Paul Alfred Marie Bailliart (9 November 1877, in
Poitiers
Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...
– 29 October 1969, in
Val-de-Grâce
The (' or ') was a military hospital located at in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was closed as a hospital in 2016.
History
The church of the was built by order of Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII. After the birth of h ...
, in Paris) was a French ophthalmologist.
Biography
Bailliart graduated from the
lycée
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
of
Besançon
Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerl ...
and then joined the army in the ''École du Service de Santé'' of Lyon to acquire an education in medicine.
In 1900 he completed his medical education and successfully defended his thesis ''Traitement chirurgical de la myopie, en particulier par la suppression du cristallin'' (Surgical treatment of myopia, in particular by removing the lens).
He went to Paris in 1907 to work with
Victor Morax
Victor Morax, Paris, 1920
Victor Morax (16 March 1866 – 14 May 1935) was an ophthalmologist born in Morges, Switzerland.
He studied in Freiburg (Germany) and Paris, and from 1891 to 1903, he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. From 19 ...
and in 1909 became a member of the ''Société d'Ophtalmologie de Paris'', of which he was the Secretary General from 1922 to 1938. Bailliart was a military doctor during WW I and joined in 1929, as department head, the
Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital
The Quinze-Vingts National Ophthalmology Hospital (''Centre hospitalier national d’ophtalmologie des Quinze-Vingts'') is France's national ophthalmology hospital located in Paris, in the 12th arrondissement. The hospital gave its name to the ' ...
and remained in that position until his retirement in 1943. He also served a term as the president of the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE) and in various capacities for several other international organizations.
He gained an international reputation for his work on the retinal circulation, the ophthalmological manuals he co-authored, and his development of Bailliart's ophthalmodynamometer, Bailliart's goniometer, and Bailliart's tonometer. He also published works concerned with the education of the blind.
For his work as a physician and teacher, Bailliart was made an Officer of the French
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 ...
, was awarded the
Ordre des Palmes Académiques
A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...
, and won the Donders Medal (1939) and the
Gonin Medal The Gonin Medal is an international award given to one ophthalmologist every four years by the International Council of Ophthalmology. The award is named in honor of Swiss ophthalmologist Jules Gonin. It has been said to represent "the highest achie ...
(1945). He was the mayor of
Massy, Essonne
Massy () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 14.7 kilometres (9.1 mi) from the center of Paris.
Population
Massy underwent rapid development within a short period of time, transforming from a large borou ...
from 1926 to 1935 and wrote a history of this town. In Massy he acquired (and named ''Chambertrand'') a house which belonged to the historian
Fustel de Coulanges
Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (; 18 March 1830 – 12 September 1889) was a French historian. Joseph M. McCarthy argues that his first great book, '' The Ancient City'' (1864), was based on his in-depth knowledge of the primary Greek and Latin te ...
and now houses a center of
Cimade The Cimade is a French NGO founded at the beginning of the World War II by French Protestant student groups, in particular the Christian activist and member of the French Resistance Madeleine Barot, to give assistance and support to people uprooted ...
.
![MaisonFustelCoulangesMassy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/MaisonFustelCoulangesMassy.JPG)
In this house and under its aegis, Bailliart's granddaughter and her husband Raymond Rodriguez created in the 1960s the ''Centre Culturel de Massy'' (CCM). The ''Centre Culturel Paul Bailliart''
built in 1969 and now known as ''Paul B.'' is the successor of CCM.
Bailliart was predeceased by his wife and buried in Massy.
Sources
* Paul Bailliart, '' Histoires de famille'', Paris, Badiane, 1990.
* Paul Bailliart, '' Histoire de Massy'', Paris, Le livre d'histoire, 2003.
* Louis Guillaumat, Jean-Pierre Bailliart, '' Les Quinze-vingts de Paris : échos historiques du XIIIe au XXe siècle'', Paris, Société francophone d'histoire de l'ophtalmologie, 1998.
* ''British Journal of Ophthalmology'', 1970;54:7
Obituary. Paul Bailliart
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailliart, Paul
1877 births
1969 deaths
French ophthalmologists
People from Poitiers