Prosper Menière (18 June 1799 – 7 February 1862) was a French medical doctor who first identified that the inner ear could be the source of a condition combining

vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

, hearing loss and

tinnitus Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sound when no corresponding external sound is present and other people cannot hear it. Nearly everyone experiences faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely ...

, which is now known as

Ménière's disease Ménière's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that is characterized by potentially severe and incapacitating episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Typically, only one ear is affected in ...

Biography

Menière was born in

Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

, France. During his education he excelled at humanities and classics. He completed his medical studies at

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 ...

in 1826, and earned his

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

in 1828. He then assisted Guillaume Dupuytren. Menière was originally set to be an assistant professor in faculty, but political tensions disturbed his professorship and he was sent to control the spread of

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

. He received a

legion of honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

for his work, but never gained professorship. After securing the position of physician-in-chief at the Institute for deaf-mutes, he focused on the diseases of the ear. Menière's studies at the deaf-mute institute helped formulate his paper, ''On a particular kind of hearing loss resulting from lesions of the inner ear'' which ultimately led to the recognition of

. There is debate as to how Menière's name is spelled. Prosper himself was known to write his name as "Menière" while his son used the spelling "Ménière." Many people omit the accent marks.

References

External links

Prosper Ménière Society
Website of the Prosper Ménière Society, founded in 1981 by the International Meniere's Disease Research Institute (IMDRI) of the Colorado Otologic Research Center (CORC). 1799 births 1862 deaths People from Angers 19th-century French physicians {{France-med-bio-stub

Biography

References

Further reading

External links