A. J. B. Parent-Duchatelet (1790–1835)

Abstract

MAY 7 marks the centenary of the death of Dr. Alexandre Jean Baptiste Parent-Duchatelet, one of the most eminent hygienists of the nineteenth century. He was born on September 29, 1790, in Paris, where he qualified on August 13, 1814, with an inaugural thesis on cholera. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a private practice, he devoted himself to public health. His numerous works included essays on the Paris sewers (1822), the influence of tobacco on the health of workmen in tobacco factories (1829), the effect of emanations from putrifying animal matter on food substances (1831), steeping of hemp in relation to public health (1832), sanitation of dissecting rooms (1835), and prostitution in the city of Paris in relation to public health, morality and administration (1836). This last publication, which appeared posthumously, is an epoch-making work and ranks as a medical classic. The second edition, which was published in 1837, contains an essay on his life and work by F. Leuret, physician to the Bicetre infirniary. In 1829, Parent-Duchatelet was one of the founders of Annales d'hygiene et de medecine legate, which is still one of the most authoritative journals in the world on hygiene. He was physician to the Hopital de la Pitie and member of the Conseil de Salubrite, of which he became vice-president three months before his death at the early age of forty-five years.