Joseph-Claude-Anthelme Récamier (6 November 1774 – 28 June 1852) was a French

gynecologist Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, which focuses on pre ...

. He was born in Cressin-Rochefort,

Ain Ain (, ; ) is a French department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...

. For much of his professional career he was associated with the

Hôtel-Dieu de Paris In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () 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 being the oldest an ...

, where in 1806 he became chief physician. He was also a professor at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

and a member of the Faculté de médecine. Récamier is credited with the popularization of several instruments in gynecological medicine, including the

curette A curette is a surgical instrument designed for scraping or debridement, debriding biological tissue or debris in a biopsy, :wikt:excision, excision, or cleaning procedure. In form, the curette is a small hand tool, often similar in shape to a ...

, the vaginal

speculum The term speculum, Latin for "mirror", and its plural specula, may refer to: * ''Speculum'' (journal), a journal of medieval studies published by the Medieval Academy of America * Speculum (medical), a medical tool used for examining body cavities ...

, and the uterine sound. In his 1829 treatise ''Recherches sur le traitement du cancer'', he coined the term "

metastasis Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spreading from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, ...

" as a definition for the spread of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. "Récamier's operation" is a term used for

curettage Curettage ( or ), in medical procedures, is the use of a curette (French, meaning "scoop" Mosby's Medical, Nursing & Allied Health Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Mosby-Year Book 1994, p. 422) to remove tissue by scraping or scooping. Curettages ...

of the

uterus The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', : uteri or uteruses) or womb () is the hollow organ, organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans, that accommodates the embryonic development, embryonic and prenatal development, f ...

Selected writings

* ''Recherches sur le traitement du cancer'' (Research on Treatment of Cancer); 1829. * ''Recherches sur le traitement du cholera-morbus'' (Research on Treatment of Cholera); 1832.

Honors

Mont Docteur Récamier, the highest point of the

Joffre Peninsula The Joffre Peninsula () is a peninsula in the Kerguelen Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Lands. It is located in the northern sector of Grande Terre, between the Baie Rhodes to the west, beyond which lies Île Foch, and the Baleiniers Gul ...

Kerguelen The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic region. They are among the most isolated places on Earth, with the closest t ...

was named by cartographer

Raymond Rallier du Baty Raymond Rallier du Baty (30 August 1881 – 7 May 1978) was a French sailor and Exploration, explorer, from Lorient in Brittany, who carried out surveys of the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean in the early 20th century. ...

in his honor.Gracie Delépine,
Toponymie des Terres Australes
', éditions La Documentation française, Paris, 1973, p. 121

References

* ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia.''
Short biography

1774 births 1852 deaths People from Ain 19th-century French physicians 18th-century French physicians French gynaecologists {{France-med-bio-stub