Germain Sée

Who was Germain Sée?

Germain Sée was a French clinician who was a native of Ribeauvillé, Haut-Rhin.

He studied medicine in Paris, obtaining his doctorate in 1846 with a dissertation on ergotism. In 1855 he became médecin des hôpitaux in Paris, and subsequently worked at La Rochefoucauld, Beaujon, Pitié and Charité hospitals. In 1867 he succeeded Armand Trousseau as professor of therapeutics and materia medica, and in 1876 attained the chair of clinical medicine at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, a position he held for the remainder of his career.

Sée specialized in the study of lung and cardiovascular diseases, and he made contributions involving research of chorea and its association with rheumatic disorders. He conducted extensive studies of various drugs, being an advocate of antipyrine for headaches, and sodium salicylate for treatment of rheumatism.

Among his writings were the nine volume Médecine clinique, a work that he co-authored with Frédéric Labadie-Lagrave, and Leçons de pathologie expérimentale, a treatise on experimental pathology that was edited and published by Maurice Raynaud.

In 1869 he became a member of the Académie de Médecine.