Apollinaire Bouchardat

Who was Apollinaire Bouchardat?

Apollinaire Bouchardat was a French pharmacist and hygienist born in L'Isle-sur-Serein.

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 which was published over many editions. This formulary contained information about health spas and pharmaceutical formulae which included natural cures and remedies for all types of ailments.

⁕Associated eponym:

⁕Bouchardat's treatment: Treatment of diabetes mellitus by use of a low-carbohydrate diet.