Observations sur la Nature et le Traitement de la Phthisie Pulmonaire.

Portal, Antoine

Publication Date: 1809

About this Item

Édition revue et augmentée par l'auteur. - A Paris, Chez Léopold Collin, Libr., 1809, (4), XLVII, 571; (4), 564 pp., 2 feine Halbledereinbände der Zeit mit reichlicher Rückenvergoldung im Empire Stil. Édition Revue et Augmentée par l'Auteur, avec les Observations et des Remarques par M. Murphy, Docteur en Médecine à Hannovre, etc. qui a traduit cet Ouvrage en Allemand, et avec celles de M. Gaspard Fédérigo, Médecin Praticien de Venise, etc. qui l'a traduit en Italien. "Portal's Observations sur la nature et sur le traitement de la phthisie pulmonaire (1792), which was translated into Italian (1801) and German (1802), was a synthesis of currently accepted knowledge, in which he affirmed the noncontagiousness of phthisis." "Baron Antoine Portal's (January 5, 1742-July 23, 1832) works appeared between 1764 and 1827, when he published Observations sur la nature et le traitement de l'épilepsie at the age of eighty-five. Although he demonstrated, even in his earliest works, an interest in pathological anatomy, Portal is known chiefly for his Historie de l'anatomie et de la chirurgie, in which he recounted (in the form of a biobibliographical dictionary) the evolution of anatomy and its surgical applications from "the Flood and the Trojan War" to 1755. Although the notices on contemporary authors led to several polemics, the work is still a valuable reference. Portal also published new editions of his patrons' works: for Lieutaud, Historia anatomica medica (1767) and Anatomie historique et pratique (1776), and for Sénac, Traité de la structure du coeur (1774). Portal published several Instructions, commissioned by the government and addressed to physicians and the public concerning problems of public health (including asphyxiation in "mephitic vapors" and measures of first aid for the drowning and for persons bitten by rabid animals). In an Instruction published in 1775 he advocated the method of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In his work on liver ailments Portal cited the hepatic congestion that accompanies deficient cardiac action, the cardiac cirrhosis that can result from it, and the types of hepatitis induced by overexertion. In 1818, an old man still attired in the style of the Ancien Régime, he was named first physician to the king, Louis XVIII, an honor of which he had dreamed all his life. He retained this office under Charles X, who named him a baron. In 1820, after repeated requests from Portal, the Académie Royal de Médecine was created, and Portal was named its permanent honorary president." Pierre Chabbert, DSB XI, pp.99-100 There is no complete biography of Portal. See - Paul Busquet, "Antoine Portal," in Biographies médicales, 1 (1928), no. 17, 261-272; no. 18, 277-288; François Granel, "La prestigieuse carrière d'Antoine Portal," in Monspeliensis Hippocrates, no. 2 (1961), 9-21; and Étienne Pariset, "Discourse aux obsèques du baron Portal," in Revue médicale française et étrangère, (1832), 152-155. Seller Inventory # 48638

Bibliographic Details

Title: Observations sur la Nature et le Traitement ...

Publication Date: 1809

Binding: Soft cover