Félix Vicq-d'Azyr

Félix Vicq-d'Azyr
Félix Vicq-d'Azyr
Born	23 April 1746 Valognes, Normandy
Died	20 June 1794
Nationality	France
Fields	physician anatomist
Alma mater	University of Paris
Known for	comparative anatomy homology

Félix Vicq d'Azyr (23 April 1746 - 20 June 1794) was a French physician and anatomist, the originator of comparative anatomy and discoverer of the theory of homology in biology.

Biography

Vicq d'Azyr was born in Valognes, Normandy, the son of a physician. He graduated in medicine at the University of Paris and became a renowned and brilliant animal and human anatomist and physician.

From 1773 Vicq d'Azyr taught a celebrated course of anatomy at the Jardin du Roi, currently the Museum of Natural History, in Paris. In 1774 he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences with the support of his friend Condorcet, the Perpetual Secretary. In this latter capacity, he was in charge of writing the eulogies of his colleagues. This he accomplished with great talent, thus winning a lifetime membership to the French Academy in 1788. On the outbreak of an epidemic in Guyenne he was charged with writing a report, of making propositions and with their execution. In order to pursue what appeared as the first perception of the responsibility of the State on health affairs, Turgot proposed the creation of the Société Royale de Médecine. In 1775 he was nominated Perpetual Secretary . In this capacity, the Société compiled over 16 years a great mass of facts and information about diseases, physicians, economics and food resources, etc.

He was the last physician of Queen Marie-Antoinette, whom he tried to protect. Additionally he was a professor of veterinary medicine at the School of Alfort, as well as Superintendent of epidemics.

As an anatomist he was one of the first to use coronal sections of the brain and to use alcohol to aid dissection. He described the locus coeruleus, the locus niger in the brain, in 1786, and the band of Vicq d'Azyr, a fiber system between the external granular layer and the external pyramidal layer of the cerebral cortex, as well as the mamillo-thalamic tract, which bears his name. His systematic studies of the cerebral convolutions became a classic and Vicq d'Azyr was one of the first neuroanatomists to name the gyri. He studied the deep gray nuclei of the cerebrum and the basal ganglia. He participated in the Second Encyclopedia.

Vicq d'Azyr died from uncertain causes on June 20, 1794 during The Terror.

Bibliography

• Éloges
• Mémoires sur l'Anatomie Humaine et Comparée
• Traité d'Anatomie et de Physiologie
• Système Anatomique des Quadrupèdes

References

• Mandressi, Rafael (2008). "The past, education and science. Félix Vicq d'Azyr and the history of medicine in the18th century". Medicina nei secoli (Italy) 20 (1): 183–212. ISSN 0394-9001. PMID 19569416. 
• Parent, André (Feb. 2007). "Felix Vicq d'Azyr: anatomy, medicine and revolution". The Canadian journal of neurological sciences. Le journal canadien des sciences neurologiques (Canada) 34 (1): 30–7. ISSN 0317-1671. PMID 17352344. 
• Lemaire, Jean-François (2003). "The Law of 19 Ventôse, year 21 (10 March 1803): fundamental text and provisional expedient". Bull. Acad. Natl. Med. (Netherlands) 187 (3): 577–86; discussion 586-9. ISSN 0001-4079. PMID 14556471. 
• Peumery, J J. "[Vicq d'Azyr and the French Revolution]". Histoire des sciences médicales (France) 35 (3): 263–70. ISSN 0440-8888. PMID 11764794. 
• Sournia, J C (Oct. 1994). "Felix Vicq d'Azyr, founder of the Academy of Medicine (1748-1794)". Bull. Acad. Natl. Med. (FRANCE) 178 (7): 1237–43; discussion 1243-4. ISSN 0001-4079. PMID 7895100. 
• Farrell, P S; McHenry L C (Aug. 1987). "Fragments of neurologic history: Felix Vicq d'Azyr and neuroanatomy". Neurology (UNITED STATES) 37 (8): 1349–50. ISSN 0028-3878. PMID 3302761. 
• ASTRUC, P. "Eulogies delivered by Vicq d'Azyr in the Société Royale de Médecine.". Le Progrés médical (Not Available) 79 (15-16): 411–9. ISSN 0033-0450. PMID 14883206. 

External links

• Mandressi, R. Félix Vicq d'Azyr : l’anatomie, l’État, la médecine. In French.