Skip to content
Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

Auguste Nélaton

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

Famous French surgeon; born in Paris, 17 June, 1807, d. there 21 Sept., 1873. He made his medical studies in Paris, graduating in 1836 with a thesis on tuberculous affections of bones. All his subsequent university career was passed at Paris. After the publication of his "Traité des tumeurs de la mamelle" he became agrégé in 1839. In 1851 he became professor of clinical surgery with a thesis which attracted wide attention and was translated into German the following year. As a member of the surgical staff of the St. Louis Hospital, he devised a number of original surgical procedures and operations, was the first to suggest the ligature of both ends of arteries in primary and secondary hemorrhage, and developed several phases of plastic surgery. The Nélaton probe with the porcelain knob, which he invented, was successfully used by him in Garibaldi's case, in 1862, to locate a bullet in the ankle joint. Some of his suggestions with regard to operations were important advances in abdominal and pelvic surgery. He was, lastly, noted as a great teacher of surgery and a consummate operator.

Pagel, the German historian of medicine, in his "Biographical Dictionary of Prominent Physicians of the Nineteenth Century", says of Nélaton: "He was a man of very clear judgment, of ripe experience, of solid wisdom, and deservedly occupies a place as one of the greatest of French surgeons of the nineteenth century." In 1863 he was elected a member of the Paris Academy of Medicine and in 1867 of the French Institute of Science, and became Senator of the French Empire in 1868. His fame as a writer on surgery rests upon his "Elements of Surgical Pathology" (5 vols., Paris, 1854-60). The last volume was completed with the collaboration of A. Jamain. In 1867 Nélaton had an important share in preparing the "Report on The Progress of Surgery in France ".

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Prayer of the Day logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.