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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E002481 - Lannelongue, Odilon Marc (1840 - 1911)
Title:
Lannelongue, Odilon Marc (1840 - 1911)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E002481
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2012-06-20
Description:
Obituary for Lannelongue, Odilon Marc (1840 - 1911), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Lannelongue, Odilon Marc
Date of Birth:
1840
Place of Birth:
Castéra-Verduzan, France
Date of Death:
21 December 1911
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
Hon FRCS July 25th 1900

MD Paris 1867

ex-President of the General Medical Association of France
Details:
Born at Castéra-Verduzan (Gers) in Gascony, the son of a local practitioner. He studied medicine in Paris, becoming interne in 1863, and serving under Jarjavay, Denonvilliers, Gosselin, and Cusco. He graduated MD in 1867 with a thesis on the internal circulation of the heart. Based on his own researches, it became a classic. In 1869 he became Professeur Agrégé, and in that year was appointed Surgeon to the Hospitals. During the siege of Paris he took charge of the ambulance at the Luxembourg, organized by Madame Remusat, whom he afterwards married. While doing this patriotic work he met, and became intimate with, Gambetta, ultimately attending the great statesman in his last illness. His first hospital appointment was that of Surgeon to the Bicetre, where he studied the surgical diseases of old men. He was also on the staff of the Trousseau Hospital for Children, and remained there twenty-five years. He worked at the surgery of the bones and joints and congenital malformations. He was one of the early adherents of Pasteur and recognized the part microbic infection played in necrosis. His ambition was to reduce to order the chaos of different forms of necrosis ; lie classified them in three principal groups - namely, osteomyelitic, tuberculous, and syphilitic infections. Turning to the study of congenital malformations, he published, in collaboration with his favourite pupil, Achard, a volume on congenital cysts. Next, in collaboration with Ménard, he published in 1891 a book on congenital malformations of the head and neck. He was the first surgeon in France to open the skull for relief of compression of the brain. In the fifty-nine craniectomies done by him for this purpose there was only one death. His researches on bone procured him admission to the Academy of Medicine in 1883. In 1884 he became a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine; in 1895 he was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences. He was President of the Academy of Medicine in 1911, and founded a prize for the widows of doctors, also one at the Academy of Sciences and one at the Faculty of Medicine for the assistance of students from his own part of France. At the Society of Surgery, of which he was one time President, he founded a quinquennial prize for the surgeon who by his work had done most to advance the cause of science. This prize was first awarded to an Englishman, Sir Victor Horsley (qv), in 1911. Lannelongue was held in high esteem by his colleagues, and this is shown in his selection as President of the International Congress of Medicine held in Paris, and of the International Congress of Tuberculosis in 1905. At the age of 68 he made a voyage round the world, and published a book on his experiences. He died after an illness of three days on December 21st, 1911, having only just retired from the Presidency of the Academy of Medicine. The funeral was attended by the President of the Republic, and his body was afterwards taken to his native town, where it was buried. Lannelongue's portrait, with an autograph letter, is in the Honorary Fellows' Album; it is an engraving after a painting, probably by Carolus Duran, and in the letter the great surgeon modestly suggests to Sir William MacCormac, who had asked him for it on the occasion of the Centenary of 1900, that it may be cut down in size.
Sources:
His bibliography and list of honours will be found in *Notice sur les Travaux Scientifiques de M Lannelongue*, 4to, Paris, 1892, and *Appendice*, 1895. Both books are in the Library of the College.
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
Media Type:
Unknown