Pierre-Joseph Desault (6 February 1738 – 1 June 1795) was a French

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

Biography

Pierre-Joseph Desault was born in

Vouhenans Vouhenans is a Communes of France, commune in the Haute-Saône Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. See also *Communes of the Haute-Saône department References

...

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou dialect, Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; ; also ; ; all ) is a cultural and Provinces of France, historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of France, departments of Doub ...

. He was destined for a career in the Church, but his own inclination was towards the study of medicine; after learning something from the barber-surgeon of his native village, he was settled as an apprentice in the

military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned or operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a m ...

Belfort Belfort (; archaic , ) is a city in northeastern France, situated approximately from the Swiss border. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Territoire de Belfort. Belfort is from Paris and from Basel. The residents of the city ...

, where he acquired some knowledge of anatomy and military surgery. Going to Paris at about twenty years of age, he later opened a school of anatomy there in the winter of 1766, the success of which excited the jealousy of the established teachers and professors, who tried to make him give up his lectures. In 1776 he was admitted as a member of the Corps of Surgeons; and in 1782 he was appointed Surgeon Major to the Hospital of Charity. In 1784, Desault moved to the

Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...

to participate in a major ancien régime experiments in surgical education. Within a few years he was recognized as one of the leading surgeons of France. The clinical school of surgery which he instituted at the Hôtel-Dieu attracted great numbers of students, not only from every part of France ( Pierre Bouchet from Lyon for example) but also from other countries; and he frequently had an audience of about 100. In fact, it was praised by his pupil Xavier Bichat as the best surgical school in Europe. Desault introduced many improvements to the practice of surgery, as well as to the construction of surgical instruments. In 1791 he established a ''Journal de chirurgerie'', edited by his pupils, which was a record of the most interesting cases that had occurred in his clinical school, with the remarks which he had made upon them in the course of his lectures. In the midst of his labors, however, he became obnoxious to some of the Revolutionary authorities, and he was, on some frivolous charge, denounced to the government. After being twice examined, he was seized on 28 May 1793, in the midst of delivering a lecture, carried away from his surgical theatre, and committed to prison in the Luxembourg. In three days, however, he was liberated, and permitted to resume his functions. On 31 May 1795 he was summoned to attend to the young

Louis XVII Louis XVII (born Louis Charles, Duke of Normandy; 27 March 1785 – 8 June 1795) was the younger son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. His older brother, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, died in June 1789, a little over ...

by the latter's prisonguards, due to his severe illness. Desault died the next day, before he could visit the King. The rumour that his death was caused by poisoning during this summons was disproved by the autopsy carried out by his pupil Bichat. A pension was settled on his widow by the Republic.

Works

Together with

François Chopart François Chopart (20 October 1743 – 9 June 1795) was a French surgeon born in Paris. He was trained in medicine at the Hôtel-Dieu, Pitié and the Bicêtre hospitals. In 1771 he became a professor of practical surgery at the '' École prat ...

(1743–1795), he published ''Traité des maladies chirurgicales'' (1779), and Bichat published a digest of his surgical doctrines in ''OEuvres chirurgicales de Desault'' (1798–1799).

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Desault, Pierre-Joseph 1738 births 1795 deaths 18th-century French physicians French surgeons French medical writers 18th-century French writers 18th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers Louis XVII