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Doctor from Geneva, 1709?1781
Theodore Tronchin
(24 May 1709 ? 30 November 1781) was a physician from the
Republic of Geneva
.
[1]
Life
[
edit
]
A native of
Geneva
, he studied initially at the
University of Cambridge
, then transferred to the
University of Leiden
, where he was a pupil of
Herman Boerhaave
(1668?1738). In 1730 he obtained his medical doctorate, and subsequently practiced medicine in
Amsterdam
. In the early 1750s he returned to Geneva, where he received the title of Professor Emeritus of Medicine, and later moved to
Paris
, where he opened a medical practice in 1766.
Tronchin was an influential 18th-century physician, whose popularity spread amongst European royalty and the upper classes.
[2]
Among his patients were
Voltaire
,
Rousseau
, and
Diderot
.
[3]
In 1762 Tronchin was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
and in 1779 a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
. Tronchin is mentioned in passing as a great physician in the
Marquis de Sade
's "
Philosophy in the Bedroom
".
Views
[
edit
]
He was a major proponent of
inoculation
for
smallpox
, and was responsible for the inoculation of several thousand patients in Switzerland, France and the Netherlands.
[4]
He was distrustful of traditional medical practices such as
bloodletting
and
purging
, and was an advocate of a simple and natural
hygiene
that stressed fresh air, diet and exercise. He was scornful of a sedentary lifestyle and excessive sleep, and dedicated several hours of the week to medical assistance for the poor.
Works
[
edit
]
Tronchin's written works were few, although he did publish a treatise titled "
De colica pictonum
", a work that explained the cause of
Poitou colic
due to
lead poisoning
. He also wrote part of the article "Innoculation" for Diderot's
Encyclopedie
(1751?1772).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Tronchin, Theodore
, in the
Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
.
- ^
Catriona Seth, ≪ Esculape-Tronchin, le medecin a la mode ≫, in Frederic Charbonneau (ed.) La Fabrique de la modernite scientifique : discours et recits du progres sous l'Ancien regime, Oxford, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2015:03, p. 149-166.
- ^
Kafker, Frank A.:
Notices sur les auteurs des 17 volumes de ≪ discours ≫ de l'Encyclopedie (suite et fin).
Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopedie Annee (1990) Volume 8 Numero 8 p. 116
- ^
Catriona Seth,
Les Rois aussi en mouraient. Les Lumieres en lutte contre la petite verole
, Paris, Desjonqueres (coll. L’esprit des lettres), 2008, 480 pp.
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