Pierre-François Percy

Pierre-François Percy

Pierre-François Percy (born October 28, 1754 in Montagney / Franche-Comté , † February 18, 1825 in Paris ) was a French surgeon and military doctor.

Live and act

Percy, son of a military surgeon, studied a. a. Mathematics and medicine (surgery) in Besançon ( Département Doubs ) and, after successfully completing his studies and receiving his doctorate in 1775, continued his education with Antoine Louis in Paris. In 1776 he got a job as an assistant surgeon in the royal army.

He made the acquaintance of Napoleon at an early age , who was always very interested in his work. Percy took part in many battles of the Revolutionary and Coalition Wars . He developed a new way of transporting the wounded and also tried with success to improve the work of doctors on the battlefield. One of his best known colleagues was Dominique Jean Larrey .

During the Fifth Coalition War (1809), his eyesight became so impaired that Percy quit his job and left the Grande Armée . His successor as "chirurgien en chef" was Nicolas Heurteloup (1750–1812).

When Napoleon left the island of Elba and his " rule of the hundred days " began, Percy also rejoined the emperor. After the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815) Percy again gave all tasks back and retired into private life. He died in Paris on February 18, 1825 and found his final resting place on the Cimetière du Père Lachaise (18th Division). His gravestone bears the inscription: "Il fut le père des chirurgiens militaires".

Honors

• 1807 Commander of the Legion of Honor
• 1809 Baron de l'Émpire
• 1814 Russian Order of Saint Anne
• 1814 Order of the Red Eagle
• The Percy Military Hospital in Clamart ( Hauts-de-Seine department ) was named after him.
• His name can be found on the north pillar (10th column) of the Triumphal Arch on Place Charles-de-Gaulle ( Paris )

Fonts (selection)

• Journal des campagnes du Baron Percy, chirurgien en chef de la Grande Armée (1754–1825) (Bibliothèque Napoléonienne). Tallandier, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-84734-025-4 (reprint of the Paris 1904 edition).
  • German translation: Campaign Journal of Baron Percy, chief surgeon of the Great Army (1754-1825) . Verlag Schmidt & Günther, Leipzig 1906 (2 vols .; translated by Beppina von Weinbach).
• Manuel du chirurgien d'armée, ou instruction de chirurgie militaire. Méquignon l'aîné, Paris 1792. (digitized) Germer Baillière, Paris 1830. (digitized)
  • Thomas Lauth (translator). Taking off strangers' bodies from gunshot wounds. An award document by Mr. Percy, crowned by the French Academy of Surgeons in Paris in 1788 ... Strasbourg 1789 (digital copy)
• Pyrotechnie chirurgicale-pratique, ou l'art d'appliquer le feu en chirurgie. Collignon, Metz 1794. (digitized version)
  • Surgical-practical pyrotechnics or the art of using fire in the art of wound medicine. From Citizen Percy, chief surgeon in the Moselle Army. In excerpt . Wolf, Leipzig 1798 (digitized version)
• Article moxibustion . In: Dictionnaire des sciences médicales . Panckoucke, Paris 1819, Vol. 34, pp. 474-492. (Digitized version)

literature

• David G. Chandler : The campaigns of Napoleon . Weidenfeld, London 1993, ISBN 0-297-81367-6 (reprint of the London 1966 edition)
• Henri Ducoulombier: Le baron P.-F. Percy. Un surgeons de la Grand Armée . Éditions Teissèdre, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-912259-92-4 .
• Philip J. Haythornthwaite: Who Was Who in Napoleonic Wars . Arms% Armor, London 1998, ISBN 1-85409-391-6 .
• Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Percy, Pierre François. 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. 1121.
• Jean Tulard (Ed.): Dictionnaire Napoléon . Fayard, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-213-60485-1 (2 vols.)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reference on a page of the French Ministry of Culture , accessed on May 1, 2014