![]() ![]() ![]() Broussais’s theories were highly regarded by contemporary French physicians. For example, the chest of a patient suspected of having pneumonitis was covered with a multitude of leeches. Accordingly, leeches were applied on the surface of the body corresponding to the inflamed organ and the resultant bloodletting was deemed to be an efficient treatment. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, François Joseph Victor Broussais (1772-1838), a Parisian doctor and a Jacobin, claimed that all fevers had the same origin: they were manifestations of the inflammation of organs. Examples include septic fever following amputations puerperal, choleric, yellow, slow continuous, hectic, and diarrhoeic fevers not to mention hepatitis, pneumonitis and ophthalmia (Tröhler 2000). Fever was not necessarily considered as a symptom of specific disorders fevers could be disease categories by themselves. In the early 1800s, medicine in Europe had to deal with all kinds of “fevers”. ![]()
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