François-Joseph-Victor Broussais

French physician

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Nov. 13, 2026 •History

François-Joseph-Victor Broussais (born Dec. 17, 1772, Saint-Malo, Fr.—died Nov. 17, 1838, Paris) was a French physician whose advocacy of bleeding, leech treatments, and fasting dominated Parisian medical practice early in the 19th century.

Following publication of L’Examen des doctrines médicales (1816; “The Examination of Medical Doctrines”), Broussais’ system of “physiological medicine” rapidly became the most popular medical philosophy around Paris. His doctrine insisted that all disease originates as an irritation of the gastrointestinal tract that passes to other organs “sympathetically.” Broussais is one of history’s most notorious “bleeders.” His methods fell into disfavour, however, when his treatment of victims of the 1832 Paris cholera epidemic ended disastrously.

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