Occupation Anatomist | Name Antoine Portal | |
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Died July 23, 1832, Paris, France | ||
Baron Antoine Portal (January 5, 1742 – July 23, 1832) was a French anatomist, doctor, medical historian and founding president of the Académie Nationale de Médecine.
Biography
Born on January 5, 1742 in Gaillac, he was the eldest of 12 siblings. He studied medicine in Albi, Toulouse and Montpellier and started his career as a teacher of anatomy.
In 1766, Portal moved to Paris to take up a similar post, and was appointed to the prestigious position of professor of anatomy to the Jardin du Roi. Louis XVIII named him the first Doctor to the King, a post he served under Charles X as well. His close relationship with King Louis led in 1820 to the creation of what became the Académie Nationale de Médecine, of which he was lifelong president.
In 1803 he published "Cours d'anatomie médicale", a 5-volume work on medical history. He was probably the first to describe amyloid in liver in 1789 when he noted a lard-like substance in an elderly woman's liver. He was the first to describe bleeding due to esophageal varices. He also published article on clinical features of epilepsy.
He died in 1832 at the age of 90 and was buried in Saint Pierre de Montmartre.