Sigismond Jaccoud

Sigismond Jaccoud was born in 1830 in Geneva, where he went to school and was educated in music and the science of literature. In 1849 he went to Paris to study medicine - and supported himself in that city teaching music and literature. He became interne des hôpitaux in 1855. After graduation in 1859 he specialised in internal medicine and in 1860 defended his doctoral thesis, on the pathogenesis of albuminuria. In 1862 he became médecin des hôpitaux, in 1863 professeur agrégé. In 1877 he was appointed professor of internal pathology at the medical faculty and member of the Académie des Médecins.

Jaccoud was a very famous and highly estimated lecturer at several of Paris' hospitals - L'Hôpital Saint-Antonie, l'Hôpital de la Charité, l`Hôpital de la Lariboisière and l'Hôpital de la Pitié. Following the death of Ernest-Charles Lasègue (1816-1883) in 1883, he was also made professor of internal medicine at the Pitié hospital in Paris.

A Swiss, Jaccoud was a very popular lecturer in Paris' hospitals in the late 1800's. In 1883 he published a three-volume work on pathology, comprising almost 3.000 pages. In rheumatology, and partly in cardiology, Jaccoud was probably best known for his 23. Lecture, which has been perpetuated in medical history because of its description of Jaccoud's syndrome. At the turn of the century rheumatic fever ravaged among children and youth, and the fact that there was, unlike today, no rational pharmaceutical therapy available, interest concentrated on the natural course of the disease.

As he published his lectures in book form, they are still available for study - covering an impressive variety of medical questions. On tuberculosis, the greatest medical problem of the time, with its numerous complications, no less than ten lectures were needed.

In his books he emphasises how he enjoys thorough clinical examinations, epidemiology, research and teaching.

Jaccoud died i 1913, at the age of 83 years.

Jaccoud published numerous articles in Dictionnaire de Médecine et de Chirurgie pratiques of which he was co-publisher.

• Des conditions pathogéniques de l'albuminurie.
  Thése de doctorat. Paris. 1860: 1-160.
• De l’humorisme ancien comparé à l’humorisme moderne.
  Thesis for agrégé, 1863.
• Traité de pathologie interne.
  3 volumes. Paris, Adrien Delahaye et Émile Lecrosnier. 1883: 1-911, 1-929, 1-975. Went through 7 editions.
• Leçons de clinique médicale faites a l'hôpital de la Charité.
  Paris, Adrien Delahaye, 1867: 1-877, spec 598-616.
• Leçons de clinique médicale faites a l'hôpital Lariboisière.
  3 editions. Paris, Adrien Delahaye, 1874: 1-843.
• Lecons de clinique médicale faites a l'hôpital de la Pitié.
  Paris, Adrien Delahaye et Émile Lecrosnier, 1888: 1-315.
• Curabilité et traitement de la phthisie pulmonaire.