JEAN

See also:

• ETIENNE, CHARLES GUILLAUME (1778-1845)

ETIENNE DOMINIQUE

See also:

• JEAN ETIENNE DOMINIQUE ESQUIROL (1772-1840)

ESQUIROL (1772-1840)  , French alienist, was born at Toulouse on the 3rd of February 1772 . In 1794 he became a pupil of the military hospital of Narbonne, and subsequently studied in Paris at the Salpetriere under P . Pinel, whose assistant he became . In 181 r he was chosen physician to the Salpetriere, and in 1817 he began a course of lectures on the treatment of the insane, in which he made such revelations of the abuses existing in the lunatic asylums of France that the government appointed a commission ' In practice this means every one receiving such a patent, commission or appointment . to inquire into the subject . Esquirol in this and other ways greatly assisted Pinel's efforts for the introduction of humaner methods . The asylums of Rouen, Nantes and Montpellier were built in accordance with his plans . In 1823 he became inspector-general of the university of Paris for the faculties of medicine, and in 1826 chief physician of the asylum at Charenton . He died at Paris on the 13th of December 1840 .