Antonin Jean Desormeaux (25 December 1815 – October 1894) was a 19th-century French physician and inventor who has been called the "father of endoscopy", because he made significant improvements to the early

endoscope An endoscope is an inspection instrument composed of image sensor, optical lens, light source and mechanical device, which is used to look deep into the body by way of openings such as the mouth or anus. A typical endoscope applies several modern t ...

and was the first to successfully use it to operate on a living patient (his device would be called a

cystoscope Cystoscopy is endoscopy of the urinary bladder via the urethra. It is carried out with a cystoscope. The urethra is the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the outside of the body. The cystoscope has lenses like a telescope or microscope ...

today). He presented his device to the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

in Paris on July 20, 1853.

Scientific Work

His work was based on that of earlier inventors like

Philipp Bozzini Philipp Bozzini (May 25, 1773 – April 4, 1809) was born in Mainz, Germany. On June 12, 1797 he was awarded the degree of doctor of medicine. From 1804 onwards, Bozzini devoted himself virtually completely to develop his instrument, Lichtleiter o ...

, some of whom had previously used endoscopes for diagnostic purposes, however, Desormeaux's invention was the first to be usable for simple operations such as chemical

cauterization Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, or ...

. The main improvements in his device were the use of a gasogene lamp, which consisted of a burning mixture of alcohol and turpentine and provided superior illumination to previous technologies, and improvements in focusing the light coming from the endoscope. Further improvements to the endoscope were later made by

Sir Francis Cruise Francis Xavier Richard Cruise (3 December 1834 – 26 February 1912) was a notable 19th-century Irish surgeon and urologist best known for inventing an endoscope and using it successfully in surgery in 1865.Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1815. He received a doctoral degree in 1844. In 1862, he received the position of "chef de service" at the Parisian Hôpital Necker. He died at the age of 79 in 1894.

References

''History of Endoscopy'', chapter 8
(2016). 19th-century French physicians French urologists 1815 births 1894 deaths {{med-bio-stub