Philippe Ricord
Encyclopedia
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...
.
Philippe Ricord was born December 10, 1800 in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
. His father had escaped 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...
in 1790 from Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. He met French naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Charles Alexandre Lesueur was a French naturalist, artist and explorer.Pictured here is the oil portrait by Charles Willson Peale of Charles-Alexandre Lesueur...
, who took him back to Paris in 1820. He worked for Lesueur as curator of his specimens, and at hospitals such as Val-de-Grâce
Val-de-Grâce
This article describes the hospital and former abbey. For the main article on Mansart and Lemercier's central church, see Church of the Val-de-Grâce....
and Hôtel-Dieu de Paris
Hôtel-Dieu de Paris
The Hôtel-Dieu de Paris is regarded as the oldest hospital in the city of Paris, France, and is the most central of the Assistance publique - hôpitaux de Paris hospitals. The hospital is linked to the Faculté de Médecine Paris-Descartes...
. He studied under Guillaume Dupuytren
Guillaume Dupuytren
Guillaume Dupuytren, Baron was a French anatomist and military surgeon. Although he gained much esteem for treating Napoleon Bonaparte's hemorrhoids, he is best known today for Dupuytren's contracture which is named after him and which he described in 1831.- Birth and education :Guillaume...
, but fell out with him when Ricord he published an article pointing out a procedure Dupuytren claimed to have invented was already in use in America. He transferred to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital
Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital
The Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital is a teaching hospital located in Paris, France. Part of the Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, it is one of Europe's largest hospitals...
to study under Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin
Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin
Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin was a pioneering French surgeon and gynecologist. He pioneered a number of operations including removal of the rectum, lithotomy in women, and amputation of the cervix uteri....
. He graduated in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
in 1826.
After practicing in the provinces he returned in 1828 to the capital, and worked there as a surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
, specializing in venereal diseases. Doctor Ricord was surgeon in chief to the hospital for venereal diseases and to the Hôpital du Midi. He won a worldwide reputation in his special field. For his suggestions on the cure of varicocele
Varicocele
Varicocele , also known as varicoscele or varicose seal, is an abnormal enlargement of the vein that is in the scrotum draining the testicles. The testicular blood vessels originate in the abdomen and course down through the inguinal canal as part of the spermatic cord on their way to the testis...
and on the operation of urethroplasty
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
he received in 1842 one of the Montyon prize
Montyon Prizes
Montyon Prizes are a series of prizes awarded annually by the Académie Française. They were endowed by the French benefactor Baron de Montyon....
s.
In 1838, he proved John Hunter
John Hunter (surgeon)
John Hunter FRS was a Scottish surgeon regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. He was an early advocate of careful observation and scientific method in medicine. The Hunterian Society of London was named in his honour...
's self-experiment wrong, thus showing that syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
and gonorrhea
Gonorrhea
Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The usual symptoms in men are burning with urination and penile discharge. Women, on the other hand, are asymptomatic half the time or have vaginal discharge and pelvic pain...
are not the same disease. Ricord's chancre
Chancre
A chancre is a painless ulceration formed during the primary stage of syphilis. This infectious lesion forms approximately 21 days after the initial exposure to Treponema pallidum, the gram-negative spirochaete bacterium yielding syphilis. Chancres transmit the sexually transmissible disease of...
is the parchment-like initial lesion of syphilis.
In 1862 he was appointed physician in ordinary to Prince Napoleon. On October 26, 1869, he was named consulting surgeon to Napoleon III. For his services in the ambulance corps during the siege of Paris
Siege of Paris
The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 – January 28, 1871, and the consequent capture of the city by Prussian forces led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire as well as the Paris Commune....
he was made Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
in 1871.
He was the brother of Jean Baptiste Ricord (1777–1837) who was a physician and naturalist in America.
Jean Baptiste's son (Phillipe's nephew) took the name John Ricord
John Ricord
John Ricord whose birth name was probably Jean Baptiste Ricord-Madianna II, was a lawyer and world traveler. He was involved in cases in Texas, Oregon, Hawaii, and California.-Life:...
, became a lawyer who practiced law in several notable cases while he traveled through the Republic of Texas
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
, Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Originally claimed by several countries , the region was...
, the Kingdom of Hawaii
Kingdom of Hawaii
The Kingdom of Hawaii was established during the years 1795 to 1810 with the subjugation of the smaller independent chiefdoms of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lānai, Kauai and Niihau by the chiefdom of Hawaii into one unified government...
, and the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. John Ricord returned to live with Phillipe where he died in 1861.
There seems to be a controversy as to whether Jean Alfred Fournier
Jean Alfred Fournier
Jean Alfred Fournier was a French dermatologist who specialized in the study of venereal diseases.As a young man he served as an interne at the Hôpital du Midi as an understudy to Philippe Ricord . In 1863 he became médecine des hôpitaux, and from 1867 worked with Augustin Grisolle at the...
, student of Ricord, was actually his son-in-law
Works
- De l'emploi du speculum (Paris, 1833)
- De la blennorrhagie de la femme (1834)
- Emploi de l'onguent mercuriel dans le traitement de l'eresipele (1836)
- Monographie du chancre (1837)
- Théorie sur la nature et le traite-ment de l'epididymite (1838)
- Traite des maladies veneriennes (8 volumes, 1838; fourth edition, 1866; English translation, A Practical Lecture on Venereal Diseases, 1842; thirteenth edition, 1854)
- De l'ophthalmie blennorrhagique (1842)
- Clinique iconographique de l'hôpital des veneriens (1842–1851)
- De la syphilisation (1853)
- Lettres sur la syphilis (1851; third edition, 1863; English translation, 1853)
- Leçons sur le chancre (1858; second edition, 1860; English translation, 1859)