his lifetime he gave a large part of his books (2,600 volumes) to the faculty, which formed the basis of this library.

The basis of his reputation was, among other things, that, unlike most other doctors in Paris at the time, he lived a reserved lifestyle and healed the poor. He not only worked in his own practice, but also at the Hôpital de la Charité .

With ruined health, he retired to the Carmelite monastery of Saint-Jacques in 1727. He spent the last ten years of his life ascetic. He ate very little and only drank water, on the grounds that the cooks are the originators of all diseases.

He died at the age of 76 on April 11, 1737 in the Carmelite monastery of Saint-Jacques des Faubourg Saint-Jacques and was buried in the church at the end of the nave.

plant

Through persistent work and long practice, he developed outstanding medical knowledge and wrote an enormous amount. He was a passionate and eloquent supporter of iatrophysics, and while he was unable to contribute significant discoveries of his own to medicine, he was nevertheless an influential advocate of important developments in medicine of his time.

For example, he argued for a healthy diet and declared meat, strong wine, tobacco and salt to be unhealthy. Instead, a cautious, vegetarian diet with only a little fish and only water as a drink should be preferred.

He wrote about digestion, male obstetricians, bloodletting and vaccinations, among other things.

He was also the author of a book on medical self-help. The aim was to make simple and cheap methods, especially natural remedies, known and applicable to the poor and rural parts of the population.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d L.WB Brockliss: The Medical Revolution of the Seventeenth Century . Ed .: Roger Kenneth French, Andrew Wear. 1989, ISBN 0-521-35510-9 .
  2. ↑ a b Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Encyclopedia Medical History . Walter de Gruyter, 2007, ISBN 3-11-097694-3 .
  3. ↑ Philippe Hecquet: De la digestion des alimens .
  4. ↑ Philippe Hecquet: De l'indecence aux hommes d'accoucher les femmes, et de l'obligation aux femmes de nourrir leurs enfans .
  5. ^ Philippe Hocquet: La medecine, la chirurgie, et la pharmacie des pauvres . 1749.
personal data
SURNAME Hecquet, Philippe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French medic
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1661
PLACE OF BIRTH Abbeville
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1737
Place of death Paris