Laurent Théodore Biett (1781–1840)

Abstract

DR. LAURENT THÉODORE BIETT, a celebrated Paris dermatologist, was born in 1781 at Schams, in the Grison canton of Switzerland. Seven years later he moved with his parents to Clermont-Ferrand, where he commenced his medical education under Bonnet, the senior surgeon to the Hôtel Dieu. At the beginning of the century he came to Paris, where he qualified in 1814 with a thesis entitled "Quelques Observations sur la frénesic aiguë idiopathique". Shortly after qualification he was appointed physician to the Hôpital Saint Louis, where he carried out some important improvements, including the establishment of an out-patient department for diseases of the skin, of which he was the director for sixteen years. While attending a patient in London in 1816, he took the opportunity of studying the work of Willan and Bateman, and on his return to Paris endeavoured to introduce their classification of skin diseases, which was in opposition to that drawn up by his friend Alibert.