Jacques Daviel

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Bust of Jacques Daviel in the Hôtel-Dieu de Marseille

Jacques Daviel (* probably on August 11, 1693 or 1696 in La Barre-en-Ouche in Normandy; † September 30, 1762 in Geneva ) was a French surgeon and ophthalmologist who used a surgical method for treatment until the end of the 20th century of cataracts .

Daviel had trained as a surgeon and surgeon in Rouen and Paris and worked as a military doctor in the Netherlands and Salzburg. He volunteered in Marseille in 1720 to fight a plague epidemic that had occurred in Provence .

After stays in Digne, Toulon, Arles and Salon, he was licensed as a surgeon in Marseille in 1722 and was honored with a medal. In Marseilles he was employed as a doctor of the royal galleys. In 1724 he became a demonstrator at the Hôtel Dieu and from 1728 he specialized in ophthalmology.

Since the 1730s he was active in ophthalmology at the courts of Spain, Portugal, Italy as well as Mannheim and Bavaria, in some cases Daviel worked as a wandering "star engraver" .

During a star stitch , an operation by a wig maker to remove cataracts on April 21, 1745 or 1747, complications arose, so that Daviel, contrary to custom at the time, removed the lens completely. Contrary to expectations, the patient had good eyesight again soon after the operation.

Daviel then fundamentally changed his surgical method and developed it further. Among other things, he created the Daviel's spoon , a small hollow metal spatula , which is still known today as the name , to remove the remains of the star after the so-called extraction. In 1753 he published his surgical method. His method of treatment spread only gradually at the beginning, but it has been the standard since the beginning of the 19th century. It was not until the end of the 20th century that new treatment methods became established due to the new possibilities of microinvasive surgery.

Daviel became the personal ophthalmologist for King Louis XV. called. He died on a trip in Geneva, Switzerland, but on the instructions of the representative of France, Count De Montpéroux , was on the other side of the border “en terre catholique française” ( “in the Catholic earth of France” ) in Le Grand-Saconnex , which was then part of France , but now buried place belonging to Switzerland. In the 19th century, the inscription “Post Tenebras Lux” ( “After the darkness, light”, the coat of arms of the reformed city of Geneva) was placed on his grave stele .

literature

  • Ralf Bröer: Brother Felix's eyesight was only saved for a short time. On the 250th anniversary of the cataract extraction according to Jacques Daviel , in: Ärztliche Praxis, Munich, 47 (2003), 33. p. 24.
  • Ralf Bröer: With lances, spades and needles against cataracts, Jacques Daviel , in: Ärzte-Zeitung 22 (2003), 96, May 23, p. 19.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuska: Daviel, Jacques. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 289.
  2. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Daviel, Jacques. 2005, p. 289.
  3. ^ Jacques Daviel: Sur une nouvelle méthode de guérir la cataracte par l'extraction du cristalin. In: Mém. Acad. Roy. Chir. Volume 2, (Paris) 1753, pp. 337-354.
personal data
SURNAME Daviel, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French ophthalmologist and discoverer of an operation method for cataracts
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1693 or 1696
PLACE OF BIRTH La Barre-en-Ouche in Normandy
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1762
Place of death Geneva