Jean Riolan fils et la défense de la méthode thérapeutique de Galien

DESSI', MARIA CRISTINA

2006-01-01

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Abstract

In the work Curieuses Recherches sur les Escholes en Medecine de Paris et de Montpellier, published in Paris in 1651, the anatomist Jean Riolan the Younger (1580-1657) introduced the principles of clinical practice and therapeutics adopted by the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. Moreover, he prevented from Théophraste Renaudot, a medical doctor from Montpellier, who benefited from privileges in Paris. He carried on also a passionate defence of his school against the many criticisms to contemporary medical practice in the capital, and he sustained the superiority of the Faculty in Paris against the other French faculties. Moreover, he was an indefatigable adversary to Harvey and, while recognising the importance of the discovery of blood circulation, this was only accepted to the extent that it should not come into conflict with Galen’s methodus medendi.