Marie-Guillaume-Alphonse Devergie

Marie-Guillaume-Alphonse Devergie became Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris in 1816, Médecin des Hôpitaux de Paris in 1834. In 1840 he succeeded Laurent-Théodore Biett (1781-1840) at the Hôpital Saint-Louis, where he remained until his retirement in 1867. He was also affiliated with the hospitals Bicêtre and St. Antoine. In 1874 he was elected Président de l'Académie de médecine.

Devergie created what was later to become the first Musée dermatologique. This institution - musée-bibliothèque-consultation externe - was opened in 1882. After his retirement he produced a series of watercolours (aquarelles) on the diseases of the skin.

In France Devergie is justly considered one of the founders of forensic medicine, and in the late 1820’s joined Gabriel Andral (1797-1876), Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol (1772-1840), François Leuret (1797-1851), Mathéo José Bonaventure Orfila (1787-1853) et al in the publication of the Annales d’hygiène publique et de médecine légale, remaining on the editorial board until his death.

Despite his scientific achievements, however, Devergie never succeeded in obtaining the chair of forensic medicine at the Paris faculty. At the death of Antoine Athanase Royer-Collard in 1825 he was by law too young, and in 1861, when Auguste Ambroise Tardieu (1818-1878) succeeded Nicolas Philibert Adelon (1782-1862), he seemed to old.

• Médecine légale, théorique et pratique.
  1835; 2nd edition, Paris, 1840; 3rd edition, Paris, 1852.
• Traité pratique des maladies de la peau. Paris, 1854, 1857. Obituaries:
  
• Paul Camille Hippolyte Brouardel (1837-1906) in Annales d’hygiène publique et de médecine légale, 3rd series, 1879, II: 487.
• Charles Devilliers (1812-) in Annales d’hygiène publique et de médecine légale, 3rd series, 1879, II: 527.