Raphaël Bienvenu Sabatier (11 October 1732 – 19 July 1811) was a French

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He studied medicine in Paris, and in 1756 became a professor at the Collège Royal de Chirurgie. Shortly afterwards, he became chief surgeon at the

Hôtel des Invalides The Hôtel des Invalides (; ), commonly called (; ), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and an old soldi ...

, and in 1795 was a professor at the École de Santé. Sabatier was a member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of 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 method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

, and was a consultant-surgeon to

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. Sabatier was the author of ''De la médecine opératoire'', a popular surgical treatise in its day, and ''Traité complet d'anatomie'', a three-volume work on

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

. He was an early practitioner of medical

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, a procedure he used in the diagnosis of

empyema An empyema (; ) is a collection or gathering of pus within a naturally existing anatomical cavity. The term is most commonly used to refer to pleural empyema, which is empyema of the pleural cavity. It is similar or the same in meaning as an a ...

.''Josef Leopold Auenbrugger''
@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

Written works

* ''Mémoire sur les nerfs de la dixième paire'', (1776). * ''Mémoire sur quelques particularitiés de la structure du cerveau et de ses enveloppes'', (1776). * ''De la médecine opératoire, ou des opérations de Chirurgie qui se pratiquent le plus fréquemment'', Paris, Didot le Jeune, 1796. * ''Traité complet d'anatomie, ou, Description de toutes les parties du corps humain'', Théophile Barrois le Jeune, 1798.

References

A New General Biographical Dictionary
(biographical information]
Open Library
(list of publications) 1732 births 1811 deaths Scientists from Paris French anatomists French surgeons Members of the French Academy of Sciences Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery {{France-med-bio-stub