Guy de Chauliac, French Physician

Guy de Chauliac, French Physician

Guy de Chauliac (1300 - July 25, 1368), was a French physician and surgeon. In 1342 he was invited to the Papal Court in Avignon, France, to serve as a personal physician to Pope Clement VI. When the Black Death arrived in Avignon in 1348, physicians fled the city, but Chauliac stayed on, treating plague patients and documenting symptoms meticulously. Through his observations, he distinguished between the two forms of the disease, the Bubonic Plague and the Pneumonic Plague. The plague was recognized as being contagious although the agent of contagion was unknown; as treatment Chauliac recommended air be purified, venesection (bleeding), and healthy diet. He went on to become personal physician to Pope Innocent VI, and then to Pope Urban V. His seminal work on surgery, Chirurgia magna, was finished in 1363. In seven volumes, the treatise covers anatomy, bloodletting, cauterization, drugs, anesthetics, wounds, fractures, ulcers, special diseases, and antidotes. Among his treatments he described the use of bandages and he also believed pus from an infection was beneficial to the healing process. He describes surgical techniques such as intubation, tracheotomy, and suturing. It was translated into many other languages (including Middle English) and widely read by physicians in late medieval Europe. He died in Avignon in 1368.

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