Jacques-René Tenon

Jacques-René Tenon (French pronunciation: ​[ʒakʁne tənɔ̃], 21 February 1724 – 16 January 1816) was a French surgeon born near the town of Joigny.

Biography[]

Tomb.

He studied medicine in Paris, where one of his instructors was Jacques-Bénigne Winslow (1669–1760). For several years, he was associated with the Salpêtrière, and in 1757, attained the chair of pathology of the College of Surgery. In 1759, he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

In 1788, Tenon published the Mémoire sur les hôpitaux de Paris (Memoirs on the Hospitals of Paris),^[1] a treatise that was a concise and detailed account of French hospitals. It was concerned with aspects such as hygiene, patient care, and environmental conditions of hospitals. Among the research conducted was a visit by Tenon and Charles-Augustin de Coulomb to inspect the revolutionary design of the Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse.^[2] The publication was a catalyst in regards to efforts made for replacement of the Hôtel-Dieu of Paris, being decided by a committee from the Academy of Sciences, whose members were Tenon, along with famous scientists, including Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743–1794), Coulomb (1736–1806), and Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827).

In the 18th century, the Hôtel-Dieu was notoriously overcrowded, unsanitary, and susceptible to fire. Architect Bernard Poyet (1742–1829) proposed a new Hôtel-Dieu on Île des Cygnes on the Seine River at a price of 12 million livres, while members of the academy planned for four new hospitals at distances far from the Seine (Saint-Louis in the north, Holy-Anne in the south, the Roquette in the east, and in the west the abbey of Holy-Périne of Chaillot). Although plans for building the four new hospitals to replace the Hôtel-Dieu initially looked promising, the project was met with resistance and eventually shelved in the early 1790s.

Eponyms[]

Today, the Hôpital Tenon in Paris is named after him, as is the capsule of Tenon, a membrane that envelops the posterior five-sixths of the eyeball.^[3] He provided a description of the "capsule of Tenon" in 1805.^[4]

Bibliography[]

• Transfer of the Hotel Dieu; Google Books
• Simonsz, H J (2003), "First description of eye muscle 'poulies' by Tenon in 1805.", Strabismus (published Mar 2003), 11 (1), pp. 59–62, doi:10.1076/stra.11.1.59.14092, PMID 12789584
• Roth, A; Mühlendyck, H; De Gottrau, Ph (2002), "[The function of Tenon's capsule revisited]", Journal français d'ophtalmologie (published Nov 2002), 25 (9), pp. 968–76, PMID 12515947
• Dechaume, M; Huard, P; Imbault-Huart, M J (1978), "[Jacques-René Tenon, odontologist and stomatologist]", Actualités odonto-stomatologiques (published Jun 1978) (122), pp. 221–33, PMID 362836
• Greenbaum, LS (1975), ""Measure of civilization": the hospital thought of Jacques Tension on the eve of the French Revolution", Bull Hist Med, 49 (1), pp. 43–56, PMID 1093584

References[]