The 800th-anniversary faluche, a gift from 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.
The SPES (Primary Care, Environment, and Health) program is a training program offered by the Department of General Medicine at the Montpellier-Nîmes School of Medicine.
Students from the Montpellier Artistic Project (MAP) association invite you to join them in analyzing a scene from Godard’s film *Contempt* during the special exhibition by artist Sylvain Fraysse at the Historic Building of the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine. We met with them to discuss this unique project.
The“Camille” project was launched in 2022, born out of a desire among members of the Montpellier Artistic Project to introduce students at the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine to new art forms. The MAP’s 2021–2022 executive board reached out to the Regional Contemporary Art Fund (FRAC) with the aim of creating a joint project, and this led to a collaboration with Sylvain Fraysse, a visual artist, and Céline Mélissent, who is in charge of public engagement and the promotion of the FRAC’s collection.
The exhibition is a sensory experience of light and sound based on Jean-Luc Godard’s film *Contempt *. The artist uses the Dissection Room in the Historic Building of the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine to “dissect” a scene from the film. In this iconic scene, the director lists the parts of Camille’s body—one of the main characters, played by Brigitte Bardot—in the manner of a dissection. Sylvain Fraysse recreates the scene’s color filters using gelatin sheets on the dissection room’s windows and also splits the film’s original soundtrack into 24 frequencies. In this way, he dissects the very essence of the scene.
The “Montpellier Artistic Project” is a nonprofit organization under the French Law of 1901, founded in August 2020 by three medical students who wanted to organize artistic activities within the faculty.
Over the past three years, the MAP board has expanded, and we now offer a variety of workshops and activities across our four areas of focus: Applied Arts, Public Speaking, Literary Arts, and Culinary Arts. To this end, we provide materials and introductory sessions for various artistic practices, and we also organize art contests on our social media platforms, as well as a public speaking contest each semester.
You can find us through our mascot, a chameleon named Léon Art, on Facebook and on our Instagram account.
It is important to us because it allows us to bring the Faculty’s historic building to life by opening a room that has never before been open to the public, and thus gives the association a new boost by taking us beyond our usual workshops. We’ve learned a great deal from this project, and we hope students and visitors will enjoy it. Furthermore, we’re very proud to be part of Montpellier’s bid to become the 2028 Capital of Culture and to be able to contribute to the city’s cultural life. It’s a vibrant experience that brings students together.
We had the opportunity to work with Sylvain Fraysse and the FRAC through Céline Mélissent, who served as our primary point of contact during the development of this project. The project was selected to be part of Montpellier’s bid for the title of European Capital of Culture 2028, which allowed us to receive financial support for the exhibition. The TaM supported us by allowing us to install posters at select tram and bus stops throughout the metropolitan area to promote the exhibition.
We also received support from the University of Montpellier (UM) through the Student Initiative Solidarity Fund (FSDIE) and the UM Arts and Culture Department—notably Eléonore Szturemski—as well as from the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine. We would like to extend a special thank you to Dean Isabelle Laffont and Professor Gérald Chanques for their support and logistical assistance.
Historic Building of the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine
2 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine
34000 Montpellier
Students participating in the guided tours during these open house days, on a self-guided tour.
Additional mediation sessions offered by association members will be announced at a later date on the event’s Facebook page.
The 18th edition of Primavera will take place on Sunday, March 19, 2023, at the Jardin des Plantes in Montpellier. Exhibitions, lectures, and a sale of rare plants will be held there from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Primavera’s sale of rare plants is sure to delight botany enthusiasts and hobby gardeners alike. Just imagine: being able to admire a little piece of the Jardin des Plantes in your living room or garden every day. Green will be this spring’s top decor trend!
The 3 talks you won't want to miss:
Anne Tassin, a ceramic artist, invites you to visit her exhibition, “Inspiration végétale”
Sculpted by Jacques Villeneuve, the monument—dedicated to Rabelais and the pleasures of life—was unveiled on November 6, 1921, by President Alexandre Millerand. The monument was a gift from the students as part of the celebration marking the 700th anniversary of the Faculty of Medicine, where Rabelais studied in 1530.
The University of Montpellier, the Montpellier-Nîmes School of Medicine, and the Montpellier Jardin des Plantes Corporate Foundation contributed to the restoration of this monument.
Who doesn’t love strolling through the paths of the Jardin des Plantes in the spring? It’s the perfect time to see the garden’s lush flora come back to life after winter. Primavera is an excellent excuse—if one is needed—to discover or rediscover the Jardin des Plantes in Montpellier.
After meeting with the Nîmes Health Tutoring Association, this week we’re joining the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association and its new president, Milla Esclafit-Cardoso!
The Tutoring Program consists of second- and third-year health sciences students who have passed the PACES entrance exam and who have been selected and trained for one year by the professors in charge of that year’s program. Our goal is to provide free, high-quality academic and emotional support to any student at the University of Montpellier and its branch campuses who wishes to pursue a career in healthcare. To meet this need, three organizations are available to assist you: the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association, the Pharmacy Tutors Association, and the Nîmes Health Tutoring Program.
These three organizations pool their resources to provide equitable support to all students and share a common goal of ensuring equal opportunity in the admissions process for health professions programs.
To start the year off on the right foot, we’re offering a Pre-Semester Workshop open this year to all PACES and PASS students: its goal is to review the entire first-semester curriculum, help students develop effective study habits, and introduce them to the faculty so they can find their footing.
Each week, we review the key points from each course across all subjects through multiple-choice quiz sessions led by professors: these sessions are offered at several different times so that students can adjust their schedules according to their availability. To help students with their questions, office hours are held every day at noon on campus, and a forum is also available to students.
To ensure regular and representative assessment, we organize weekly graded quizzes attended by approximately 900 students across our three campuses, as well as mock exams, which this year drew more than 1,600 students in the first semester.
To adapt to the lockdown and public health measures, we held our sessions and review sessions online via Zoom, which we recorded so that PACES students with an unstable internet connection could watch them. We also expanded our YouTube channel to diversify our remote content, focusing on parts of the course that we felt were difficult for students to understand. 
Beyond academic support, we help students navigate a demanding year by promoting activities focused on well-being: board game lunchtimes, relaxation workshops, and more… Our biggest wellness event is Pep’s Week, which takes place in early January—a particularly difficult time for PACES students. To help first-year students connect with upperclassmen, we set up a student mentoring program right at the start of the year.
To further promote equal opportunity, the Tutoring Service works withHandiversité to offer a disability support service for students who need reasonable accommodations during sessions or exams.
Finally, in the context of reform, we serve as key points of contact both within the university—by organizing career guidance forums—and at the local level through various student fairs, as well as at the national level by participating in conferences that bring together tutoring organizations from across France.
Tutoring helped me pass my PACES exam by supporting me for two years: this support was extremely valuable to me because I couldn’t afford to pay for the services of a private organization. The tutors’ availability, the quality of the sessions, and above all, the support they provided in every aspect of PACES life—from studying to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and staying motivated—really helped me get through that challenging time. It was a no-brainer for me to apply to become a tutor after I was admitted to my second year of medical school, so I was delighted to join the UE7 team (Health, Humanities, Society). My year as a trainee tutor was so fulfilling that I wanted to continue the journey by joining the Tutoring Board to help it reinvent itself during the year of the reform: so we changed our name from the Montpellier Medical Tutoring Association (ATM²) to the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association (ATSM) to better reflect our commitment to diversifying the backgrounds of incoming students across all health-related programs!
Beyond simply providing academic guidance, our goal is to offer genuine support to all young adults who are navigating university studies, life away from home, and a very substantial workload. Our core value is equal opportunity, ensuring that selection for this first year is based on academic ability rather than financial status. This aligns more broadly with our commitment to collegiality—a value we hold dear in the healthcare professions—and with our training, which is largely based on peer-to-peer learning. After all, we are first and foremost students who have gone through this challenge ourselves and who are trying to help PACES students just as we needed help when we were in their shoes!
Why do you think people should join your organization? In the first year, students can sign up for tutoring free of charge at any time throughout the year: there is no attendance requirement, but according to faculty surveys, attending 80% of the tutoring sessions is the best way to pass the entrance exam!
If you wish to join the ATSM as a tutor, you will have the opportunity to be selected based on your application and an interview after your second-semester grades are released. You will then hold the status of Trainee Tutor during your second year and may continue as a Qualified Tutor when you advance to your third year.
The General Assembly to inaugurate our new executive board took place on June 9: we are all very excited to renew our commitment to supporting students repeating PACES, PASS, and LAS. We know that this year can be daunting for recent high school graduates, and we are ready to support them through this transition.
We're in the process of changing our name, so for now, our old name is what appears on social media:
Facebook: Medicine Tutoring in Montpellier
Instagram:
Email contacts:
Networks of other associations:
Nîmes Health Tutoring:
Association of Pharmacy Tutors:
We've also put together a video presentation for you, in collaboration with the three tutoring programs!
Earlier this week , we met with the CNESF, the association for the midwifery program in Nîmes. We’re staying in Nîmes today for our meeting with Matthias Daudé, the new president of TSN!
TSN (Tutorat Santé Nîmes) is an association made up of second- and third-year medical and midwifery students at the Nîmes campus. We have all successfully passed the entrance exam for health studies, and drawing on this experience, we offer support to students entering their first year of a health-track program (PASS/LAS).
Throughout the year, students are offered weekly practice sessions in the form of multiple-choice quizzes, during which tutors provide detailed feedback on the quizzes, share memory techniques, offer study tips, and provide support in preparing for exams. All sessions are reviewed by the subject instructors to ensure they remain closely aligned with the requirements of the final exams.
In addition, we are organizing a pre-school-year workshop during the last two weeks of August. During these two weeks, we’ll cover the first-semester curriculum while providing as much guidance as possible on how to approach this challenging academic year.
We also offer practice tests and mock exams to help students prepare as thoroughly as possible through realistic practice, using questions that have been reviewed by professors.
When I started my health studies, I wasn’t familiar with tutoring. At the university, I quickly heard about the organization and the support it offers. So I went to a session and immediately saw all the benefits this organization could provide me.
After passing the PACES entrance exam and enrolling in a health sciences program, I wanted to join the tutoring program to share my personal experience from my first year. I wanted to help as many students as possible make progress so they could achieve their dreams. It felt natural to me to do everything I could to give back everything I received during my first year, because without the tutoring program, I would never have passed that exam.
The TSN provides PACES students with genuine academic support through practice sessions and Q&A sessions, as well as moral support through the organization of student activities. We also have a mentoring program in which second- and third-year students take first-year students under their wing to guide them toward success.
Our association offers a wide range of services, including both educational and personal support, to help everyone make progress toward passing the entrance exams for the second year of health studies.
The tutoring program is completely free! To join the tutoring program, simply follow the registration instructions, which will be posted on our social media accounts and on the faculty’s registration page.
For the TSN association, the election of the executive board takes place in two phases.
It all begins with the formation of the Executive Committee (BR). Once the candidates for the BR have been nominated, a campaign period begins during which the various teams present their plans for the year. This year, due to the health crisis, all elections and campaigns took place online. Once the campaigns are over, all second- and third-year tutors elect a BR, which will then organize the elections for the other positions on the Executive Board.
Once all positions have been announced by the BR, each mentor who wishes to serve on the executive board submits a candidacy for the position. The candidacy period lasts one week. After this campaign period, the BR organizes a vote for the positions with multiple candidates.
You can now find us on our social media channels!
To wrap things up, we’d like to share a video we created in collaboration with the three health tutoring organizations in Montpellier: the Montpellier Health Tutoring Association (ATSM), the Association of Pharmacy Tutors (ATP), and us, the Nîmes Health Tutoring Association (TSN)!
Following our meeting with Dis-Lalie, the Montpellier-based association for the speech-language pathology program, this week we’re meeting with the CNESF, the association for the midwifery program in Nîmes!
The Nîmes Midwifery Students’ Association is a nonprofit organization under the French Law of 1901 whose purpose is to represent midwifery students in Nîmes and to give them a voice within federations such as the ANESF (National Association of Midwifery Students, our program-specific federation) and the AGEM (General Association of Montpellier Students, our regional federation). It also aims to listen to midwifery students in Nîmes, advise them as much as possible, and defend their rights and interests. Our association helps energize the student life of its members by organizing solidarity and prevention events, as well as social, athletic, and cultural events. Finally, it aims to enhance our skills as future healthcare professionals through access to continuing education.
We are working to expand our activities as much as possible through the association’s various divisions the association:
The Public Health Division has organized, for example, film screenings followed by coffee-and-conversation discussions to explore topics such as female genital mutilation or anonymous adoption, particularly following screenings of films in partnership with the Sémaphore in Nîmes.
As part of the annual awareness campaign for breast cancer screening, we created a calendar for Pink October. It features prevention tips and information, and the money raised was donated to the League Against Cancer. We also participated in the Telethon alongside medical students.
Thanks to the growth of social media, we have created posters for global awareness days—such as the one created in collaboration with ANESF for World Contraception Day—and informational quizzes on various topics are also available. We’ve established a mentoring program where upperclassmen mentor students from different graduating classes, which we plan to expand further next year.
We organized festive and team-building events, including the end-of-year gala, which unfortunately could not take place. As we did last year, we continued to expand our babysitting network. As for AGEM and ANESF, we attend in person or remotely every board meeting and general assembly to represent the midwifery students of Nîmes in policy decisions.
Snack parties are held every month to raise funds for charities, to which we also donate children’s clothing and supplies.
Finally, we participated in PEPS Week, organized by Tutorat Santé Nîmes this year, at the student fair, as well as at the Faculty’s open house, to do our best to answer questions from prospective students.
In my opinion, this is a field you choose out of passion. The program is long and require a significant investment, particularly in the many internships. But Supporting couples, mothers, women, and even babies is what makes The diversity of our profession—and that’s what drew me to it. We do indeed have a broad range of expertise; whether in the private, public, or independent sectors, we can support women throughout their pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum period (provided there are no medical complications). We can also provide preventive gynecological care and contraception consultations. We sometimes face difficult situations, but the intense moments of life and emotion serve as a reminder of why we started this work in the first place.
The association, for its part, provides opportunities to get together—whether at the clubhouse or at events—and to learn through training programs offered by ANESF or AGEM. Members can also stay up to date on national news, which we share regularly. For those who want to get involved in student life, it’s a great way to thrive while working on your own projects and collaborating with other students.
Joining our association is, above all, a gesture of support. We represent midwifery students in the faculty’s student life. Joining allows you to stay informed about various events and connect with other associations within the faculty or outside of it. In fact, this results in membership in both AGEM and ANESF, which allows you to stay informed about discussions within these organizations and potentially make an impact by sharing your views on key issues. It’s an opportunity to take an active interest in the future of the profession and student life in the region, as well as to bring broader issues to light.
Membership is also the only way to vote at general meetings for the future teams that will represent you during the next terms. And on the fun side, membership gives you access to a whole host of partnerships that our fabulous VP of Partnerships has secured for us—from laser tag to products from Luneale, Fempo, and many others—all offering great discounts. Finally, we have partnerships with professional insurance providers that offer additional protection for students on internships.
Joining is very easy: just come to our association’s office on campus between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. (every day) and pay 7 euros—by check, cash, or even Lydia. We’ll give you a nice little membership card with our social media handles. You can join at any time throughout the year, but we close membership registration two weeks before the end-of-term General Assembly.
Unfortunately, given the current health situation, this year’s handover will take place remotely. We are in contact with the executive board members running for the 2020–2021 term and who are more motivated than ever. There are exciting projects on the horizon that we look forward to learning more about in detail. It’s with a slight twinge of sadness that we’re stepping down from this term, especially given the difficult end to the year, but we have complete confidence in the dedication of the incoming executive board. They are motivated young women with experience and a lot of enthusiasm—everything needed to succeed. We couldn’t have handed over this term with greater peace of mind than with such a wonderful new generation taking the reins!
Feel free to follow us on social media:
– Instagram: @CNESF
– Facebook: Nîmes Midwifery Students' Association
– Twitter: @CNESF2
As we’ve seen, the Ademmoos association brings together elected representatives from every sector! This week, we’re focusing on the speech-language pathologists in Montpellier through the Dis-Lalie association!
Dis-Lalie, founded in 1998, is the association for speech-language pathology students in Montpellier. The association’s goals are to foster student life through a variety of events and to represent speech-language pathology students in Montpellier within the federations to which Dis-Lalie belongs, namely the FNEO (National Federation of Speech-Language Pathology Students) and AGEM (General Association of Montpellier Students), to help students prepare for their transition into the workforce through conferences, training sessions, and meetings with partners and healthcare professionals, and to support students in defending their rights and ensuring the smooth progress of their education by engaging with university and local authorities.
Throughout the year, Dis-Lalie organizes events for student members:
Dis-Lalie also supports students throughout their studies. Whether by offering discounts on speech-language pathology materials through our partnerships with publishers or by informing students about the financial aid and transportation assistance available to them. We also assist students who wish to spend a semester abroad with the necessary administrative procedures. Dis-Lalie further supports students interested in pursuing a university degree in speech-language pathology by sharing testimonials from speech-language pathology students on social media and by hosting applicants during their oral exams, among other things.
Personally, I chose to pursue a career in speech-language pathology because it is a profession focused on care and, above all, rehabilitation, which allows you to witness real progress in patients, particularly through speech-language therapy. It’s a very diverse field. Indeed, patients come in all ages, and the conditions and rehabilitation methods are highly varied. For example, a speech-language pathologist may work with newborns who have oral development disorders, children with learning disabilities (dyslexia, dysorthography, dyscalculia…), as well as patients with neurological disorders, hearing loss, those recovering from a stroke, or even those recovering from COVID-19! It is therefore a profession in which every case is different, offering the choice to work in a healthcare facility or in private practice, and providing the opportunity for ongoing training throughout one’s career on a wide variety of conditions.
Our association allows speech-language pathology students in Montpellier to come together at various events, which fosters a sense of community and encourages sharing among students at our training center. Membership in Dis-Lalie offers students many benefits:
Membership registration takes place every year in September. The membership fee for the 2019–2020 year is set at 11€.
The election of the 2020–2021 executive board will take place at the end of October during the handover general meeting. The election of Dis-Lalie’s new executive board will be conducted on a position-by-position basis. Each candidate will have the opportunity to present their rationale to the assembly. Each year, the executive board consists of two co-chairs, a secretary, a treasurer, a vice president in charge of communications, a vice president in charge of training, a vice president in charge of international mobility, a vice president in charge of social issues, a vice president in charge of culture, a vice president in charge of partnerships, a vice president in charge of student representation, vice presidents in charge of events, vice presidents in charge of social gatherings, vice presidents in charge of prevention, citizenship, and solidarity, and an admissions coordinator.
Here are our contact details. Feel free to follow us on social media:
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 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 volunteered her services to the poor and sick.
In 1797, she returned to Versailles to marry Louis BOIVIN, deputy head of the National Domains office.
She became pregnant early on, but was suddenly widowed in 1798 at the age of 25, left without any means of support and with a young daughter to raise.
She then decided to put to use the knowledge she had gained from the surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu in Étampes and enrolled in the Midwifery School at the Maternity Hospital in 1799.
In 1800, she graduated and left for 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 chief supervisor of the breastfeeding section. 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, or 360 francs.
Starting in October, she was hired as a 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 at the general hospital? Or with a private clientele? In any case, for a time she appears to have earned 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 supervising midwife, with a modest salary of 350 francs per 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 female 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 patron never to replace her, even after her death. If that 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 accumulated observations, publications, and honors.
In 1828, she presented a paper 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 hospice board to grant her a pension. Finally, after suffering 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.
In 1594, she married Martin BOURSIER, a master surgeon and student of Ambroise PARÉ.
She finds herself without any means of support 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 six times.
She is paid 500 crowns for the birth of a boy and 300 for the birth of a girl.
It lost its prominence 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 placental debris remaining 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 can be caused by the man, even though—like the 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, the Parisian midwives submitted a petition to the Faculty of Medicine requesting that Louise Bourgeois be allowed 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 on staff.
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 Augier du FOT, a surgeon and childbirth instructor in Soissons, he published—based 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 of the Art of Childbirth: Questions and Answers for Student Midwives.” It was reprinted three times during Baudelocque’s lifetime and three more times posthumously.
In 1776, following the defense of his dissertation 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, childless.
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, however, managed to build a reputation as an obstetrician thanks to a clientele in the city and private obstetrics classes.
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 Hospice de la Maternité took in poor women and unwed mothers to assist them during childbirth and provided clinical training for midwives and doctors from the École de Santé.
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 Public Health, became chief surgeon at the Maternity Hospital.
In 1802, the Hospice de la Maternité school was founded, where Baudelocque put his teaching skills to use, employing mannequins to allow students to practice examinations and obstetric procedures. He emphasized observation over active intervention, preferring to let nature take its course and using instruments as little as possible.
Busy with his many responsibilities, he delegated part 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 the event of a difficult delivery.
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 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.
In 1966, the Port-Royal Maternity Hospital was built. 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 and took anatomy courses taught by Raphaël SABATIER and Jean-Joseph SUE.
At the same time, he was learning the basics of 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 earned 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 more than 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 second professor of chemistry.
In Dijon, his professional qualities 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 Literature 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 taught up to that point: “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-Forensic Observations on an Important Point of Criminal Jurisprudence” at the Academy of Dijon, in which he demonstrated the role that a physician 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 who could provide him with the details of this reorganization. Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois, from the Côte-d’Or, who headed the Department of Science and the Arts on the Committee of Public Safety, recommended François Chaussier, who thus joined the Committee of Public Instruction: he drafted a report and a proposed 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 broadly in favor of decentralization, called for 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 lectures and studies as well as the duties entrusted to him: he had been appointed physician of the Dijon Hospices in April 1793 and Prison Surgeon; 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 École de Paris: he argued that vitalism was the foundation of all studies in physiology.
A decree dated 7 Vendémiaire, Year III (September 28, 1794) officially established the École Centrale des Travaux Publics, which would later become the 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 care for sick students and also to teach 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, “simultaneously 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 of the Maternity Hospitals and entrusted with the chairmanship of the medical examination boards for the examinations 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, after 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 was deeply embittered by 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—a condition that did not prevent him from continuing his work at the Maternity Hospital.
On May 6, 1823, he was admitted 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, “A Forensic Medical Treatise on the Viability of the Newborn, 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.
Franck CHAUSSIER, thesecond son, 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.
For the first three years, she studied under Anne BAIRSIN, a midwife.
On September 26, 1739, she received her diploma and shortly thereafter became a licensed midwife.
She worked as a master midwife at 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 Melun Hospital (77) is also named after her.
