Sabatier’s contributions to medical literature were fairly numerous, and among them the following deserve to receive particular mention:—
“Traité d’Anatomie,” 3 vols., Paris, 1764.
“De la Médecine Opératoire,” 3 vols., Paris, 1796; a second edition appeared in 1810; and a third (in 4 vols.) in 1821–1824.
François Chopart was born at Paris in 1743. During his youth he received a thorough preliminary training. From the very beginning of his medical course he showed a decided preference for surgery. Then, for a certain length of time, he served as an interne at Hôtel-Dieu. Afterward he was transferred first to La Pitié Hospital and then to Bicêtre, where he devoted his attention mainly to syphilitic affections. In 1767 he divided the prize offered by the Académie de Chirurgie for the best memoir on the subject of “The Nature and Treatment of Wens.” In 1768 he was given an “Honorable Mention” for his memoir on “Injuries of the Head produced by Contrecoup.” In 1770, after passing with great credit the examinations required, he was given on July 20, 1770, the degree of Master of Surgery; and only one year later he was appointed Professor of Practical Surgery. His pupils were very much attached to him on account of the interest which he manifested in their work and because his teaching was so methodical and was so clearly delivered. On March 13, 1782, he was chosen successor to Bordenave, the Professor of Physiology; and a little later he was elected to the Chair of External Pathology. While on a visit to England he made the acquaintance of John Hunter, and kept up an active correspondence with him during the following years. He was also one of Desault’s intimate friends. Being open-minded and frank he got along pleasantly with all who came in contact with him. He died in 1795 from an attack of cholera morbus.
Among his writings which deserve special mention are the following: “Traité des Maladies Chirurgicales et des Opérations qui leur Conviennent,” Paris, 1780, 2 vols.; and “Traité des Maladies des Voies Urinaires,” Paris, 2 vols., 1701, and a later edition in 1821.
Chopart is known to American and English surgeons chiefly through the fact that he devised an amputation of the foot which is commonly known as “Chopart’s amputation.” The procedure is thus briefly described by Dr. Thomas L. Stedman in his Medical Dictionary: “Disarticulation at the metatarsal joint, leaving only the astragalus and calcaneum, with the soft parts of the sole of the foot to cover the stump.”
Pierre-Joseph Desault was born on February 6, 1744, at Magny-Vernois, a small village in the Department of Haute-Saone, on the western slope of the Vosges mountains. At the time of his birth his parents were living upon the income derived from a modest fortune, and they found it very difficult to support their family of seven. As soon as Pierre was old enough to receive regular instruction he was placed under the care of a private teacher at the neighboring village of Lure, the chief centre of that district. In this way he acquired an elementary knowledge of Latin and was fitted, by the time he reached the age of twelve, to enter the fifth form or class at the Jesuits’ college in Lure. His favorite study, as soon became evident, was mathematics, and this branch of knowledge he cultivated with such assiduity and success that already at the age of seventeen he had reached the point where all the elementary treatises to which he had access no longer afforded him any satisfaction. At a somewhat later period of his life, when he could no longer receive help from his parents, this decided preference for mathematics stood him in good stead, enabling him to contribute to his own support by giving lessons in geometry. It also aided him in making useful applications of its principles to the art which he was soon to cultivate with such conspicuous success—viz., surgery. He took special delight at this time in the perusal of Borelli’s celebrated treatise “on the movements of animals,” and even went so far as to write a long commentary on this work. Nothing, however, is now known about the fate of this document, as Desault never published it nor showed at any time a wish to become an author.
Bichat, from whose eulogy of Desault I have derived most of the facts which are reported in the present brief sketch, says that during the years immediately preceding the period which is now under consideration, surgery was cultivated by artisans rather than by artists; and that, in consequence of this situation of affairs, it was very slow in making any advances which were worthy to be characterized as genuine steps of progress. “Genius, when not appreciated, escapes as mere froth; its efforts result in nothing unless glory is the reward. Little by little, as the public learned more and more how great was its need of surgery, this art began to receive a larger share of consideration; and thus, as it became more honorable, it was cultivated to an ever greater degree, and as a result it advanced at a more rapid pace toward perfection. In its different branches, which were all working to accomplish some useful purpose, new discoveries were constantly being made, and thus it came about that from the middle of the eighteenth century onward French surgery rapidly outdistanced the surgery of all the other nations.” (Bichat.)