Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (24 April 1774, Oraison,

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Alpes-de-Haute-Provence or sometimes abbreviated as AHP (; oc, Aups d'Auta Provença; ) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the south, Vaucluse to the w ...

– 5 July 1838, Paris) was a French physician born in

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...

. He is perhaps best known for his work with

Victor of Aveyron Victor of Aveyron (; c. 1788 – 1828) was a French feral child who was found at the age of around 9. Not only is he considered the most famous feral child, but his case is also the most documented case of a feral child. Upon his discovery, he wa ...

Biography

Itard, without a university education and working at a bank, was forced to enter the army during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, but presented himself as a physician at that time.Jean Marc Gaspard Itard.
WhoNamedIt.com. Accessed 6 March 2010. After successfully working as an assistant physician at a military hospital in Soliers, in 1796, he was appointed deputy surgeon at

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 ...

(Hôpital d'instruction des armées du Val-de-Grâce) military hospital in Paris, and in 1799, physician at the National Institution for Deaf Mutes.

René Laennec

In Paris, Itard was a student of distinguished physician René Laennec, inventor of the

stethoscope The stethoscope is a medical device for auscultation, or listening to internal sounds of an animal or human body. It typically has a small disc-shaped resonator that is placed against the skin, and one or two tubes connected to two earpieces. ...

(in 1816). Laennec was a few years younger but had a formal education at the university at

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

and later became a lecturer and professor of medicine at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

. Itard described

pneumothorax A pneumothorax is an abnormal collection of air in the pleural space between the lung and the chest wall. Symptoms typically include sudden onset of sharp, one-sided chest pain and shortness of breath. In a minority of cases, a one-way valve i ...

in 1803; Laennec would provide a fuller description of the condition in 1819.

Other works

In 1821, Itard published a major work on

otology Otology is a branch of medicine which studies normal and pathological anatomy and physiology of the ear (hearing and vestibular sensory systems and related structures and functions) as well as their diseases, diagnosis and treatment. Otologi ...

, describing the results of his medical research based on over 170 detailed cases. He is credited with the invention of a Eustachian

catheter In medicine, a catheter (/ˈkæθətər/) is a thin tubing (material), tube made from medical grade materials serving a broad range of functions. Catheters are medical devices that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform a surgi ...

that is referred to as "Itard's catheter". Numbness in the

tympanic membrane In the anatomy of humans and various other tetrapods, the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane or myringa, is a thin, cone-shaped membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear. Its function is to transmit sound from the a ...

during

otosclerosis Otosclerosis is a condition of the middle ear where portions of the dense enchondral layer of the bony labyrinth remodel into one or more lesions of irregularly-laid spongy bone. As the lesions reach the stapes the bone is resorbed, then har ...

has the eponymous name of "Itard-Cholewa Symptom". In 1825, as the head physician at the Institution Royale des sourds-muets, Itard was credited with describing the first case of

Tourette syndrome Tourette syndrome or Tourette's syndrome (abbreviated as TS or Tourette's) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) ...

in Marquise de Dampierre, a woman of nobility. On 5 July 1838, at the age of 64, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard died in Paris, France.

Work on
Victor of Aveyron Victor of Aveyron (; c. 1788 – 1828) was a French feral child who was found at the age of around 9. Not only is he considered the most famous feral child, but his case is also the most documented case of a feral child. Upon his discovery, he wa ...

He is known as an educator of the deaf, and tried his educational theories in the celebrated case of

, dramatized in the 1970 motion picture ''

The Wild Child ''The Wild Child'' (french: L'Enfant sauvage, released in the United Kingdom as ''The Wild Boy'') is a 1970 French film by director François Truffaut. Featuring Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner and Jean Dasté, it t ...

'' directed by

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more th ...

, who also played Itard. However, he was disappointed with the progress he made with Victor. Itard was known to conduct experiments on the deaf students of the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris in useless attempts to restore their hearing, including delivering electrical shocks, leech therapy, ear surgeries, and various types of internal and external medicinal applications.When the Mind Hears , Harlan Lane ,

Works

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Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Itard, Jean Marc Gaspard 1774 births 1838 deaths People from Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Tourette syndrome 19th-century French physicians 18th-century French physicians Educators of the deaf