PIERRE

See also:

• JOSEPH
• JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870)
• JOSEPH, FATHER (FRANCOIS LECLERC DU TREMBLAY) (1577-1638)

JOSEPH

See also:

• PIERRE JOSEPH DESAULT (1744-1795)

DESAULT (1744-1795)  , French anatomist and surgeon, was born at Magny-Vernois (Haute Saone) on the 6th of February 1744 . He was destined for the church, but his own inclination was towards the study of medicine; and, after learning something from the barber-surgeon of his native village, he was settled as an apprentice in the military hospital of Belfort, where he acquired some knowledge of anatomy and military surgery . Going to Paris when about twenty years of age, he opened a school of anatomy in the winter of 1766, the success of which excited the jealousy of the established teachers and professors, who endeavoured to make him give up his lectures . In 1776 he was admitted a member of the corporation of surgeons; and in 1782 he was appointed surgeon-major to the hospital De la Charite . 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 Hotel Dieu attracted great numbers of students, not only from every part of France but also from other countries; and he frequently had an audience of about 600 . He introduced many improvements into the practice of surgery, as well as into the construction of various 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 . But in the midst of his labours he became obnoxious to some of the revolutionists, and he was, on some frivolous charge, denounced to the popular sections . After being twice examined, he was seized on the 28th of May 1793, while delivering a lecture, carried away from his theatre, and committed to prison in the Luxembourg . In three days, however, he was liberated, and permitted to resume his functions . He died in Paris on the 1st of June 1795, the story that his death was caused by poison being disproved by the autopsy carried out by his pupil, M .

F . X .

Bichat . A pension was settled on his widow by the republic . Together with Francois Chopart (1743—1795) he published Q . Traite des maladies chirurgicales (1779), and Bichat published a digest of his surgical doctrines in CEuvres chirurgicales de Desault (1998—1799) .