Claude-Nicolas Le Cat (6 September 1700 – 20 August 1768) was a French surgeon and science communicator.

Biography

Le Cat was born in

Blérancourt Blérancourt () is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, department of Aisne in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Population Sights The Château de Blérancourt, an influential design by Salomon de Brosse houses the Na ...

(Picardy). He was the son of Claude Le Cat, a surgeon, and Anne-Marie Méresse, the daughter of a surgeon. He studied anatomy and surgery first with his father then in Paris from 1726. In 1728, he was appointed surgeon to the

Archbishop of Rouen The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rouen (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Rothomagensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Rouen'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. As one of the fifteen Archbishops of France, the Ar ...

Louis de La Vergne-Montenard de Tressan Louis de La Vergne-Montenard de Tressan or Louis III de La Vergne de Tressan ( - ) was a French cleric of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Rouen (France) from to . Biography He was born in Tressan (France) in . He was the second son of J� ...

, friend of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

, then in 1731 deputy head surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Rouen when he was not yet Master surgeon. He obtained his medical doctorate in

Reims University The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (; URCA), also known simply as the University of Reims, is a Lists of universities in France, public university based in Reims, France. In addition to the main campus in Reims, the university has seve ...

in 1733, then became next year Master surgeon in Rouen. He commenced lecturing on anatomy and surgery, and in 1736 received the title of royal professor and demonstrator. In 1744 he founded the "Académie royale des sciences, belles lettres et arts" in Rouen, becoming its lifelong secretary for the class of sciences and arts. In 1742, he married Marie-Marguerite Champossin. Their only daughter, Charlotte-Bonne, married the surgeon Jean-Pierre David ( fr), who succeeded Le Cat in all his offices. Louis XV granted him the rank of

écuyer Écuyer or Ecuyer is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Al Ecuyer Allen Joseph Ecuyer (October 15, 1937 – April 28, 2012) was an American football player. Ecuyer was born in New Orleans in 1937 and attended Jesuit ...

in 1762 in recognition of his services. He was a devout Catholic throughout his life. He died in Rouen in 1768 aged 67.

Works

In 1731, his interest in replicating human anatomical forms and movements stimulated

Vaucanson Jacques de Vaucanson (; February 24, 1709 – November 21, 1782) was a French inventor and artist who built the first all-metal lathe which was very important to the Industrial Revolution. The lathe is known as the mother of machine tools, as it ...

to begin work on his first automaton. In 1732, he performed lateral

lithotomy Lithotomy from Greek for "lithos" (stone) and "tomos" (cut), is a surgical method for removal of calculi, stones formed inside certain organs, such as the urinary tract (kidney stones), bladder (bladder stones), and gallbladder (gallstones), tha ...

approach to removing

bladder The urinary bladder, or simply bladder, is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the kidneys before disposal by urination. In humans the bladder is a distensible organ that sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters ...

stones using the technique invented by

Frère Jacques Beaulieu Frère Jacques Beaulieu, OP (); 1651–1720), also known as Frère Jacques Baulot, was a travelling lithotomist with scant knowledge of anatomy and was also a Dominican friar. Beaulieu performed the frequently deadly procedure in France into the ...

and improved by

William Cheselden William Cheselden (; 19 October 168810 April 1752) was an English surgeon and teacher of anatomy and surgery, who was influential in establishing surgery as a scientific medical profession. Via the medical missionary Benjamin Hobson, his work ...

. He developed an instrument for lithotomy, the "Gorgeret cystotome". Le Cat deserve credit for the first removal of bladder polyp through the dilated

urethra The urethra (from Greek οὐρήθρα – ''ourḗthrā'') is a tube that connects the urinary bladder to the urinary meatus for the removal of urine from the body of both females and males. In human females and other primates, the urethra con ...

. He also effected a great advance in

cataract surgery Cataract surgery, also called lens replacement surgery, is the removal of the natural lens of the eye (also called "crystalline lens") that has developed an opacification, which is referred to as a cataract, and its replacement with an intraocu ...

. His reputation in France and Europe is reflected by his numerous academy prizes, publications, and surgical notoriety.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Cat, Claude-Nicolas 1700 births 1768 deaths French anatomists French urologists French ophthalmologists French surgeons French Roman Catholics