Apollinaire Bouchardat

Apollinaire Bouchardat (* July 23, 1806 in L' Isle- sur -Serein, † April 7, 1886 in Paris) was a French physician, pharmacist and chemist. He worked from 1856 as professor of hygiene in Paris and made in particular to the treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus deserves. So he led a special diet for diabetics a, recognized the importance of physical exercise and a reduction in body weight for sufferers and established the training of the patient and the self-control of their metabolism as important principles of diabetes treatment. In addition, he assumed the starting point of the disease in the pancreas and tried to prove that point by experimental investigations. For these reasons he is considered a co-founder of Diabetology.

Life

Apollinaire Bouchardat was born in 1806 in L' Isle- sur -Serein, having worked in his youth in the pharmacy of his uncle. At the age of 19 he went to Paris to study pharmacy. To finance his studies, he taught himself and published a book for exam preparation for other students. From 1829 he studied medicine, three years later he received his doctorate with a thesis on cholera. Already in 1833 he was first proposed for a chair at the Paris Medical Faculty, however, he worked from 1834 to 1855, first as chief pharmacist of the hospital Hôtel- Dieu de Paris. From 1856 until his death he was then Professor of Hygiene in Paris.

Apollinaire Bouchardat gained particular variety of services to the treatment of diabetes patients at a time when neither the causes of the disease were still in the insulin as an effective therapy known. He developed based on their own observations, a special meat-based form of diet for diabetics, which was referred to as " Bouchardat 's diet" and was characterized by a high protein content as well as the most extensive replacement of carbohydrates by animal and vegetable fats. In addition, he recognized the importance of reducing body weight and physical activity in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. He also introduced a method for self-monitoring of patients by the detection of glucose in the urine, about which he wrote, among other things, that the daily monitoring of glycosuria would lead the patient "like a compass that directs a sailor on unknown oceans ". He also stressed the importance of informing the diabetics in dealing with their illness.

Already in the 19th century established Apollinaire Bouchardat by a set of principles - controlled diet, physical activity, metabolic control and patient education - which are central Beständteile the treatment of diabetes mellitus to the present day. His views on diabetes treatment he summarized in his 1875 first appearing work "De la glycosuria ou Diabète sucré son traitement hygiénique ". The cause of the elevated blood glucose levels in diabetes mellitus, he participated in an increased uptake of glucose from food in the digestive tract, the starting point of the disease he suspected in the pancreas. He tried to prove this theory in dogs also based on experimental studies by the removal of the pancreas, or the interruption of the Ausführgangs the pancreas.

In addition, Apollinaire Bouchardat served as editor of the " Annuaire de thérapeutique, de matière médicale de pharmacie et de toxicologie ", the " Archives de physiology, de thérapeutique et d' hygiène " and the " Répertoire de pharmacie ". His most important work in the field of hygiene was the book 1881 published " Traité d' hygiène publique et privée, basée sur l' etiology ", which was written in a generally understandable and partly humorous way and with a capacity of about 1100 pages, almost all the then known aspects of the prevention of disease constituted. Politically he represented during the reign of Napoleon III. democratic positions, moreover, he sat in lectures for improving the welfare and financial support of the poor one. Outside medicine he devoted himself to agriculture and viticulture. He died in 1886 in Paris. His son was the chemist and physician Gustave Bouchardat, inter alia, 1880, the production of synthetic rubber.

Works (selection)

• Eléments de matière médicale et de pharmacie. Paris 1839
• Nouveau NOTICE OF magistral: [ avec les nouveaux et anciens en Poids Regard ]. Paris 1840 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf
• De la glycosuria ou Diabète sucré son traitement hygiénique. Paris 1875; Second edition 1883
• Traité d' hygiène publique et privée, basée sur l' etiology. Paris 1881