Pierre Joseph Martin Rollet or Martin-Pierre-Joseph Rollet (12 November 1824 – 2 August 1894) was a French surgeon, venereologist and dermatologist who served as a professor of hygiene at the Faculty of Medicine in Lyon. He was the first to separate
chancroid
Chancroid ( ) is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection characterized by painful sores on the genitalia. Chancroid is known to spread from one individual to another solely through sexual contact. However, there have been reports of accidenta ...
and indurated syphilitic
chancre
A chancre ( )chancres thefreedictionary is a painless and established that the incubation period for
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 ...
was three weeks.
Rollet was born in Lagnieu, son of a postmaster. He was sent to the Meximieux seminary at the age of nine and then went to the Royal College of Lyon before going to study medicine at the Medical School in Lyon. He then transferred to Paris. He became an intern in 1845 at the
Beaujon Hospital
The Beaujon Hospital () is located in Clichy, Paris, France and is operated by APHDP. It was named after Nicolas Beaujon, an eighteenth-century French banker
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and cr ...
under
Stanislas Laugier
Stanislas Laugier (28 January 1799 – 15 February 1872) was a French surgeon and doctor. He was the brother of astronomer Paul Auguste Ernest Laugier (1812-1872).
He was associated with the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, a member of the Institut and of th ...
. He hoped to become a surgeon at Hôtel Dieu but finally was admitted to the École de Antiquaille in 1850. He however joined service only in 1855, practicising in own clinic on rue Claudio in dermato-venerology for five years. In the nine years that he served, he specialized in syphilis. He was able to demonstrate that Philippe Ricord had confounded two diseases, the infection caused by a combination of '' Treponema pallidum'' and '' Haemophilus ducreyi'', and true syphilis. In 1877 he was appointed to the chair of hygiene at the newly founded Faculty of Medicine at Lyon.
Rollet married Jullieron, daughter of notary Roanne in 1855. They had a son who became an ophthalmologist and a daughter who in her second marriage wed Alexandre Lacassagne, a forensic medicine pioneer. Rollet was made
Knight 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 B ...
in 1864. Rollet died suddenly, he was to deliver a speech the next day while presiding over the Congress of Dermato-venerology in Lyon. He was buried at Beynost.