Pierre François Olive Rayer (8 March 1793 – 10 September 1867) was a French physician who was a native of Saint Sylvain. He made important contributions in the fields of pathological anatomy, physiology, comparative pathology and parasitology.
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Biography
editHe studied medicine at Caen, and afterwards in Paris at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and at the Hôtel-Dieu. He became an interne of medicine in 1813, and in 1818 earned his medical doctorate. Later on, he became a physician at Hôpital Saint-Antoine (1825), and at the Hôpital de la Charité (1832), and was also a consultant-physician to King Louis-Philippe. In 1862 he attained the chair of comparative anatomy and was named dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris.[1]
In 1837 Rayer discovered that the fatal equine disease known as glanders was contagious to other species, including humans. Between 1837 and 1841 he published a three-volume book on diseases of the kidney titled Traité des maladies des reins. In 1850 Rayer published a paper that provided the first description of the anthrax bacillus (Inoculation du sang de rate, 1850).[2] In this work he documented studies that he performed with physician Casimir Davaine (1812-1882) in regards to Bacillus anthracis.[3] He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1855.[4]
Rayer was a member of the Académie de Médecine and the Académie des Sciences, and co-founder of the Société de biologie, of which he was also president. He maintained friendships with several influential people in France, that included naturalist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, novelist George Sand and philosopher Émile Littré.[1]
Eponyms associated with Pierre Rayer
edit- Rayer's disease: A disorder characterized by chronic jaundice, splenomegaly, and hepatomegaly.
- Rayer's nodules: A xanthoma; yellowish nodules on the skin (often on the eyelids).
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Pierre-François-Olive Rayer @ Who Named It
- ^ Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch - bibliography Who Named It
- ^ Pierre François Olive Rayer (1850) “Inoculation du sang de rate”, Comptes rendus des séances et mémoires de la Société de biologie, vol. 2, pages 141-144.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter R" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- Ole Daniel, Enersen. "Pierre-François-Olive Rayer". Who Named It?. Retrieved 23 January 2007.
External links
edit- Images from Traité théorique et pratique des maladies de la peau From The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library