Guy-Crescent Fagon (11 May 1638 – 11 March 1718) was a French physician and botanist. He came from nobility and his uncle,

Guy de La Brosse Guy de La Brosse (1586 – 1641 in Paris), was a French botanist, medical doctor, and pharmacist. A physician to King Louis XIII of France, he is also notable for the creation of a major botanical garden of medicinal herbs, which was commissioned ...

, had founded the Royal Gardens. Fagon was director of the gardens too. His substitute professors were

Gilles-François Boulduc Gilles-François Boulduc (born 20 February 1675 in Paris; died 17 January 1741 in Versailles) was a French pharmacist and chemist.All but one reference gives 20 February 1675 as the date of birth. The closest reference to this date of death is that ...

Antoine de Saint-Yon Antoine de Saint-Yon was a French physician and chemist of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Biography Antoine de Saint-Yon passed his medical thesis in 1671 with the title: In 1677, he practised as a Title formerly given to doctors who ...

and

Étienne François Geoffroy Étienne François Geoffroy (13 February 16726 January 1731) was a French physician and chemist, best known for his 1718 affinity tables. He first contemplated a career as an apothecary, but then decided to practice medicine. He is sometimes kn ...

. His significance in botany is reflected in the genus

Fagonia ''Fagonia'' is a genus of wild, flowering plants in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae, having about 34 species. The latest reorganization of the genus took place in 2021 when systematists Christenhusz & Byng included ''Fagonia spp''.. along with ...

being named after him. He also acted as the physician of

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of ...

. In 1669 he was made an honorary member of the

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

. He wrote about the health of the royal family. He lost his position as head physician after Louis XIV's death, which was somewhat customary after a king died, but he also received criticism for how he had dealt with the King's final illness. People thought his methods were preposterous, and that he bled his patients to death. He was thought to have killed Young Duc de Bourgogne (grandson of Louis XIV) and his wife the beloved Marie Adelaide. Despite this he remained in charge of the Royal Garden until his death in 1718.

References

1638 births 1718 deaths 17th-century French botanists 17th-century French physicians 18th-century French physicians Members of the French Academy of Sciences 18th-century French botanists {{France-botanist-stub