di’s request, built a handsome amphitheatre in the hospital of St. John. He was afterwards appointed first surgeon to the king, and professor of chemistry in the university.
, an eminent anatomist and surgeon, was born at Turin, Oct. 18, 1723. His
father, who was only a poor phlebotomist and barber, contrived to give him an education, and intended to bring him
up to the church, which was thought most likely to afford
him a maintenance, but one of their friends Sebastian
Klingher, then professor of surgery, induced him to study
that branch, in which he soon evinced great talents. He
was only twenty- two when he read a dissertation on Ophthalmography, on which Haller and Portal bestowed the
highest praise. The celebrated Bianchi connected himself with him, but after a few years their friendship was
interrupted by the literary disputes which took place between Bianchi and Morgagni, and Bertrandi preferring“what he thought truth to a friendship which was of great
importance to him, was obliged to leave Bianchi. In 1747
he was elected an associate of the college of surgery, and
the same year published his
” Dissertation on the Liver,“which, Haller says, contains many useful observations. In,
1752, the king, Charles Emmanuel, offered to bear his expenses to Paris and London. He accordingly went to Paris,
where he increased his knowledge and practice of the art
of surgery, and in consequence of his two papers read in
the academy,
” De Hydrocele,“and
” De hepatis abscessibus qui vulneribus capitis superveniunt,“was admitted
as a foreign member. In 1754 he went to London, and
lodged for a year with sir William Bromfield, our late
eminent surgeon, during which time, as at Paris, he studied hospital practice, and cultivated the acquaintance of
men of science. On his return to Turin, the king founded
for his sake a new professorship of practical surgery and
anatomy, and at Bertrandi’s request, built a handsome
amphitheatre in the hospital of St. John. He was afterwards appointed first surgeon to the king, and professor
of chemistry in the university. Surgery now, which had
been practised in Piedmont only by regimental surgeons,
began to wear a new face and a literary society, which
was afterwards completely established under the title of
the
” Royal Academy of Sciences,“began now to hold its
meetings, and Bertrandi contributed some valuable papers
to the first volume of their Memoirs. His principal publication was his
” Trattato delle operazioni di Chirurgia,"
Nice, 1763, 2 vols. 8vo, which was afterwards translated
into French and German. He was employed on a treatise
on anatomy and a comparative history of ancient and modern surgery, when death deprived science and humanity
of his valuable labours, in 1765, in his forty-second year.
His works already published, and his posthumous works,
edited by Penchienati and Brugnone form 13 vols. 8vo.
, first surgeon to the king, was distinguished above all the eminent
, first surgeon to the king,
was distinguished above all the eminent surgeons who have
appeared in France, by his ardent zeal for the progress
and improvement of surgery, and the sums he expended
for that purpose. He was born in 1678, and died April 24,
1747. Among the important services he rendered his
country, we find that he procured the establishment of
the “Royal Academy of Surgery
” at Paris in 17.51; and
left his library, and estate of Marigny, to the company of
surgeons in that city, who sold them to his majesty for
200,000 livres; he also appointing the same company universal legatees to two-thirds of his property, M. de la
Peyronie bequeathed to the surgeon’s company of Montpeilier, two houses situated there, with 100,000 livres, for
the erection of an amphitheatre for surgery; and also left
the said company universal legatees to the third part of
his property. Every clause in his will tended to the public
good, and the encouragement and improvement of surgery,
by which, as well as by his talents, this celebrated surgeon
rendered his name immortal in France.