He was born on July 16th, 1807 in the town of Asson (France). He received his bachelor’s in Liberal Arts in Paris, in November of 1825. Then he studied Medicine, graduating in 1833. He arrived in Chile in May of 1834 after being recommended by the person in charge of Chile’s business in France, Miguel de la Barra.
At the beginning he didn’t get a warm welcome on the part of the Santiago medical community, for he brought instruments that were unknown here, like the stethoscope and the forceps, and he as also the first to use general anesthesia.
However, as he quickly learned the language, he was appointed professor of Obstetrics in the Universidad de Chile, proving his skill and accurate diagnoses, which caused admiration amongst his students and patients from lower class neighborhoods and privates.
In 1843 he was elected as the first dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the recently created Universidad de Chile. Under his charge he organized this faculty and developed its first study plan.
In addition, he took charge of all of the pharmacies in the capitol, he revalidated foreign degrees and put together reports regarding the country’s state of health.
In 1855 the Chilean government granted him Chilean nationality. Five years later he as named head doctor of all the hospitals in Santiago, surgeon of the San Juan de Dios hospital and president of the Junta de Beneficiencia (Social Security Assembly)
He passed away in Santiago on November 30th, 1865 after contracting exanthemic typhus.
