Name Apollinaire Bouchardat | ||
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Died April 7, 1866, Paris, France | ||
Apollinaire Bouchardat (July 23, 1809 – April 7, 1886) was a French pharmacist and hygienist born in L'Isle-sur-Serein.
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He studied at the Ecole de pharmacie de Paris and the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, and later became chief pharmacist at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, where he worked for much of his career. In the mid-1850s he became professor of hygiene at the Faculté de médecine.
Bouchardat is often credited as the founder of diabetology, and was a major figure involving dietetic therapy for treatment of diabetes prior to the advent of insulin therapy. He recognized that fasting was a method to reduce glycosuria, and speculated that the principal cause of diabetes was located in the pancreas. In the treatment of the disease, he stressed the importance of exercise, and developed a procedure for self-testing urine to determine the presence of glucose.
Among his written works was the popular "Nouveau Formulaire Magistral", a formulary that was published over many editions. It contained information about health spas and pharmaceutical formulae that included natural cures and remedies for all types of ailments. Beginning in 1840, he was editor of the journal "Annuaire de thérapeutique, de matière médicale de pharmacie et de toxicologie".