studied medicine at Ecole de Médicine; 1795 - appointed competition prosector of the faculty of medicine; 1803 - appointed assistant surgeon at Hôtel-Dieu; 1811-appointed professor of operative surgery; most important work - 'Treatise on Artifical Anus'; first to classify burns systematically. Invented a new lithotomy technique and instrument in 1812, interested in morbid anatomy