Laurent Alexis Philibert Cerise (27 February 1807 – 5 October 1869) was a French physician born in

Aosta Aosta (, , ; french: Aoste , formerly ; frp, Aoûta , ''Veulla'' or ''Ouhta'' ; lat, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum; wae, Augschtal; pms, Osta) is the principal city of Aosta Valley, a bilingual region in the Italian Alps, north-northwest ...

(today part of Italy). He studied medicine at the

University of Turin The University of Turin ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an imp ...

, obtaining his doctorate in 1828. In 1831 he relocated to Paris, where he subsequently drew a large clientele, both rich and poor. His early written articles appeared in the magazine ''L'Européen'', and due to their social and philosophical content, gained the attention of the learned society in Paris. In 1836 he published "''Le Médecin des salles d'asile''", a treatise in which he maintains that underprivileged children should have the same access to a physician as do children of the wealthy. The same year he released "''L'Exposé et examen critique du système phrénologique de Gall''" (Presentation and review of

Franz Joseph Gall Franz Josef Gall (; 9 March 175822 August 1828) was a German neuroanatomist, physiologist, and pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain. Claimed as the founder of the pseudoscience of phrenology, Gall was an ea ...

phrenological Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...

system), where he disparages the limitations of purely "materialistic medicine". Another noted work of his was "''Des fonctions et des maladies nerveuses dans leurs rapports avec l'e´ducation sociale et privee, morale et physique''" (Functions and nervous diseases in their dealings with private and social education, moral and physical, 1840). In 1843 with

Jacques-Joseph Moreau Jacques-Joseph Moreau (3 June 1804 – 26 June 1884), nicknamed "Moreau de Tours", was a French psychiatrist and member of the Club des Hashischins. Moreau was the first physician to do systematic work on drugs' effects on the central nervous ...

(1804–1884), Jules Baillarger (1809–1890) and François Achille Longet (1811–1871), he founded the psychiatric journal "''Annales médico-psychologiques''". During his career he maintained close ties with principal figures of the Italian

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single s ...

. In 1853 he became a member of the Accademia delle Scienze de Turin, and in 1864 became a member of the

Académie de Médecine An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

in Paris.

References

Espirit Valdotain Association for the promotion of identity Aosta
(translated biography) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cerise, Laurent People from Aosta 19th-century French physicians 1807 births 1869 deaths University of Turin alumni