Jacques Etienne Chevalley de Rivaz (16 August 1801 – 8 December 1863) was a Swiss-born physician who spent his career in Naples and the
Island of Ischia
Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west ...
. He was the founder of a famous sanatorium on Ischia and also wrote several works on the geography, archeology, flora and fauna of the island. For his services to Naples during the
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
epidemic of 1836–37, he was awarded a gold medal by
King Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II ( an, Ferrando; ca, Ferran; eu, Errando; it, Ferdinando; la, Ferdinandus; es, Fernando; 10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), also called Ferdinand the Catholic (Spanish: ''el Católico''), was King of Aragon and Sardinia from ...
and citizenship of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and a ...
. Chevalley de Rivaz was born in
Vevey, Switzerland and died in
Casamicciola
Casamicciola Terme is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located in the northern part of the Ischia Island.
Geography
Casamicciola Terme borders the following municipalities: Barano d'Is ...
, Italy at the age of 62.
Life and career
Chevalley de Rivaz was born in
Vevey, Switzerland to Marguerite ''née'' Ruchet and Jean Jacques Chevalley. He completed his secondary education in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
where he studied mathematics under Emmanuel Delevey. He then went to Paris to study medicine. He received his preparatory baccalaureates in literature in 1823 and in science in 1824. He went on to train as a physician at
Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu ( en, hostel of God) was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris b ...
hospital while he worked on his doctoral dissertation under
François Magendie
__NOTOC__
François Magendie (6 October 1783 – 7 October 1855) was a French physiologist, considered a pioneer of experimental physiology. He is known for describing the foramen of Magendie. There is also a ''Magendie sign'', a downward a ...
. He successfully defended his dissertation on the effects of cold weather on animal husbandry and received his doctorate on 16 August 1827. Later that month he was granted French citizenship. He had planned to join the Faculty of medicine in Paris, but developed a form of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
in his throat. Two of his professors at the Hôtel-Dieu,
Guillaume Dupuytren
Baron Guillaume Dupuytren (; 5 October 1777 – 8 February 1835) was a French anatomist and military surgeon. Although he gained much esteem for treating Napoleon Bonaparte's hemorrhoids, he is best known today for his description of Dupuytren's ...
and
Joseph Récamier
Joseph-Claude-Anthelme Récamier (6 November 1774 – 28 June 1852) was a French gynecologist.
He was born in Cressin-Rochefort, Ain. For much of his professional career he was associated with the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, where in 1806 he became ch ...
, suggested that he seek out the warmer climate of Italy to restore his health. He arrived in Naples in February 1829 armed with letters of recommendation and shortly thereafter was appointed physician to the French embassy there.
He also set up a private practice in Naples and in 1830 established a sanatorium on the Island of Ischia at
Casamicciola
Casamicciola Terme is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located in the northern part of the Ischia Island.
Geography
Casamicciola Terme borders the following municipalities: Barano d'Is ...
, which at the time was noted for its mineral springs. Over the next 33 years Chevalley de Rivaz practiced medicine both in Naples and in Ischia as well as maintaining a free clinic for the poor. In 1837 he was instrumental in halting the cholera epidemic which had broken out at
Forio on Ischia. In gratitude for his work, King Ferdinand II conferred on him a gold medal and a knighthood which allowed him to add "de Rivaz" to his name. (
Rivaz
Rivaz (pro. ree-vah) is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Lavaux-Oron.
History
Rivaz is first mentioned in 1138 as ''Ripa''.
Geography
Rivaz has an area, , of . Of this area, or 67.7% is used ...
was his family's ancestral home in Switzerland.) He was also granted citizenship of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and a ...
and made an honorary citizen of both Forio and Casamicciola.
King Ferdinand II and his family regularly spent the summer months on Ischia where Chevalley de Rivaz served as their personal physician. A guest book for his sanatorium at Casamicciola contains the names of all those who stayed there from 1844 until his death in 1863. These included the French novelist
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
, the Russian revolutionary
Mikhail Bakunin, and the Italian writer
Marco Marcelliano Marcello
Marco Marcelliano Marcello (7 March 1818 – 23 July 1865) was an Italian writer and composer. He was particularly known for the opera libretti he wrote for the Italian composers Achille Peri, Carlo Pedrotti, and Antonio Cagnoni as well as his t ...
. In the early 1840s Marcello had become seriously ill and was told that he had a fatal heart disease. A friend introduced him to Chevalley de Rivaz who urged him to leave behind his frenetic life in Naples and enter into his care at the sanatorium . Marcello spent three months there and against all expectations recovered sufficiently to resume his career. After his recovery he wrote a poetic paean to Ischia entitled ''Ischia. Canti tre.'' Twenty years later he revised and published the poem with a lengthy dedication letter to Chevalley de Rivaz whom he credited with saving his life and being his "second father".
Chevalley de Rivaz, who considered climatic conditions a major influence on his patients' recovery, set up a meteorological observatory on Ischia where he recorded the daily barometric pressure, temperature, wind direction, and humidity, and compared his data with that of Naples. When an earthquake struck the Island in January 1863, he sent detailed reports to the Academy of Naples and the city's meteorological bulletin. Chevalley de Rivaz died in Casamicciola later that year at the age of 62. At the time of his death he was writing a treatise on Ischia's climate. During his lifetime he had also served as the
Consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...
for France and for the
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
in Ischia. He was a recipient of the
Legion of Honor
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
, the
Order of Isabella the Catholic
The Order of Isabella the Catholic ( es, Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order and honor granted to persons and institutions in recognition of extraordinary services to the homeland or the promotion of international relations a ...
, and the
Order of St. Gregory the Great
The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great ( la, Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni; it, Ordine di San Gregorio Magno) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope.
The order is one of ...
.
Writings
Chevalley de Rivaz published articles in medical journals on an influenza epidemic in Naples, the value of vaccination against
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, and the treatment of cholera and
syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
. In them he advocated for public health care and hygiene and on occasion railed against the charlatanism and unscrupulousness of some Neapolitan physicians. However, he was most widely known for his book on the mineral water springs and
fumaroles of Ischia, ''Description des eaux minéro-thermales et des étuves de l'ile d'Ischia''. First published in 1835 in both French and Italian, it went through 13 editions over the next 30 years. Although the book concentrated on the analysis of the mineral waters and their use in the treatment of various diseases, it also contained detailed descriptions of the topography, customs, history, and archeology of the island, and for many years was the primary source of information about Ischia.
In 1845 Chevalley de Rivaz attended the , the seventh annual conference of Italian scientists, held that year in Naples. The conference included an excursion by boat to
Capri
Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been ...
and
Paestum. The following year he published an account of the trip entitled ''Voyage de Naples à Capri et à Paestum exécuté le 4 octobre 1845''. In it he combined a lively description of his fellow travellers and the sea voyage itself with descriptions of the places they visited and some of the history surrounding them. In 1834 he had also made a detailed catalogue of the
vascular plants
Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...
of Ischia, entitled ''Flora pithecusana, ossia Catalogo alfabetico delle piante vascolari dell'isola d'Ischia''. The manuscript is held in the library of the Botanical Institute of Rome and in 1914 was reproduced in ''Annali di botanica'' published by the
Sapienza University of Rome.
Descendants
Chevalley de Rivaz's eldest son, Victor Chevalley de Rivaz (1833–1895), emigrated to England in 1852 and became a British citizen in 1857. He worked as a stockbroker but also had a keen interest in cooking. He wrote cookery columns for ''
The Queen'' under the pseudonym "The G. C." (Grand Cordon), and published two books on the subject: ''Round the Table: Notes on cookery, and plain recipes, with a selection of bills of fare for every month'' (1872) and ''Practical dinners '' (1887).
Notes
References
External links
"A Swiss Health-Spa Physician on the Island of Ischia" English translation of an article on Chevalley de Rivaz by Paul (Paolo) Buchner first published in the ''
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (''NZZ''; "New Journal of Zürich") is a Swiss, German-language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zürich. The paper was founded in 1780. It was described as having a reputation as a high-quality ne ...
'' of 17 March 1950 (on the website of Chevalley de Rivaz's descendants).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chevalley de Rivaz,Jacques Etienne
1801 births
1863 deaths
19th-century Swiss physicians
People from Vevey