The 800th-anniversary student cap, donated by the medical students, will be displayed in the lobby of the Arnaud de Villeneuve Health Campus. The unveiling ceremony will take place on November 6, 2023. This intangible cultural heritage is being passed down; student tradition has never been more alive than at the world’s oldest medical school still in operation.
Older adults account for more than 20% of the French population (Source: INSEE 2020), yet the aging process remains poorly understood. Thanks to the simulation tools offered in this innovative workshop, participants will be able to take a leap forward in time by several years. Through this experience, they will be able to hone their skills in supporting older adults.
This workshop, offered by the School of Geriatrics and Gerontology, was designed to allow participants to experience the major impairments associated with aging.
It is led by its administrative manager, Myriam Taroudjit, and Marie-Laure Portalez, a design engineer.
Special equipment allows participants to experience firsthand the sensory challenges associated with aging. This helps them recognize the difficulties faced by older adults and better understand their behaviors and specific needs.
“A true learning-by-doing experience aimed at improving the quality of life for older adults”
The effectiveness of this simulation-based method was the subject of a study conducted by medical students at Julius-Maximilians University in Würzburg (Dr. Filz S.A., Dr. Swoboda W., et al.).
The research, conducted in the form of practical training sessions involving the use of a simulation suit, yielded the following results:
Using simulation scenarios composed of several elements, participants put themselves in the shoes of an older adult by experiencing the physical and emotional challenges associated with aging.
Here are a few examples:
Every year, this innovative workshop is offered to students at the school to supplement their curriculum and deepen their understanding of older adults. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive:
Stéphanie: “This workshop was very interesting, and everyone who works with older adults should have the opportunity to participate in this simulation workshop. Losing one’s senses is very unsettling.”
Mariam: “This afternoon, I experienced what the elderly people I care for go through every day: muscle pain, hearing and vision problems, and slowness—all caused by an environment that is no longer safe for them to navigate.”
Maïlys: “In a professional setting, I will pay even closer attention to these “pains” and how people experience and cope with them in their daily lives, so that I can best tailor my responses to their needs.”
More photos:
You probably already know this: the Jardin des Plantes is a unique place in Montpellier to relax. But did you know it’s also a place for discovery and learning? The gardeners and botanists take this role to heart and organize numerous events throughout the year to help you experience it from this perspective. This is particularly true right now with“Summer Tours.”Finally, the Jardin des Plantes serves an educational purpose year-round—a mission that is gaining momentum, reconnecting with its roots (the teaching of botany) while embracing modern objectives and utilizing today’s tools. To reinforce this educational aspect, one of them, Denis Nespoulous, has created connected trails to let you discover the garden as you’ve never seen it before!
The trail known as “SMART BOTA” was created in 2018 for the Tela Botanica association’s introductory MOOC on botany.
This association, founded in 1999 and comprising a broad network of French-speaking botanists, aims to:
The connected trails consist of information sheets available to everyone and distributed along several routes. They can be accessed via a QR code using a smartphone or tablet. These sheets allow you to explore the garden’s treasures at your own pace. The four different routes are displayed at the entrance to the Jardin des Plantes: simply follow the guide, or, if you prefer, wander freely through the paths.
These botanical fact sheets provide a variety of information about the plant you scan, such as a description, its uses, and its habitat. It’s a fun and engaging way to learn more about the flora around us!
For now, there are five connected trails within the Jardin des Plantes. These may change over time thanks to your input.
The SMART’BOTA Trail
The second connected trail at the Jardin des Plantes in Montpellier, and the first educational trail, it was created in 2018 for Tela Botanica’s introductory MOOC on botany of which Denis serves as the lead. The course aims to introduce enthusiasts to botany. It features around sixty species and introduces you to the main plant families.
The SMART’PHARMA Trail
Extension of the first "SMART’BOTA" trail; this trail was created for students at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Montpellier. Indeed, a multitude of plants can be used for therapeutic and medicinal purposes. This trail allows students students to combine the theoretical aspects of their courses with practical ones by directly observing the plants within the Garden. This educational trail is also open to the public. It features approximately sixty plant species.
The Remarkable Trees Trail
This trail, created in 2014, is the oldest trail in the Jardin des Plantes. It allows you to discover all the secrets of the Jardin des Plantes’s giant trees. It is also the only trail that can be explored without your smartphone, as it features reading panels, but feel free to scan the QR codes embedded in the panels to unlock all the secrets of botany! This interactive trail features 25 tree species selected from among the most remarkable and oldest in the garden.
The HERBES FOLLES Trail
This trail, created for Tela Botanica’s “Herbes Folles” MOOC (the second edition is scheduled for this fall!), aims to help you rediscover these plants that are pejoratively referred to as “weeds.” They, too, have their virtues, and beyond their drawbacks—which we won’t deny—they also play an important role in our environment. The wild herbs of the garden invite you to reflect on issues of biodiversity. This tour will allow you to see these “weeds” in a new light…
The " Observatory of the Seasons" Trail
The last trail is somewhat unique, as it is part of a citizen science. Get involved in this CNRS program by observing the 12 species along the trail. Its goal is also to raise awareness about global warming by introducing us to phenology (the observation of periodic events, in this case involving plants). At the entrance to the Jardin des Plantes, you can request a specially designed form to record your observations. This data will help scientists better understand and monitor climate change and its associated challenges.
If you’d like to explore Montpellier’s Jardin des Plantes further using digital tools, you can download the SMART’ FLORE app on all your Android devices. The app offers:
The SPES (Primary Care, Environment, and Health) program is a training initiative organized by the Department of General Practice at the Montpellier-Nîmes School of Medicine and the Avicenne University Multidisciplinary Health Center in Cabestany. A one-day training session for general practice residents, as well as a public lecture, will take place on September 9, 2021.
It is part of the call for proposals launched by the Occitanie Regional Health Agency (ARS) as part of the 3rd Regional Health and Environment Plan, of which it is one of the winning projects. In particular, it aims to increase public and healthcare professionals’ engagement with environmental health.
To this end, it is organized in three stages:
Dr. François Carbonnel, an associate professor at the Department of General Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier-Nîmes and a general practitioner at the Avicenne Medical Practice, has been selected as the winner of the call for proposals organized by the Occitanie Regional Health Agency (ARS).
Why did you decide to launch this Primary Care, Environment, and Health training program?
The environment can pose risks to our communities and our health. This training aims to raise awareness among our colleagues about what environmental health entails. We want to educate them about this still relatively unknown field.
What is the purpose of this new training program?
Through this training, future general practitioners will first be able to identify environmental health risks so that they can treat them. Later, they will be able to predict and prevent them.
Who is this training course intended for?
This training program is primarily intended for residents and faculty in general practice. The goal is to make this program sustainable and effective so that we can offer it on a larger scale and ensure that environmental health issues are addressed across all regions.
The event will consist of two parts: the first part will focus on training residents and general practice instructors. The second part, open to the general public, will feature a lecture.
Here is the schedule for these two games:
Schedule for the day for residents
Conference program for the general public
Please note that this program is subject to change depending on the health situation.
For the first time, the School of Medicine had the honor of conferring degrees on the 2020 and 2021 IPA graduates.
The ceremony took place on July 12, 2021, in the Faculty’s Historic Building. A total of 36 students from the classes of 2020 and 2021 received their diplomas.
ON THE PROGRAM:
To help students prepare for their first year in the PASS and LAS programs, the health tutoring associations at the University of Montpellier (the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association, Nîmes Health Tutoring, and the Association of Pharmacy Tutors) are organizing a pre-semester orientation workshop to help students adjust to university life and gain a clear understanding of the year ahead.
This workshop provides an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the key topics that will be covered in the first semester, to start finding your own work rhythm, and to gradually immerse yourself in a PASS or LAS program.
As a result, two separate SPRs will be organized:
Registration for the PASS Pre-Semester Workshop costs €15, which covers the cost of printed handouts for the presentations. You must first register for the tutoring program; registration is free and open year-round (available here).
This SPR will take place from August 23 to September 4. It will be held in person at the respective locations of the three associations, namely:
Arnaud de Villeneuve Site,
641 Doyen Gaston Avenue GIRAUD
34090 Montpellier
Carémeau Site,
186 Chemin du Carreau de Lanes
30,900 Nîmes
School of Pharmacy,
15 Charles FLAHAULT Avenue
34090 Montpellier
This in-person orientation is designed to help students get acquainted with the university environment, build connections with one another, and meet the tutors they will be working with throughout the year.
Here is the registration link:
This SPR will take place on August 30 and 31. To ensure equal opportunities for students from different faculties, it will be held online via the Zoom platform.
Here is the link to register (the LAS Pre-School Year Workshop is the same for all three locations):
In 2020, Dr. Valentin FAVIER, in collaboration with Dr. Antoine Debourdeau, once again submitted a proposal to the MUSE call for projects, which aims to support the pedagogical transformation of educational programs. His project, titled “Application for Monitoring Learning Progress and the Execution of Technical Procedures in Medicine,” was selected as a winner.
The quality of medical training is a public health issue that is essential to provide the population as effectively as possible for years to come. Medical competence takes a long time to acquire, during which students must master theoretical and technical skills. Medical residents must learn the skills and procedures that will form the foundation of their medical practice during the 4 to 6 years of their residency. Their theoretical knowledge is frequently assessed through written exams.
Currently, medical residents complete their clinical rotations according to a predefined educational curriculum, divided into semesters, and receive their residency degree upon completion of their program after defending a thesis.
Nevertheless, during their residency, medical students work full-time at the hospital, and their university-based training on campus is reduced to just a few days a year.
However, the medical curriculum does not take into account the technical skills of medical residents, and there are few tools available to track their acquisition and monitor the learner’s progress throughout their rotations.
It was against this backdrop that Drs. Favier and Debourdeau decided to develop an app to track the progress of healthcare students in terms of their technical skills.
SPART-App is a project that aims to provide medical residents, their trainers, and the educational coordinator with a mobile app to record every procedure performed throughout their residency (e-logbook). This pilot project covers the specialties of anesthesiology and critical care, gastroenterology, otolaryngology, and maxillofacial surgery. Here are its objectives:
The digital, via an app that can operate offline, eliminates the need for procedure logs that are not regularly updated. The resident will be able to evaluate their procedure immediately after performing it, on their smartphone.
Each resident will be provided with a student account specific to their specialty. In this account, the resident can record every procedure performed over time, detailing the procedure itself, whether it was successful or unsuccessful, and any difficulties encountered. Using the data entered into the application, it is possible to track their learning curve.
The supervisor of the procedure may, if they wish, approve the intern’s assessment of the procedure and use it as a basis for a technical debriefing . The instructor will have access to the data for each of the residents they supervise. This will allow the head of education (department head) to ensure that each resident performs a sufficient number of procedures and to identify residents who are struggling so they can provide them with additional support.
Through this project, Dr. Favier hopes to advance the development of technical skills and generate short-, medium-, and long-term impacts.
Currently, the project led by Dr. Favier and Dr. Debourdeau is moving forward and is expected to be launched soon.
Julie Bay, a first-year orthoptics student, will be heading to Kenya on a humanitarian mission from October 30 to November 14, 2021. The goal of this mission is to provide free vision screenings for children in schools in Taïta.
Eye Need View is a nonprofit organization established in 2014 by three orthoptists. Its mission is to organize vision screening, refraction, and training initiatives in the field of eye health in developing countries.
For the first time, Eye Need View is calling on visual health students to help carry out its next humanitarian mission in Kenya. Five students from the fourteen orthoptics departments across France are participating in this project.
And this year, a first-year orthoptics student at the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine was selected for this assignment. She was chosen after submitting her resume and cover letter, and she will represent the Faculty and the University of Montpellier throughout the assignment. We had the opportunity to meet her:
Hi Julie, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Julie Bay, I’m 29 years old, and I’m originally from Réunion Island. After earning my associate’s degree in optometry and gaining several years of professional experience in the field, I decided to switch careers and become an orthoptist. I am currently a student at the Montpellier-Nîmes School of Medicine.
How did you hear about the Eye Need View project?
With a strong interest in the field of vision health and humanitarian work, I regularly kept up with the latest news on these topics. One day, I saw the call for proposals from the FFEO (French Federation of Orthoptic Students) regarding the Eye Need View mission, and I decided to apply because the project perfectly matched my expectations.
Why did you want to take part in this humanitarian mission?
First of all, humanitarian work has always appealed to me; I’ve always been committed to using my skills to help others. The people around me have always encouraged me to get involved in charitable causes. Even back in Réunion, I was part of an organization with my family that helped disadvantaged people. What’s great about this project is that it allows me to combine my work with my desire to help others. I’ve already carried out humanitarian screening missions in Paris with Vision For Life for disadvantaged people. This helps me grow both personally and professionally.
People aren’t always aware of this, but 10% of children have a vision problem by age 6 and aren’t receiving treatment. Vision problems have a significant impact on children, particularly when it comes to learning. That’s why this mission is so important to me.
How did you fund your humanitarian mission?
The cost of the trip is estimated at €9,000 for all participating students. We received €6,000 in support from our partners. I also received funding from the University of Montpellier’s Fund for Solidarity and Development of Student Initiatives (FSDIE), which aims to support students with projects in various fields.
Finally, we will set up an online fundraiser to raise the remaining funds needed.
The goal during the two-week mission is to screen 2,500 children in schools in the village of Taïta, in southern Kenya. To make this possible, the mission is divided into several stages:
The Eye Need View organization and the students participating in this humanitarian project are committed to making this mission a success. You can support them in two different ways:
In 2018, Dr. Valentin FAVIER submitted a proposal to the MUSE call for projects, which aims to support educational reform in training programs. His project, titled “Learning Anatomy and Surgery Through Simulation and 3D Printing,” was selected as a winner.
The MUSE project “ Montpellier University of Excellence brings together 16 institutions toward a shared goal: to establish in Montpellier a research-intensive, thematically focused university, internationally recognized for its impact in fields related to agriculture, the environment, and health, capable of becoming, for all members of the consortium, a close academic partner with which they will be strongly connected and of which they can be proud.
Through these “Take Off” calls for proposals, it supports the educational transformation strategy of the institutions and components of the MUSE consortium. Over the past three years, I-SITE MUSE has raised €6 million to support educational innovations through this program. The “Learning Anatomy and Surgery through Simulation and 3D Printing” project is one of the projects selected for Take-Off #1. Learn more about it in this article!
Healthcare simulation is a key focus of medical education in the 21st century. To improve the safety of clinical practice and education, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) released a report in 2012 outlining the prospects for the development of healthcare simulation in France.
Surgical simulators are educational tools that are an integral part of this concept. They enable the training of young surgeons, helping them to familiarize themselves with surgical equipment, anatomy, and surgical techniques, but they are also useful throughout continuing medical education for refresher training. Another major benefit lies in the ability to develop new surgical techniques, allowing more experienced surgeons to perform innovative approaches or test new instruments.
The project is intended for surgical residents, who will have the opportunity to practice on these simulators. The work currently underway is now focused on several objectives:
As the winner of the project, Dr. FAVIER received a €10,000 grant from MUSE. This grant was used to advance his project on surgical simulators. Specifically, it was used to:
Marie-Anne GILLAIN was born in 1773 in Montreuil, near Versailles.
She was sent to boarding school with the Sisters of the Visitation.
During the Revolution, she took refuge in Etampes, staying with a relative who was the mother superior of the Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu.
There she attended the surgeon’s lectures and served for two and a half years, from 1793 to 1796, as a hospital volunteer—that is, as a layperson who offered her services to the poor and sick on a voluntary basis.
In 1797, she returned to Versailles to marry Louis Boivin, deputy head of the National Domains office.
She became pregnant early on, but in 1798, at the age of 25, she was suddenly widowed, left penniless, and with a young daughter to raise.
She then decided to put the skills she had learned from the surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu in Étampes to good use and enrolled in the Midwifery School at the Maternity Hospital in 1799.
In 1800, she graduated and moved to Versailles to be reunited with her daughter and pursue her career.
In 1801, following the death of her daughter, she obtained permission from Marie-Louise Lachapelle to return to the Maternity Hospice
In 1803, she was appointed head supervisor of the breastfeeding unit. She held this position for eleven years, until 1814. During this long tenure, she took the opportunity to attend the lectures of her patron, the surgeons at the Maternity Hospital (Baudelocque, then Dubois), and the chief physicians (Andry, and especially Chaussier), from whom she gathered observations and lessons.
In 1812, she wrote and published *A Treatise on the Art of Childbirth*. The work was approved by the Ministry of the Interior, which included it among the textbooks given to graduates of the Maternity School.
In 1814, the position of supervisor that she held was eliminated, and she was dismissed with a severance payment equal to her annual salary, amounting to 360 francs.
In October, she was appointed storekeeper and steward at the Poissy General Hospital, a position she held until January 1819, when the General Hospital was converted into a prison.
Little is known about this period of her life: did she continue her obstetric practice despite her new, more administrative duties? Did she do so within the general hospital? Or with a private clientele? In any case, for a time she appears to have received a comfortable annual salary of 1,200 francs—almost as much as the head midwife at the Maternity Hospital.
In 1818, she entered the Paris Medical Society’s competition anonymously, submitting a paper on internal uterine hemorrhages. She was awarded the medal.
On February1, 1819, she joined the Maison Royale de Santé in Paris as chief midwife, with a modest salary of 350 francs a year.
In 1821, an opportunity for promotion arose following the death of Marie-Louise Lachapelle.
According to procedure, the General Council of the Hospices must submit to the Minister of the Interior a list of five candidates to succeed the renowned midwife.
On November 14, 1821, the Council voted to approve a list with Marie-Anne Boivin at the top; she received 12 out of 12 votes in the first round of voting to select the top candidate.
A month and a half later, the Minister of the Interior endorsed the Council’s decision.
But the winner declined the position (or rather resigned), forcing the board to propose another list. Why the refusal? All contemporary biographers attribute this decision to a public promise Marie-Anne Boivin is said to have made to her former patroness never to replace her, even after her death. If this is the case, she kept her word, and another midwife, Madeleine Catherine Legrand, was appointed in 1822.
Marie-Anne Boivin therefore continued to practice at the Maison Royale de Santé, where she amassed observations, publications, and honors.
In 1828, she submitted a thesis on spontaneous abortions, which was awarded a prize by the Bordeaux Medical Society.
In September 1835, at the age of 62, worn out and exhausted, she retired and urged the board of the hospices to grant her a pension. Finally, after a first stroke that left her hemiplegic, she died in May 1841.
In 1902, one of the rooms in the renovated maternity ward was named after Marie-Anne Boivin.
She was born in 1563 on Boulevard Saint-Germain or in Mons to a family of doctors.
She married Martin BOURSIER, a master surgeon and student of Ambroise PARÉ, in 1594.
She finds herself destitute when her husband is enlisted in the king's army.
She quickly gained a reputation among the ladies of the court and delivered the queen's children on six occasions.
She is paid 500 crowns for the birth of a boy and 300 for the birth of a girl.
It lost its prestige following the death of Marie de Bourbon-Montpensier, wife of Gaston d’Orléans, at the time of the birth of the Grande Mademoiselle.
According to the surgeons who performed the autopsy on the woman who had given birth, her death was attributed to the presence of retained placental tissue in the uterus, and Louise Bourgeois was subsequently accused of negligence.
At that time, there were few male obstetricians practicing, and they were trying to gain the upper hand over the midwives' guild.
Louise questions their competence by harshly criticizing the autopsy findings and the skills of the obstetricians; however, her response has the opposite effect of what she intended, as it ends up giving them publicity.
She was the first midwife to write a book on obstetrics, *Various Observations on Infertility, Miscarriage, Fertility, Childbirth, and Diseases of Women and Newborns*, published in 1609.
In this book, she points out that infertility in a couple may be due to male factors, even though, like doctors of that era, she confuses the ability to procreate with sexual vigor.
She identified the role of malnutrition in fetal health, and she was the first to prescribe iron supplements to treat anemia.
She emphasizes the importance of anatomical knowledge for midwives and urges doctors to allow them to attend lectures and dissection sessions.
In 1636, Parisian midwives submitted a petition to the Faculty of Medicine requesting that Louise Bourgeois be permitted to teach them obstetrics, but their request was denied.
Subsequently, however, one of her students, Marguerite du Tertre de la Marche, was appointed head of the midwives at the Hôtel-Dieu and succeeded in overhauling their training program.
She died on December 20, 1636, on Boulevard Saint-Germain at the age of 73.
He was born on November 30, 1745, in Heilly, Picardy.
He was the son of Jean Baptiste BAUDELOCQUE, a surgeon, and Anne Marguerite LEVASSEUR. His brothers Félix Honoré (1744–1794) and Jean Baptiste (1749–1800) were both doctors. He was the third of ten children.
It was his father who introduced him to surgery in the countryside of Picardy.
He completed his studies in Paris at the Hôpital de la Charité, where a renowned professor of obstetrics, Solayrès de Renhac (1737–1772), was in charge.
In 1772, following Solayrès’s untimely death at the age of 35, he collected the manuscripts of his lectures and succeeded him as professor of obstetrics at the Hôpital de la Charité. Thanks to Baudelocque, Solayrès’s work was saved from oblivion.
In 1775, at the initiative of the surgeon Augier du FOT, a demonstration instructor in obstetrics in Soissons, he published—drawing on manuscripts bequeathed by Solayrès de RENHAC—the first edition of a manual intended for the training of midwives. This work was later republished under his name alone, under the title“Principles on the Art of Childbirth: Questions and Answers for Student Midwives.” It underwent three reprints during Baudelocque’s lifetime and three more posthumously.
In 1776, following the defense of his thesis on symphysotomy, titled“An in partu propter angustiam pelvis impossibili, symphysis ossium secanda?”, he was appointed surgeon at the Hôpital de la Charité in Paris and was awarded the title of Master of Surgery by the Paris College of Surgery.
On April 5 or 6, 1777, in Paris, he married Andrée DERULLIER (née de Vulier, de Voulier, de Rullie, or de Rouillier), whose family made mannequins of pregnant women for demonstrations in childbirth classes; she died on January 4, 1787, without children.
In 1781 and 1789, he published the first two editions of his scholarly treatise*The Art of Childbirth* in two volumes. He became famous for his forceps, his practice of cesarean sections, and the invention of the pelvimeter, which measures the external anteroposterior diameter to identify patients who might experience difficulties during childbirth.
On September 14, 1788, in Amiens, he married Marie Catherine Rose Laurent; the couple had five children (three daughters and two sons).
During the French Revolution, the guilds and faculties were abolished. Hospitals lost some of their staff and funding. Baudelocque nevertheless managed to build a reputation as an obstetrician thanks to a clientele in the city and private obstetrics lessons.
In 1794, the former Faculty of Medicine was replaced by the École centrale de Santé de Paris, where he was responsible for teaching medical students and midwives.
In October 1795, the Maternity Hospice began taking in poor women and unwed mothers to assist them during childbirth and provided clinical training for midwives and doctors from the School of Health.
In addition, this facility also takes in abandoned children.
In 1798, Baudelocque, in addition to his position as professor of obstetrics at the Paris School of Health, became chief surgeon at the Maternity Hospital.
In 1802, the school at the Hospice de la Maternité was established, where Baudelocque put his teaching skills to use, employing mannequins to allow students to practice examinations and obstetric procedures. He emphasized observation over intervention, preferring to let nature take its course and using instruments as little as possible.
Busy with his many responsibilities, he delegated some of his authority to the head midwife of the Maternity Ward, Marie-Louise Lachapelle (1769–1821), who took on part of the training of the midwifery students and was authorized to use forceps on her own in cases of difficult childbirth.
He was involved in a high-profile lawsuit brought against him by an obstetrician, Jean François Sacombe, a fierce opponent of cesarean sections and a defender of traditional midwifery practices. Sacombe, who had set himself up as a defender of midwives and accused Baudelocque of infanticide, ultimately lost his case in 1804 and, in the process, any sense of proportion.
In 1806, Napoleon appointed Jean-Louis Baudelocque to the chair of obstetrics, the first medical specialty chair in France.
He became the personal obstetrician to the queens of Spain, Holland, and Naples, as well as to all the ladies of the court.
He had been chosen and selected in advance to deliver the heir awaited by Napoleon and Empress Marie-Louise of Austria. But, struck down by a cerebral hemorrhage, he would not live to see the birth of the King of Rome.
He died on May 2 or 3, 1810, at 16 Rue Jacob in Paris (6th arrondissement), where he lived, at the age of 65.
He was buried at the Vaugirard West Cemetery, then exhumed due to land acquisition for the construction of what is now Boulevard Pasteur.
He was then buried on August 17, 1839, at Père-Lachaise Cemetery (45thdivision).
He was the most famous obstetrician of his time.
A physician at the Hôpital des Enfants Malades, he would lend his name to the Baudelocque Clinic in 1890.
The Port-Royal Maternity Hospital was built in 1966. The two facilities merged in 1993 (14th arrondissement of Paris).
There is now a midwifery school on Avenue Denfert-Rochereau that bears her name.
He was born on July 2, 1746, in Dijon, in the parish of Saint Pierre.
His father was a master glazier.
After completing his training at the Dijon Hospital, his mother sent him to Paris to continue his medical studies, and he enrolled at the Royal College of Surgery, where he attended classes regularly from 1765 to 1767; there he took anatomy courses taught by Raphaël SABATIER and Jean-Joseph SUE.
At the same time, he began training in surgery at Lafaye’s clinics and, in the afternoons, at those of Isaac GOURSAUD.
His years of surgical training came to an end in 1768, when he was awarded the title of Master of Surgery; he then settled in Dijon as a surgeon
He married Jeanne CARRE, the daughter and granddaughter of a Master Surgeon, on July 27, 1767, in Quetigny, Côte d’Or. Together they had a son, Bernard François Hector (1769–1837).
In 1769, he began teaching a free course in human and comparative anatomy, which was attended by many students for over ten years.
In 1774, the Estates of Burgundy established a chemistry program with Louis-Bernard GUYTON de MORVEAU as the full professor and Hugues MARET and François CHAUSSIER as assistant professors. Upon MARET’s death in 1786, he was promoted to associate professor of chemistry.
In Dijon, his professional skills earned him the favor of his patients, and his reputation quickly spread beyond Burgundy; he distinguished himself at the Academy of Surgery through several presentations, and as a result, he was awarded the Academy’s Gold Medal at the public session on April 10, 1777.
He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Besançon on January 14, 1780, and in 1784, he became a corresponding member of the Royal Society of Medicine. That same year, he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters in Dijon, where he became secretary-general following the retirement of Guyton de Morveau.
In 1785, at the request of the Estates of Burgundy, he published a popular guide on the treatment of bites from rabid animals: “Method for Treating Bites from Rabid Animals and Vipers; Followed by a Summary on the Malignant Pustule” (with Joseph Enaux, 1726–1798).
In 1789, he published a study on the muscles of the human body, in which he proposed a more rational classification than the one previously taught: “A Brief Overview of the Muscles of the Human Body According to the Methodical Classification and Nomenclature Adopted in the Public Anatomy Course at Dijon”; this work was reprinted in 1797.
On December 20, 1789, he read a paper titled “Surgical-Legal Observations on an Important Point of Criminal Jurisprudence” at the Academy of Dijon, in which he demonstrated the role that physicians could play in assisting the justice system; this work attracted attention, and the following year he launched a course in forensic medicine in Dijon.
On 3 Nivôse, Year III (December 23, 1794), he married Angélique LABOREY in Dijon (Crébillon district); they also had a son, Franck Bernard Simon (1804–1866).
In 1794, Antoine-François Fourcroy was tasked by the National Convention with reorganizing medical education and sought out a figure capable of providing him with the details of this reorganization. Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois, from Côte-d’Or, who headed the Committee of Public Safety’s Department of Science and Arts Education, recommended François Chaussier, who thus joined the Committee of Public Instruction: he drafted a report and a draft decree, which he read from the rostrum of the Convention on 7 Frimaire, Year III (November 27, 1794); In it, he proposed the creation of a single “Central School of Health” in Paris; the members of the Convention, who were largely open to decentralization, requested the creation of other similar schools in Montpellier and Strasbourg, and it was on this basis that the report was adopted on 14 Frimaire (December 4).
Chaussier returned to Dijon, where he resumed his teaching and studies as well as the duties entrusted to him: he had been appointed physician to the Hospices of Dijon in April 1793 and Surgeon to the Prisons; he did not remain there long, however, as he was recalled to Paris to occupy the chair of anatomy and physiology at the School of Health. Chaussier was, in the words of Joseph-Henri Réveillé-Parise, the most famous professor of physiology at the Paris School: he argued that vitalism was the foundation of all studies in physiology.
A decree dated 7 Vendémiaire, Year III (September 28, 1794), which officially established the École Centrale des Travaux Publics, the future École Polytechnique, the Board of Directors proposed, less than a month after the school opened, to establish an infirmary there and to appoint a “health officer” (the revolutionary term for doctors) to treat sick students and also to give lessons on “the art of preventing and alleviating diseases.” The roster of École Polytechnique staff for the following year lists him as an assistant to Claude Louis Berthollet, “concurrently responsible for the courses in Zootechnics and Public Health, and School Physician”: in fact, he taught Berthollet’s course during the latter’s absence in Italy in 1796–1797. After the formalization of chemistry instruction, Chaussier appears to have abandoned teaching this science and confined himself almost entirely to his duties as a physician.
In 1799, *Les tables synoptiques* was published to great acclaim. It provides a summary of the physiology, pathology, and treatment of the various anatomical systems of the human body.
On May 9, 1804, he was appointed Physician to the Maternity Hospitals and was entrusted with the chairmanship of the medical examination boards for the exams to become a Public Health Officer, Pharmacist, and Midwife for the district of the Paris Faculty of Medicine.
He was a member of the commission appointed by the Minister of the Interior in October 1810 to study “secret remedies”; there he worked alongside André Marie Constant Duméril, Jean-Joseph Menuret, and Nicolas Deyeux.
In 1815, following the fall of the First Empire, he was replaced as physician at the École Polytechnique, but he retained his chair at the Faculty until November 21, 1822, when the Restoration reorganized the Faculty: he was appointed honorary professor and his chair was revoked. He felt great bitterness over this, and the next day, he suffered a stroke that temporarily left him unable to speak or walk. He recovered, however, though he remained hemiplegic, which did not prevent him from continuing his work at the Maternity Hospital.
On May 6, 1823, he was elected tothe Academy of Sciences.
Between 1824 and 1827, he published several works on forensic medicine: *Forensic Manual of Poisons, Preceded by Considerations on Poisoning*14, “Collection of Papers, Consultations, and Reports on Various Topics in Forensic Medicine”15, “Forensic Medical Paper on the Viability of the Newborn Child, Presented toHis Excellency the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice”16
François Chaussier died at his home in Paris on June 19, 1828, at the age of 81, from a stroke.
He was buried at Père-Lachaise Cemetery (18th division) on June 21: Nicolas-Philibert Adelon delivered a speech on behalf of the Academy; Marie-Alexandre Désormaux, representing the Faculty, did the same; and Duméril, on behalf of the Royal Academy of Sciences, read a lengthy eulogy.
Thesecond son, Franck CHAUSSIER, followed in his father’s footsteps and defended his doctoral dissertation in 1827 in Montpellier.
He is a French physician, a professor at the Paris Faculty of Medicine, and a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine and the Academy of Sciences.
Chaussier was the chief editor of the articles on pharmacy inthe *Encyclopédie méthodique*13.
She was born in 1712 in Clermont-Ferrand to a family of doctors.
She first studied under Anne BAIRSIN, a midwife, for three years.
On September 26, 1739, she received her diploma and shortly thereafter became a licensed midwife.
She worked as a midwife at the Châtelet in Paris for sixteen years.
In 1752, to put theory into practice, she published a book titled *A Summary of the Art of Childbirth*.
In 1754, she returned to Auvergne and began giving free lessons.
In 1758, she designed her famous demonstration “machine” (made of wood, cardboard, fabric, and cotton), which was approved on December1 by the Academy of Surgery.
During the two-month training course, the students were encouraged to practice on the mannequin.
She died on April 16, 1794, at the age of 79 in Bordeaux, in poverty and solitude, with her niece and her husband absent. There is a Rue Angélique du Coudray in Thorigné-Fouillard and also a Rue Madame-du-Coudray in Clermont-Ferrand, her hometown. The maternity ward at the hospital in Melun (77) also bears her name.
