Broussais

Broussais, Francois Joseph Victor, was born in 1772 at St. Malo. After studying medicine and graduating in 1803 M.D. at Paris, he became in 1820 a professor at the military hospital, Val-de-grace, and in 1831 of general pathology in the academy of medicine, Paris. He promulgated a theory of medicine strongly resembling the Brunonian system of John Brown (q.v.), and his followers assumed the name of the "physiological school." According to his theory, the fundamental fact in life is excitation or irritation, and disease is the result of over- or under- excitation. His chief work is the Examen de la Doctrine Medicale Generalement Adoptee, published in 1816. He died in 1838 at Vitry.