Victor-Joseph François
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Victor-Joseph François | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 28, 1790 |
| Died | February 1868 |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Known for | Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain |
Victor-Joseph François (January 28, 1790 – February 1868) was a Belgian physician and professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (1834–1968).[1]
Originally from northern France, Victor François studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, where he worked as an assistant to Thénard and accompanied botanist Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu on herbarium excursions.
In late 1813, a few months after obtaining his medical degree, he began his career as a physician at the military prison in Mons,[2] then part of the French department of Jemmapes, where the wounded from the Napoleonic Wars were brought. The following year, he faced an epidemic of exanthematic typhus.[1]
Naturalized Belgian under the Dutch government, he became secretary and later president of the medical commission of Hainaut. He supported the Belgian Revolution in 1830 and organized the Civil Guard in Mons. In 1832, he dealt with a severe cholera epidemic in the city of Mons. He was one of the founders of one of the oldest Belgian scientific societies, the Society of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Hainaut established in 1833, and in 1841, he was among the founders of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.[1][3]
From 1838 until his death in 1868 at the age of 78, he taught at the University of Louvain, where he held the chair of internal pathology and forensic medicine, and served as dean of the Faculty of Medicine.[1]
