Jean Vieuchange
Encyclopedia
Jean Joseph Marie Vieuchange (1906–2003) was a French adventurer and doctor, best known for preparing for publication the hand-written notebooks of his brother, Michel
Michel Vieuchange
Michel Vieuchange, born Nevers in 1904 and died Agadir in 1930, was a French adventurer who was the first European to visit the abandoned ruins of the walled city of Smara, in the interior of the Sahara....

, describing his discovery of Smara
Smara
Smara, also Semara , is a city in the Moroccan-Administered Western Sahara, with a population estimated at 42,056.-History:The largest city in its province, Smara was founded in the Saguia el-Hamra as an oasis for travellers in 1869. It is the only major city in Western Sahara that was not founded...

 in the Western Sahara
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...

 in November 1930.

Vieuchange was born in 1906 into a comfortable middle-class family in Nevers
Nevers
Nevers is a commune in – and the administrative capital of – the Nièvre department in the Bourgogne region in central France...

, 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...

, the youngest of three children. His sister, Germaine, was born in 1901 and his brother, Michel, in 1904. In 1922, the family moved to Paris, where Vieuchange enrolled as a law student at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

; finding law tedious he transferred to medicine three years later.

During 1929 and 1930, he was involved in the planning his brother's journey to Smara and moved to Essaouira
Essaouira
Mogador redirects here, for the hamlet in Surrey see Mogador, Surrey.Essaouira is a city in the western Moroccan economic region of Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz, on the Atlantic coast. Since the 16th century, the city has also been known by its Portuguese name of Mogador or Mogadore...

 in Morocco in August 1930 with the intention of travelling with him. At the last moment, following advice from Caïd Haddou, a local tribal leader, the brothers decided that Vieuchange would stay behind ready to mount a rescue mission should Michel fall ill, be injured or be taken hostage, during the perilous journey. During his return journey from Smara, Michel fell ill with dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

 and Vieuchange rushed to meet him, arranging his evacuation by aircraft to Agadir
Agadir
Agadir is a major city in southwest Morocco, capital of the Agadir province and the Sous-Massa-Draa economic region .-Etymology:...

, and hospitalisation in the little clinic within the casbah
Casbah
The Casbah ) is specifically the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it. More generally, a kasbah is the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns...

. He stayed by Michel's side, nursing him around the clock, until he died, on 30 November 1930. Before his death, Michel entrusted his seven notebooks and over two hundred photographs to Jean. Over the next eighteen months, Vieuchange prepared the notebooks for publication, with extensive editing, preparation of footnotes and a postscript. He also prepared a detailed map of Michel's route, built from the notebooks. Extracts were serialised in numerous reviews and journals, the first appearing in La Vigie marocaine on 21–27 March 1931, headlined "Voir Smara et mourir" (English: "See Smara and die"). It was finally published as a book in 1932, in Paris and New York.

Vieuchange subsequently renewed his medical studies, before embarking on a career focusing on medical research. He worked at the Institut Pasteur in Paris as a microbiologist and was appointed laboratory chief in 1947. Among other things, he was part of the team that developed aluminium phosphate
Aluminium phosphate
Aluminium phosphate is a chemical compound. It is used in cake mixes and in some baking powders as a leavening agent to help baked goods rise. Medicinally it is used as adsorbent for toxoid.-Uses:...

 in suspension as an antacid
Antacid
An antacid is a substance which neutralizes stomach acidity.-Mechanism of action:Antacids perform a neutralization reaction, increasing the pH to reduce acidity in the stomach. When gastric hydrochloric acid reaches the nerves in the gastrointestinal mucosa, they signal pain to the central nervous...

, under the trade name, Phosphalugel. In 1955, he was awarded a research grant by the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...

, with a two-year secondment to Caltech. He was appointed a chevalier ("knight") of the Legion of Honour on 17 April 2003.

In addition to the book, he wrote extensively about different aspects of his brother's journey for learned societies as well as publishing specialist medical papers.

He died 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...

in 2003.
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