Jean Charles Faget
Encyclopedia
Jean Charles Faget was a physician
born on June 26, 1818 in New Orleans. He is best known for the Faget sign
—a medical sign that is the unusual combination of fever
and bradycardia
. The sign is an important diagnostic symptom
of yellow fever
.
. They fled Hispaniola
during the Haitian Revolution
and spent some time in Cuba
before settling in New Orleans in 1809. Jean Charles was educated by Jesuit
s in New Orleans before furthering is education at Collège Rolin in Paris
from 1830 to 1837. Faget was then admitted the University of Paris
' college of internal medicine
and graduated magna cum laude
in 1845. He returned to New Orleans and married Glady Ligeret de Chazey and became the father of thirteen children. He was the grandfather of Guy Henry Faget
, and great-grandfather of Maxime Faget
.
Faget one was of many well-educated French physicians to practice in New Orleans at the time. They had similar backgrounds to Faget either being the children of refugees from Santo Domingo or the upheavals of the French Revolution
and ensuing rule by Napoleon I
. Faget's education in Paris entered him into an elite circle of physicians known as the Société Médicale de la Nouvelle-Orléans.
was a tremendous problem in New Orleans. The exact cause of yellow fever was not known at the time. Early scientists believed that it was caused by environmental problems like rotting food, weather conditions, and poor sanitation. Faget's observations of the disease prompted him to believe that the disease could be attributed to a specific microorganism
. It is now known that yellow fever is a virus
that is transmitted by the bite of female mosquito
es (the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti
, and other species) and is found in tropic
al and subtropic
al areas in South America
and Africa
. The origin of the disease is most likely to be Africa, from where it was introduced to South America through the slave trade in the 16th century. During Faget's lifetime, yellow fever was deemed one of the most dangerous infectious disease
s.
Faget worked to recognize the correct diagnosis of yellow fever. The earliest accepted signs of the fever were jaundice
and vomit containing blood
. Faget was convinced that other fevers had the same symptoms. He sought better ways to distinguish yellow fever from other ailments. Other physicians began to notice that their patients with yellow fever shared a common symptom. Early in their illness they experience an increased pulse
that was followed by a slow pulse. Faget confirmed these observations and came to the conclusion that the pulse change was unique to those with yellow fever. Faget also became convinced that yellow fever could be traced to a specific microorganism that came to New Orleans via foreign shipping. He noted that those with the fever began feeling the symptoms in areas near the New Orleans dock. He thought that the small organisms were spawned by a combination of rotting matter in ships' holds and the heat and humidity of the city. Faget also noticed a key difference between malaria
and yellow fever. Malaria could be treated with quinine
, but quinine had no positive effect on yellow fever.
Faget published what became known as Faget's Law. He stated that "the pulse in yellow fever slows as the temperature (of the patient) rises or remains high." Faget's sign is still an important symptom when doctors diagnose yellow fever. His findings were important at the time because they helped other doctors distinguish the differences between malaria and yellow fever. He furthered his studies in the 1860s by using a medical thermometer
to gather data on patients with the diseases. He published his findings in French and English journals and stated that yellow fever was distinguished from malaria by the continuous fever that is a symptom as opposed to the fevers and chills
of malaria.
Faget also worked in obstetrics
and became an early proponent of using anesthesia
on pregnant women. He published a paper that was a study of croup
and diphtheria
. Faget served his community by holding a position on the New Orleans Sanitary Commission and as a member of the Louisiana Board of Health. He went back to Paris for two years after the American Civil War
where he was named a chevalier, a Knight of the Legion of Honour by Napoleon III after helping relieve an epidemic in France
. Faget died in New Orleans on December 7, 1884.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
born on June 26, 1818 in New Orleans. He is best known for the Faget sign
Faget sign
In medicine, the Faget sign is the unusual constellation of fever and bradycardia . It is often seen in yellow fever.Fever is usually accompanied by tachycardia , an association known by the eponym Liebermeister's rule....
—a medical sign that is the unusual combination of fever
Fever
Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...
and bradycardia
Bradycardia
Bradycardia , in the context of adult medicine, is the resting heart rate of under 60 beats per minute, though it is seldom symptomatic until the rate drops below 50 beat/min. It may cause cardiac arrest in some patients, because those with bradycardia may not be pumping enough oxygen to their heart...
. The sign is an important diagnostic symptom
Pathognomonic
Pathognomonic is a term, often used in medicine, that means characteristic for a particular disease. A pathognomonic sign is a particular sign whose presence means that a particular disease is present beyond any doubt...
of yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
.
Personal life
Faget was born to Jean Baptiste Faget and F. Le Mormand. His parents were refugees from Santo DomingoSanto Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
. They fled Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
during the Haitian Revolution
Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
and spent some time in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
before settling in New Orleans in 1809. Jean Charles was educated by Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
s in New Orleans before furthering is education at Collège Rolin in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
from 1830 to 1837. Faget was then admitted the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
' college of internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...
and graduated magna cum laude
Latin honors
Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. This system is primarily used in the United States, Canada, and in many countries of continental Europe, though some institutions also use the English translation of these...
in 1845. He returned to New Orleans and married Glady Ligeret de Chazey and became the father of thirteen children. He was the grandfather of Guy Henry Faget
Guy Henry Faget
Guy Henry Faget was an American doctor who revolutionalized the treatment of leprosy by demonstrating the efficacy of promin, in a paper reported in 1943. Promin is a sulfone compound synthesized by Feldman and his co-workers in 1940 as an agent against tuberculosis effective in experimental animals...
, and great-grandfather of Maxime Faget
Maxime Faget
Maxime "Max" A. Faget was the designer of the Mercury capsule, and contributed to the later Gemini and Apollo spacecraft as well as the Space Shuttle.- Life :...
.
Faget one was of many well-educated French physicians to practice in New Orleans at the time. They had similar backgrounds to Faget either being the children of refugees from Santo Domingo or the upheavals of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and ensuing rule by Napoleon I
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. Faget's education in Paris entered him into an elite circle of physicians known as the Société Médicale de la Nouvelle-Orléans.
Career
His medical practice began during an era when yellow feverYellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
was a tremendous problem in New Orleans. The exact cause of yellow fever was not known at the time. Early scientists believed that it was caused by environmental problems like rotting food, weather conditions, and poor sanitation. Faget's observations of the disease prompted him to believe that the disease could be attributed to a specific microorganism
Microorganism
A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...
. It is now known that yellow fever is a virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
that is transmitted by the bite of female mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
es (the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti
Aedes aegypti
The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti is a mosquito that can spread the dengue fever, Chikungunya and yellow fever viruses, and other diseases. The mosquito can be recognized by white markings on legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the thorax...
, and other species) and is found in tropic
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
al and subtropic
Subtropics
The subtropics are the geographical and climatical zone of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropical zone, which is bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitudes 23.5°N and 23.5°S...
al areas in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. The origin of the disease is most likely to be Africa, from where it was introduced to South America through the slave trade in the 16th century. During Faget's lifetime, yellow fever was deemed one of the most dangerous infectious disease
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
s.
Faget worked to recognize the correct diagnosis of yellow fever. The earliest accepted signs of the fever were jaundice
Jaundice
Jaundice is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclerae , and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia . This hyperbilirubinemia subsequently causes increased levels of bilirubin in the extracellular fluid...
and vomit containing blood
Hematemesis
Hematemesis or haematemesis is the vomiting of blood. The source is generally the upper gastrointestinal tract. Patients can easily confuse it with hemoptysis , although the latter is more common.-Signs:...
. Faget was convinced that other fevers had the same symptoms. He sought better ways to distinguish yellow fever from other ailments. Other physicians began to notice that their patients with yellow fever shared a common symptom. Early in their illness they experience an increased pulse
Pulse
In medicine, one's pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed against a bone, such as at the neck , at the wrist , behind the knee , on the inside of the elbow , and near the...
that was followed by a slow pulse. Faget confirmed these observations and came to the conclusion that the pulse change was unique to those with yellow fever. Faget also became convinced that yellow fever could be traced to a specific microorganism that came to New Orleans via foreign shipping. He noted that those with the fever began feeling the symptoms in areas near the New Orleans dock. He thought that the small organisms were spawned by a combination of rotting matter in ships' holds and the heat and humidity of the city. Faget also noticed a key difference between malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and yellow fever. Malaria could be treated with quinine
Quinine
Quinine is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic , antimalarial, analgesic , anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. It is a stereoisomer of quinidine which, unlike quinine, is an anti-arrhythmic...
, but quinine had no positive effect on yellow fever.
Faget published what became known as Faget's Law. He stated that "the pulse in yellow fever slows as the temperature (of the patient) rises or remains high." Faget's sign is still an important symptom when doctors diagnose yellow fever. His findings were important at the time because they helped other doctors distinguish the differences between malaria and yellow fever. He furthered his studies in the 1860s by using a medical thermometer
Medical thermometer
Medical thermometers are used for measuring human body temperature, with the tip of the thermometer being inserted either into the mouth under the tongue , under the armpit , or into the rectum via the anus .-Liquid-filled:The traditional thermometer is a glass tube with a bulb at one end...
to gather data on patients with the diseases. He published his findings in French and English journals and stated that yellow fever was distinguished from malaria by the continuous fever that is a symptom as opposed to the fevers and chills
Shivering
Shivering is a bodily function in response to early hypothermia in warm-blooded animals. When the core body temperature drops, the shivering reflex is triggered to maintain homeostasis. Muscle groups around the vital organs begin to shake in small movements in an attempt to create warmth by...
of malaria.
Faget also worked in obstetrics
Obstetrics
Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
and became an early proponent of using anesthesia
Anesthesia
Anesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...
on pregnant women. He published a paper that was a study of croup
Croup
Croup is a respiratory condition that is usually triggered by an acute viral infection of the upper airway. The infection leads to swelling inside the throat, which interferes with normal breathing and produces the classical symptoms of a "barking" cough, stridor, and hoarseness...
and diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
. Faget served his community by holding a position on the New Orleans Sanitary Commission and as a member of the Louisiana Board of Health. He went back to Paris for two years after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
where he was named a chevalier, a Knight of the Legion of Honour by Napoleon III after helping relieve an epidemic in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Faget died in New Orleans on December 7, 1884.