Pierre Chirac

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pierre Chirac

Pierre Chirac (* around 1650 in Conques ; † March 1, 1732 in Marly-le-Roi ) was a French doctor.

Live and act

His parents, who were not well off, initially sent him to a church training center for choirboys and lower religious. He then received humanistic training in a Jesuit college in Rodez . After completing these studies, at the age of 28, he went to Montpellier to study theology in 1678 . As a private tutor he looked after Isaac Carquet, the son of a pharmacist, who received his medical doctorate in 1684. Chirac also took a liking to medicine, left the clergy and enrolled in 1680 to study medicine. He was soon hired by Michel Chicoyneau († 1701), the chancellor of the medical faculty, as a tutor for his children. The Faculty Chancellor also promoted Chirac's career. From his marriage with Claire Issert, Chirac had a daughter Marie, who married François Chicoyneau (1672–1752), the son of Michel Chicoyneau.

During his studies, Chirac placed a focus on anatomy, in which he expanded his knowledge to such an extent that he was allowed to give courses in this subject himself even before he was a doctor of medicine. With these courses he earned the money for his living and the fees for the doctorate, which he completed in 1683 with the acquisition of the doctorate. For three more years he earned his living holding anatomy courses. Jérôme Tenque, professor of medicine in Montpellier, made him his assistant ("coadjuteur"). In 1687 Chirac took over the chair from Tenque.

On February 3, 1686 ( registration number 150 ) "Peter Chirac" with the nickname Orion I was elected a member of the Leopoldina . From 1699 he was a member of the Académie des sciences .

Doctor in Catalonia and Rochefort

Hôpital-Charente in Rochefort (1683–1788)

Through the intercession of his colleague Charles de Barbeyrac (1629-1699) with Marshal Anne-Jules de Noailles , who was to command the royal army in Catalonia , Chirac succeeded in 1692 in getting the post of doctor in this army. After the port of Rosas was captured , a devastating diarrhea epidemic broke out in the army of Roussillon in 1693 . Chirac was commissioned by a minister to use the Ipecacuanha root , which was only recently introduced into therapy, to prevent the progression of this disease . He had no success with it.

1694–1695 he was a doctor in the port of Rochefort . A yellow fever epidemic had broken out there. Chirac dissected 500 victims of the epidemic and infected himself in the process. He survived but retained jaundice and general weakness for a long time. Smallpox ("petite-vérole") was also rampant in Rochefort . At the dissection, Ghirac found that most of the victims of the disease had died of inflammation of the stomach and brain.

Priority dispute

Upon his return to Montpellier in 1695, his strength was mainly absorbed by three controversies:

  1. Placide Soracy, a young doctor from Messina, claimed that the priority for the "discoveries" published by Chirac in his treatise on the nature & structure of hair was his. Soracy was assisted by the Dean of the Faculty, Jean Chastelain, who was disaffected by Chirac.
  2. The anatomist Raymond Vieussens reported in 1698 in Montpellier before the meeting of the medical faculty that he had detected an "acid salt" in the blood. Pierre Chirac stood up among the audience and claimed to have represented "acidic salt" in the blood even before Vieussens. This led to a priority dispute that damaged the reputation of both doctors.
  3. The advanced medical student Jean Besse wrote a theoretical physiology book in 1701, which was first printed in Toulouse. Chirac believed he recognized an extract from his lectures in it and sued for a print ban. Besse evaded to Paris, and was able to have his work reprinted there with a privilege.

Doctor of the nobility

Entrance to Marly Castle

Through the mediation of the Count of Nocé , Chirac was appointed doctor of the royal army of the Duke of Orléans . He accompanied the duke in the battles in Italy (1706) and in Spain (1707–1708). The Duke of Orléans injured his wrist during the Battle of Turin . Chirac quickly healed him by dipping his hand in lukewarm water from Balaruc . He gained a high reputation as a result. In 1825 his anonymous biographer wrote in the Dictionnaire des sciences médicales :

"The healing of a single nobleman generates more popularity than years that are used to bring relief to the lower classes of society."

In 1708 the Duke of Orléans returned to Paris , where Wilhelm Homberg had been his personal physician ("premier médecin") from 1705 . Chirac followed the Duke and practiced in Paris with great popularity and high reputation as a simple private citizen until the Duke appointed him successor after the death of Homberg in 1715, a position that he also after the death of the Duke (1723) for his son and Successor exercised. In 1716 Chirac became a free member of the French Academy of Sciences and in 1718, as the successor to Guy-Crescent Fagon, head of the Royal Plant Garden . In 1728 he was ennobled . As the successor to Claude-Jean-Baptiste Dodart (1664–1730), Chirac became “First Doctor of the King” in 1731 .

Professional politician

In Paris, Chirac wanted to found a medical academy that would correspond with doctors in all hospitals in the kingdom and even with doctors from foreign hospitals. This academy should propose treatment methods and collect the experience gained with them, as well as the findings of cadaveric openings. The academy should consist of 30 to 40 doctors. When choosing these doctors, in addition to the Paris faculty, the faculties of the province should also be taken into account. The Paris faculty feared the loss of their privileges and prevented the academy from being founded.

Another project, the union of doctors and surgeons, he was able to realize at times. At Chirac's suggestion, the Montpellier Medical Faculty changed its statutes and trained some medical surgeons. In order to maintain this institution, Chirac donated 30,000 livres in his will with the aim that three doctors should study in this direction free of charge every year. Chirac's heirs, however, have successfully challenged this will.

Works

  • Extrait d'une lettre écrite à Mr. Regis l'un des quatre commis pour le Journal des Sçavans. Sur la structure des cheveux. Gontier, Montpellier 1688 (digitized version)
  • Traité des fièvres malignes, des fièvres pestilentielles et autres. Avec des consultations sur plusieurs sortes de maladies. J. Vincent, Paris 1742, Volume I (digitized version) Volume II (digitized version)
  • Observations de surgery, sur la nature et le traitement des playes ... traduit du Latin en François . Herissant, Paris 1742 (digitized version)
  • Together with Jean-Baptiste Silva . Dissertations et consultations médicinales, de Messieurs Chirac, Conseiller d'Etat, & Premier Médecin du Roi, & Silva, Médecin Consultant du Roi, & Premier Médecin de SAS Monseigneur le Duc. Durand, Paris 1744 Volume I (digitized version) Volume II (digitized version)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Mauelshagen. Reinvention of a medical-political controversy. Johann Jakob Scheuchzer and the contagionist and anti-contagionist debate during the Provencal plague epidemic from 1720-1722 . In: Cardanus. Yearbook for the History of Science, Volume 7 (2007), pp. 149–185, here: p. 152 (digitized version)
  2. ^ Johann Daniel Ferdinand Neigebaur : History of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann , Jena 1860, p. 197 (archive.org) }
  3. ^ Willi Ule : History of the Imperial Leopoldine-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the years 1852–1887 . With a look back at the earlier times of its existence. Commissioned by Wilhelm Engelmann in Leipzig, Halle 1889, supplements and additions to Neigebaur's history, p. 150 ( archive.org ).
  4. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter C. Académie des sciences, accessed on October 29, 2019 (French).
  5. ↑ For the introduction of the therapeutic use of the emetic root in France see: Jean Adrien Helvétius .
  6. ↑ According to Jean Astruc , Chirac's “discoveries” had already been described by Marcello Malpighi .
  7. ↑ Jean Astruc. Memories for the history of the medical faculty in Montpellier. PG Cavelier, Paris 1767, p. 279 (digitized version)
  8. ↑ Marcello Malpighi. De externo tactus organo anatomica observatio. Naples 1665 (digitized version)
  9. ↑ Pierre Chirac. Lettre ou réflexions préliminaires sur l'apologie de Monsieur Vieussens et sur la préface qui la précède . Montpellier 1698 (digitized version)
  10. ^ Raymond Vieussens. Réponse du Sr Vieussens docteur en médecine de la faculté de Montpellier, à trois lettres imprimées du Sieur Chirac Professeur de medecine de l'université de la même ville. Honoré Pech, Montpellier 1698 (digitized version)
  11. ↑ Jean Besse. Research analytique de la structure des parties du corps humain, où l'on explique leur ressort, leur jeu et leur usage . 2 volumes, Toulouse 1701. - Paris, 1702 Volume I (digitized version) Volume II (digitized version)
  12. ^ Dictionnaire des sciences médicales. Biography médicale. Volume 3, Panckoucke, Paris 1821. p. 249 (digitized version)
  13. ↑ Jean Astruc. Memories for the history of the medical faculty in Montpellier. PG Cavelier, Paris 1767, pp. 282–284 (digitized version )
personal data
SURNAME Chirac, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French anatomist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1650
PLACE OF BIRTH Conques
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1732
Place of death Marly-le-Roi