Sabatier, Raphael - Bienvenu

, a very eminent French surgeon, was born at Paris in October 1732, and after studying there, acquired the first rank in his profession, and in every situation which he filled, his knowledge, skill, and success, were equally conspicuous. He became censor-royal of the academy of sciences, professor and demonstrator of the surgical schools, secretary of correspondence, surgeon-major of the hospital of invalids, and a member of the institute. His education had been more liberal and comprehensive than usual. He not only was an excellent Greek and Latin scholar, but was well acquainted with the English, Italian, and German languages. Besides his public courses of lectures on anatomy and surgery, he instructed many private pupils, not only of his own country, but those of foreign nations who were attracted to Paris by his fame as a teacher, and were delighted with his unaffected politeness and candour. In his latter days Bonaparte appointed him one of his consulting surgeons, and he was one of the first on whom he bestowed the cross of the legion of honour. Sabatier died at Paris July 21, 1811. He retained his faculties to the last, but we are told became ashamed of his bodily weakness. “Hide me,” he said to his wife and son, “from the world, that you may be the only witnesses of this decay to which I must submit.” A little before his death he said to his son, “Contemplate the state into which I am fallen, and learn to die.” His humane attention to his patients was a distinguished feature in his character. During any painful operation he used to say, “Weep! weep! the more you express a sense of your sufferings, the more anxious I shall be to shorten them.”

His works are, 1. “Theses anatomico-chirurgicæ,” 1748, 4to, 2. “De variis cataractam extrahendi modis,” 1759, 4to. 3. An edition of Verdier’s “Abreg d’Anatomie,” with additions, 1768, 2 vols. 12mo. 4. An edition of La Motte’s “Traité complet de Chirurgie,” which was followed by his own, 5. “Traité complet d’Anatomie,” 1775. Of this a third edition, with many improvements, appeared | in 1791, 3 vols. 8vo. 6. “De la Medicine expectative,” 1796, 3 vols. 8vo. 7. “De la Medicine operatoire, ou Des Operations.de Chirurgie qui se pratiquent le plus frequemment,” 1796, 3 vols. 8vo. Besides these he contributed many essays to the medical journals. ¹