Antonin Jean Desormeaux (25 December 1815 – October 1894) was a 19th-century French physician and inventor who has been called the "father of endoscopy", because he made significant improvements to the early

endoscope An endoscope is an inspection instrument composed of image sensor, optical lens, light source and mechanical device, which is used to look deep into the body by way of openings such as the mouth or anus. A typical endoscope applies several modern t ...

and was the first to successfully use it to operate on a living patient (his device would be called a cystoscope today). He presented his device to the French Academy of Sciences in Paris on July 20, 1853.

Scientific Work

His work was based on that of earlier inventors like Philipp Bozzini, some of whom had previously used endoscopes for diagnostic purposes, however, Desormeaux's invention was the first to be usable for simple operations such as chemical

cauterization Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, o ...

. The main improvements in his device were the use of a gasogene lamp, which consisted of a burning mixture of alcohol and turpentine and provided superior illumination to previous technologies, and improvements in focusing the light coming from the endoscope. Further improvements to the endoscope were later made by Sir Francis Cruise. His work was considered the state of the art until the invention of electric illumination once again revolutionized the field. He also wrote a textbook titled ''De l’endoscope'' which helped popularize the procedure.

Life and career

Desormeaux was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1815. He received a doctoral degree in 1844. In 1862, he received the position of "chef de service" at the Parisian Hôpital Necker. He died at the age of 79 in 1894.

References

''History of Endoscopy'', chapter 8
(2016). 19th-century French physicians French urologists 1815 births 1894 deaths {{med-bio-stub