Biography

Born at Saint-Georges-sur-Cher

Saint-Georges-sur-Cher

Saint-Georges-sur-Cher is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France.-References:* -External links:*...

, in the Loir-et-Cher

Loir-et-Cher

Loir-et-Cher is a département in north-central France named after the rivers Loir and Cher.-History:Loir-et-Cher is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Orléanais and...

 département

Départements of France

The departments of France are French administrative divisions. The 101 departments form one of the three levels of local government, together with the 22 metropolitan and 5 overseas regions above them and more than 36 000 communes beneath them...

. His father was a surgeon. He studied with his uncle, the vicar at Chenonceaux

Chenonceaux

Chenonceaux is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.It is situated in the Loire Valley, about 26 km east of Tours...

 (Indre-et-Loire) department along with the children of the Chenonceau château

Château de Chenonceau

The Château de Chenonceau is a manor house near the small village of Chenonceaux, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It was built on the site of an old mill on the River Cher, sometime before its first mention in writing in the 11th century...

. Madame Dupin, the grandmother of George Sand

George Sand

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...

, financed his medical studies in Paris.

He married Madame Dupin's lecturer and settled in Renaudière in Chenonceaux (the Renaudière is currently a restaurant and hotel). Very curious and clever, he had a laboratory at his disposal and occupied himself with gardening and other manual labours in his spare time.

He was the mayor of Chenonceaux

Chenonceaux

Chenonceaux is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.It is situated in the Loire Valley, about 26 km east of Tours...

 from 1803 to 1807. He spent 15 years at Chenonceaux gaining experience, wrote his thesis in medicine in 1815 and then became medical director at the hospital in Tours

Tours

Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...

; which currently bears his name. He continued his study of disease and founded the medical school at Tours.

Bretonneau died in 1862. He is buried in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire

Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire

Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire is a commune in the department of Indre-et-Loire in central France.It is located northwest of Tours on the other side of the Loire. , the town's population was 15,975. It is the third largest city in the Tours department, behind only Tours and Joué-lès-Tours.-Twin towns — Sister...

, near Tours.

Significance to medicine

Bretonneau is one of the pioneers of modern medicine. He identified typhoid fever

Typhoid fever

Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...

 and named 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...

. His students included Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau

Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau

Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau was a French anatomist and surgeon.-Biography:A native of Brèches, Indre-et-Loire, he was a student and assistant to Pierre Bretonneau. During his early medical career he was a surgeon in several hospitals in Paris...

, and Armand Trousseau

Armand Trousseau

Armand Trousseau was a French internist. His contributions to medicine include Trousseau sign of malignancy, Trousseau sign of latent tetany, Trousseau-Lallemand bodies , and the truism, "use new drugs quickly, while they still work."-Biography:A native of Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Armand Trousseau...

.

He performed the first successful tracheotomy in 1825, distinguished between scarlet fever and diphtheria in 1826. He studied disease in detail and was the first to think that disease was caused by bacteria in 1855, however, a microscope was not available to him and he was unable to confirm his hypothesis. He also discovered that the same illness could manifest itself differently in different patients. It was the beginning of scientific medicine: where careful observation is used to find cures for sickness and solutions to problems.

Other

• The faculty of medicine in Tours is decorated with three large bronze medallions representing Bretonneau, Velpeau
  Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau
  Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau was a French anatomist and surgeon.-Biography:A native of Brèches, Indre-et-Loire, he was a student and assistant to Pierre Bretonneau. During his early medical career he was a surgeon in several hospitals in Paris...
  
   and Trousseau
  Armand Trousseau
  Armand Trousseau was a French internist. His contributions to medicine include Trousseau sign of malignancy, Trousseau sign of latent tetany, Trousseau-Lallemand bodies , and the truism, "use new drugs quickly, while they still work."-Biography:A native of Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Armand Trousseau...
  
  .
• His bust is on display at the city hall in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher
  Saint-Georges-sur-Cher
  Saint-Georges-sur-Cher is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France.-References:* -External links:*...
  
  .
• The Grévin Museum in Tours has created a reenactment of an anatomy lesson given by Bretonneau, Velpeau and Trousseau.